Learning from feathers.

For Learning From Feathers, Daiga Grantina has cre­at­ed a new large-scale instal­la­tion, con­ceived of as a sus­pend­ed ​‘sky car­pet,’ along­side a series of sculp­tur­al assem­blages. Aspects of spa­tial­i­ty and orna­ment explored in Grantina’s recent solo exhi­bi­tion ​“Atem, Lehm” at GAMeC in Bergamo, Italy, are con­tin­ued and devel­oped fur­ther in Kortrijk. Taking its title from a piece includ­ed in Bergamo, Learning from feath­ers offers a point of entry into the artist’s cur­rent line of inquiry and makes overt the self-ref­er­en­tial nature of this new body of work. The exhi­bi­tion responds to – and res­onates with – the spa­tial qual­i­ties of the exhi­bi­tion space itself, which once served as a flax weav­ing mill and is housed in an archi­tec­ture based on the engi­neer­ing inven­tions of Gustave Eiffel. Grantina con­fronts the view­er with a shift­ing sense of scale, over­lap­ping our per­cep­tion of archi­tec­ture with the sens­ing of tis­sue, both metaphor­i­cal­ly and mate­ri­al­ly. The spe­cif­ic con­stel­la­tion of the four small­er spaces — acces­si­ble via the more expan­sive open space delin­eates the con­cep­tu­al struc­ture of the exhi­bi­tion. Unhinged doors are turned into view frames that super­im­pose and bring into dia­logue the nine wall-based works with the expe­ri­ence of the poten­tial­ly end­less ​‘sky car­pet’ sus­pend­ed in the cen­tral exhi­bi­tion space — It serves as a pas­sage to expe­ri­ence the nine wall works afresh. On a dif­fer­ent lev­el of per­cep­tion the kinds and degrees of decay of the brick walls become a tem­po­rary com­po­nent of the assem­blages installed across them. These sculp­tures seem to sur­ren­der to the wall, to sac­ri­fice their out­line in order to draw from its sup­port. In that regard, the ​‘sky car­pet’ can be thought of as a close-up view of the same phe­nom­e­na of open­ness and poros­i­ty, only that its con­cep­tu­al sup­port is the sky. The sky/​ceiling and the brick walls are in both cas­es a momen­tary sculp­tur­al ele­ment — in a sim­i­lar direc­tion as light and shad­ow is con­cretized as ges­tures of sens­ing a world. Learning From Feathers is Grantina’s attempt to cre­ate an unmedi­at­ed syn­thet­ic enti­ty of inspi­ra­tion and environment.

Daiga Grantina’s prac­tice often assumes forms of assem­blage and sculp­ture turn­ing towards draw­ing in an expand­ed sense. Central to the artist’s work is the process of close look­ing at a broad range of mate­r­i­al behav­iour and a phe­nom­e­no­log­i­cal approach to her own cre­ative process.

About Daiga Grantina

Daiga Grantina (Saldus, Latvia, 1985) lives and works in Paris. She stud­ied at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg (HFBK) and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Her recent solo shows include Atem, Lehm, GAMeC, Bergamo, 2021; Temples, Emalin, London, 2021; What Eats Around Itself , New Museum (New York, 2020); Saules Suns, Latvian Pavilion, 58^th Venice Biennale (Venice, 2019); Toll, Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2018); Pillar Sliding off Coat-ee, Kunstverein in Hamburg (Hamburg, 2017); KU B Billboards, Kunsthaus Bregenz (Bregenz, 2016); Heap-Core…, Kim? Contemporary Art Center (Riga, 2016). Grantina has also tak­en part in numer­ous group shows, includ­ing: Crazy, Cruel and Full of Love, curat­ed by Kathleen Buhler at the Kunstmuseum Bern (Berne, 2020); Words at an Exhibition, Busan Biennal, Yeongdo Museum of Contemporary Art (Busan, 2020); GIVE UP THE GHOST, Baltic Triennal 13, curat­ed by Vincent Honoré, Contemporary Art Center (Vilnius, 2018); CHILDHOOD Another banana day for the dream-fish, curat­ed by Sandra Adam-Couralet and Yoann Gourmel at Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2018); Solar Bodies, curat­ed by Ø at the Musée d’Orsay (Paris, 2018); Biotopia, curat­ed by Sabine Rusterholz Petko at the Kunsthalle Mainz (Mainz, 2017); Adhesive Products, curat­ed by Praxes at the Bergen Kunsthall (Bergen, 2016).