From July 7 to August 12, 2023, the Pāvilosta Artist in Residency gallery (Latvia, E. Šneidera Square 11) will host Anna Dzērve’s exhibition “Unveiling”.
From May 23, Anna Dzērve stayed at the PAiR Residency, where she worked on her new art project. On July 7 at 6:00 p.m, Anna Dzērve’s newest exhibition “Unveiling” will be opened, where it will be possible to enjoy the art works created in the PAiR.
Exhibition curator Igors Gubenko:
“Is there a place for the female nude art in the visual arts of the 21st century?
Photographer Anna Dzērve answers this question, prompted by the critique of the male gaze developed by the second wave of feminism, with “Unveiling” addressed in the key of sisterly communion.
The portraits of Pāvilosta women taken during the artist’s residency are evidence of the formation of personal bonds, where feminine eroticism provides a clue to the search for a common experience across geographical, social and other differences.
In a stylistic characteristic of Anna Dzērve, the models’ figures are covered by projections of Pāvilosta’s nature scenes, which sometimes touch the body with a gentle caress, sometimes emphasize its fragility and vulnerability.
Crucially, this illuminated nudity is not meant for the pleasure of others – it celebrates eroticism as a space of mutual trust and liberation, not a resource for the gratification of another’s lust.
Although not all models reveal their faces, the process of creating portraits is a true process of discovery, in which the traditional hierarchy of power between the artist’s gaze and the subject’s body is replaced by the nakedness of both in mutually echoing narratives of experience.
Regardless of whether these stories, which are not revealed to the audience, encourage, reawakening a power of sensuality hitherto unknown, or recall memories full of anxiety and pain about the wrongs experienced, they are heard and echoed in the fold of mutual care and sensitivity, which is gently reconstructed by a darkened exhibition space “
At 19:00, the opening event of the exhibition will be complemented by the performance “BORN NAKED / THE REST IS DRAG” by artist Daniela Vētra.
