Edition On Saturday continues to introduce twelve Latvian artists, whose work is represented in the newspaper Day in this year’s calendar. According to the painter Kristine Kutepova River spirit and jewelry designer Anna Fanigina List of vessels The summer months end with the collection of the fashion artist, Laima Jurča, a master’s degree graduate of the Latvian Academy of Arts, a Five-Year General Trial, which took place two years ago. With this work, she has won the competition of young fashion artists Łódź Young Fashion Award 2019, whose black – gold award in the form of a woman ‘s figure can be seen on one of the shelves of her workshop, but the 30 thousand euros gained has become a serious contribution to further career development.
Trousers like a wolf
Since this winter, Laima has been renting premises in the former premises of the Faculty of Biology of the University of Latvia on Kronvalda Boulevard 4, which for art lovers was opened for the first time by the annual contemporary art festival. Survival Kit. It was here a year ago that the master’s theses of the Latvian Academy of Arts were defended in the scenography created especially for this event. “I’m still tracing the traces of silver tape off the window frames,” laughs the young artist. The midday sun shines through the huge glasses and illuminates the costumes she created, which literally bubble in bright colors and show the influence of Slavic culture in her work with blue as an integral part of it.
Laima was born and raised in Kārsava, which is located on the Russian border. “Primary school time was quite difficult because I had a hard time finding common ground with my peers: I was beyond the norms they understood. People, especially at this age, are cruel, and they turned that cruelty on me, so I was happy when I was away, “reveals a young artist who was already interested in fashion at that time. Wait! (No, you can!) or other things her interest in fashion has continued to take hold.
Laima has studied at the Kārsava School of Music and Art with teacher Lilita Laganovska, who has taught fashion directly through the prism of art and laid the first foundations for her understanding of this field, where her first serious work was a large velvet dress as a graduation project. “After that, I got to Rēzekne Secondary School of Art and Design, where I met like-minded young people and where clearer thoughts about what connects me in this fashion world crystallized,” the young artist recalls.
Printing networks
Laima has studied at the Fashion Department of the Latvian Academy of Arts. In the third year of the bachelor’s program, she has focused on prints that were then caught by the young artist in her nets and which have now become an integral part of her handwriting. “At the time, we were given the task of creating a collection inspired by an artistic field. I drew a Russian constructivism that was very organically connected to my personal memories of living on the border in this post-Soviet era.” Constructionism Background says Laima, who in her subsequent works has also adhered to the printing and the expansion of the Soviet – era heritage theme.
These two elements are also combined in her bachelor’s thesis Jarmo and in the aforementioned collection Five-year trial, which became the masterpiece of her master ‘s thesis and for which the young artist is inspired by the wax tablecloths, which were popular in Soviet times and depicted various edible and inedible items. With these references to the past, she has covered not only the clothes, but also the faces of models, as if reminding of the impact of past events on people, even if they were born after the restoration of Latvia’s independence.
“This collection allows us to move back to times when store shelves were empty and there was no variety of choices,” says Laima, adding that it has encouraged people to be creative in bringing something different to their subjectively monotonous life – with clothes and other self-created or modified things. With this Five-year trial the young artist wanted to remind modern people that they are more creative than they think. “To invite a lot to create or transform oneself and not to submit to the influence of fast fashion that destroys the world,” Laima emphasizes.
Attitude change
Laima is involved in this fight against fast fashion with her collections, in the creation of which the young artist uses quality materials and stands above seasonal trends, thus the things she creates do not age emotionally. “Fast fashion has degraded the public’s understanding of what clothing is – people are accustomed to buying cheap things and then exchanging them for others, but in reality clothing should be of high quality and last a long time,” notes Laima. The artist is convinced that now the whole world is changing and re-evaluating its attitude towards clothing – we have to think about what we do to the environment with our choices, otherwise we are moving towards even greater pollution of the planet.
