Exhibition "Dairy Diaries"
From April 8 to June 5, the Pauls Stradiņš Medicine History Museum will host the "Dairy Diaries" exhibition by the new media artist Anna Priedola. The exhibition focuses on dementia and the experience of people with dementia and their relatives. It will be complemented by the artist's "Data Recipes" workshops, where everyone will have the opportunity to create their own "data recipes". The first workshop will take place on the exhibition's opening day, on April 8 at 5:00 PM.
Dementia is a disease that is very prevalent in today's ageing society, but people talk little about it. It irreversibly affects the memory and perceptual processes of the sufferer, gradually moving a person away from a successful and independent functioning in society. The patient's personality changes, recent events disappear, but childhood memories return. The disease also has a significant impact on relatives of people with dementia, who often become the caretakers of the sufferers.
In the exhibition, the artist introduces and depicts the daily life and perceptual processes, socio-political realities, and human relations of seniors with dementia in audio format through data visualizations and experiences of dementia. The artist uses milk and its products as the principal means of expression.
Anna Priedola has previously focused on researching food as an artistic material and the multisensory experience it provides in the perception of a work of art. Working on a personally important topic to her, she observed the visually fascinating milk coagulation and transformation processes. In its constant development, milk created even more vivid associations with the experience of dementia. Its slow but constant progression results in the formation of unusual, not always ugly, the character of relationships and communication. In the process of creating the exhibition, the artist has collaborated with dementia patients and their relatives, documenting their experiences.
"Aging processes are inevitable, but not always easy and immediately noticeable. When we seek comfort from our parents and grandparents, at some point, we have to realize that what we know and look for is no longer available: parents have changed, and we also have to change. "Dairy diaries" document these processes of change, which seem to take place on their own, but not always easy," says the author of the exhibition.
Anna Priedola's exhibition is complemented by a pop-up exhibition of the Medicine History Museum collection items. The artist created the pop-up exhibition in collaboration with museum specialists. It discusses the research of the ageing process and dementia as a diagnosis through time and in various institutions. Anatomical preparations, black-and-white photographs, historical data visualizations, and everyday objects introduce the visitor to the exhibition and draw attention to the presence and appearance of ageing in everyday life.
The organizers of the exhibition - DOTS Foundation for an Open Society and the Latvian Center for Contemporary Art - invite you also to delve into a conversation during the visit. Specially trained art mediators will be available at the exhibition at regular times with whom visitors can have a conversation and go on a joint tour of the exhibition. They are experts in various fields, both art professionals and non-professionals, who have acquired skills and knowledge about art mediation and its social power.
On April 16 (CANCELED!), May 21, 28 and June 2 at 12.00, every visitor will be welcome to participate in the "Data Recipes" workshops led by Anna Priedola. Participants will create their data recipes, reproducing data on dementia with food and thus making statistics easier to "digest" and experience with different senses. Participation is free of charge.
About the time, place, and attendance of the exhibition:
The exhibition "Dairy Diaries" is open at the Pauls Stradiņš Medicine History Museum (Riga, Ukrainas neatkarības iela 1) from April 8 to June 5 on Tuesdays-Wednesdays and Fridays-Saturdays from 11:00 to 17:00, on Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Entrance ticket price - from 0.50 to 2.00 euros.
About the artist:
Anna Priedola (1988) is an artist living and working in Liepaja. She has a master's degree in the study program "New Media Art" from the University of Liepaja. The artist currently works as a research assistant in the Art Research Laboratory of the University of Liepaja. The artist develops various interdisciplinary art projects, often collaborating with the local community, researching the issues of sustainable development and the aesthetics of consumer relations. She also works as a curator, researches and interprets the concept of nature, and simulates the experience of nature.
Guided tours with art mediators/assistants
Families with seniors suffering from dementia and memory disorders are particularly welcome to the exhibition. Expressly trained art mediators/assistants will be available at the premises to accompany you through the exhibition and talk with you, in a non-formal setting, about dementia and the ability of art to help people with memory disorders in their day-to-day lives. To arrange a visit (both individual and group) with an art mediator/assistant, please get in touch with Māra Žeikare, the head of educational projects at the Latvian Contemporary Art Centre, by phone – 29586893, or email – mara@lcca.lv.
Accessibility
There are two parking spaces for people with disabilities at the museum entrance on Ukrainas neatkarības iela 1. There's a ramp at the entrance. To ride up and enter the museum, press a specially marked ring button to summon an assistant working at the museum. An elevator operated by the museum employee takes you up to the first floor. People with disabilities can access the first floor, which houses the ticket office, information centre and exhibition spaces hosting Anna Priedola's show "Dairt Diaries" and the permanent exhibitions dedicated to medieval and Renaissance medicine. A lifting device operated by the museum employee takes you to the basement floor with lockers and toilets. The toilets aren't fitted for people in a wheelchair. We invite anyone with visual, hearing or mental impairments to apply for a guided tour in the company of an art mediator/assistant. Admission is free for people with disabilities.
The exhibition "Dairy Diaries" is part of the international project "Agents of Change: Mediating Minorities" (www.memagents.eu). It aims to raise awareness of contemporary art as a community-based and conversational creation. The project aims to consider the local community's needs and bring relevant topics to the fore. It is implemented in 2021-2022 within the framework of four countries, in cooperation with five organizations: the Cultural Foundation (Helsinki, Finland), the Tallinn City Museum (Tallinn, Estonia), the Tensta Art Space (Stockholm, Sweden), the Latvian Center for Contemporary Art, and the DOTS Open Society Foundation (Riga, Latvia). The project is co-financed by the European Union program "Creative Europe", the Society Integration Fund, and the Latvian Ministry of Culture.
In 2022-2023, the Foundation's activities are co-financed by the EEA and Norwegian Grants Program "Active Citizens Fund".