The Zuzeum art centre in Riga has opened the exhibition "Averting the Gaze. Women Artists in the Zuzans Collection: 2000–2026." Running until 17 January 2027, the show brings together more than forty works from Latvia, other Baltic countries and around the world, created mostly in the first two decades of the 21st century.
The organisers invite visitors to pay attention not only to the works themselves but also to the circumstances of their making. The project is based on an idea of the British cultural theorist Irit Rogoff: by looking away from a work, one can discover new ways of understanding it. In preparing the exhibition, the curators spoke with each artist about the personal, financial and creative conditions in which the works were born.
As a result, handwritten notes, fragments of studio walls, objects linked to memories and even scents appear alongside the works. According to the organisers' intention, these details help to better understand the world in which the art was created.
The exhibition pays special attention to accessibility for people with visual impairments. According to the Latvian Society of the Blind, more than 12,000 people with visual disabilities live in the country. For them, tactile three-dimensional copies of some works and detailed audio descriptions have been prepared.
One of the initiators of the project, Yevgenia Ester Briede-Birone, said she dedicated it to her partially sighted son, Mikhail. In her words, it is important that people with visual impairments can not only listen to accounts of art but also experience it directly, feeling forms and materials with their hands.
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