She is dressed in a T-shirt from a “second hand” store and in shorts of her own making, with expressive yellow glasses on her eyes. “If I have chosen to be a fashion artist, then I have an additional responsibility on my shoulders: I can’t tell others how many good collections I have, but walk in fast fashion clothes myself,” emphasizes Laima, who perceives her collections as a tool through which to express ideas and talk about important issues, including social ones. She has graduated from the Fashion Department of the Latvian Academy of Arts with a collection Illuminated, which aimed to draw public attention to people with disabilities.
“I realized that I would face different types of emotions, including aggression, which happened. There were people who said: I do not want to see it! It ruins my ideal world,” the young artist recalls, adding that Latvia as a post-Soviet country echoes the previous system, in which the difference was considered unacceptable and hidden from the eyes of the public, because it fell out of the system of standardized ideas: there are no disabled people in the USSR! “What has to happen in a person’s head for him to think so, and it’s not just two hundred and three hundred years ago, but more recently,” says Laima, who has used a floral motif in this collection with a clear message that we all bloom in an open society. different colors and we become much more cordial.
Emotional attachment
As one of her examples in the world of fashion, she mentions the extravagant Russian multi-artist Andrei Bartenev, whose international career can be traced back to Latvia – in 1992 he received the main prize of the Unaccustomed Fashion Assembly for his work. Botanical ballet. The Russian multi-artist is known for his performances, in which fashion is a constantly present element. “I have not seen them in person, but I have watched a lot of videos with his works, which can be confused in the positive sense of this phrase. They can grab you and create a deep emotional attachment. I would like to work similarly,” admits Laima.
The young artist and Andrejs Bartenevs are also united by their love for bright colors in their wardrobe. Dressed in pajamas with green-yellow monkeys and wearing an Indian headdress made of eagle’s feathers, he has even been threatened with death, so now he would rather travel through the streets of Moscow by car or virtually (source: website Snob.ru). Among Latvian fashion artists, Laima highlights the calmest duo of Mārīte Mastiņa and Rolands Pēterkops in her choice of colors. Mareunrol’s, with whom she has been a member of the jury of a competition organized by the Latvian National Cultural Center and Liepāja Secondary School of Music, Art and Design, evaluating the performance of future designers and fashion artists.
“Artists’ duo Mareunrol’s is a vivid example of how to stay honest with yourself and your ideas, “says the young artist, who is also attracted to the work of Mārīte Mastiņa and Rolands Pēterkops with other media (scenography, video, photo) and the duo’s involvement in creating various theater and opera productions. Asked if she would like to work in this direction, Laima answers in the affirmative: “Many of my clothes are very theatrical, so I think I could do it and enjoy it, as long as I was offered such an opportunity. “But now all her attention is focused on developing her fashion company.
Fashion infection
Already during his master’s degree at the Latvian Academy of Arts, Laima and his wife Kristaps Koļčs have been involved in the pre-incubation program offered by the Latvian Investment and Development Agency’s (LIAA) Creative Industries Incubator to understand how to put their art on a commercial footing and not overdo it. The list of Laima’s current works includes photographing derivatives of her previous collections for the online store, which is currently the main solution for selling her works, as most of the concept stores as physical locations in Riga have closed (this online store will soon be available on her website Laimajurca.com – I. A.).
She is thinking about how to reach foreign buyers in this virtual environment and who might be interested in her work. Which market to target? – asks Laima, whose collections have so far shown the greatest interest in Italy and Asian countries, where the powerful combination of her colors is understandable. At the same time, the artist’s next collection is being created in collaboration with the young painter Marta Veinbergs, who researches various things in her work – including supermarket stock stickers, which have become her favorite subject. “We knew each other’s work, but we got to know each other better when we became neighbors in this house on Kronvalda Boulevard 4,” Laima reveals.
They have a similar understanding of both content and expression. In her upcoming collection, the young artist will use prints with paintings by Marta Weinberg to tell a story with her about the consumer cult that has arisen on the dice of injuries caused by the shortage experienced in Soviet times. These costumes will be on display at mid-October at the annual fashion festival Fashion infection (Fashion infection) In Vilnius, whose format offers complete freedom of presentation. Laima believes that walking the models on the tongue does not make sense, because it does not give anything – the fashion show should be a staged performance that helps its visitors to understand your message more clearly or gain emotional experience.
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