Martins Vizbulis. “+371 28649002”, 2021.

The “+371 28649002” exhibition by Martins Vizbulis is open for visitors until May 15! The exhibition shows the artist's personal observations in the time we live in – thoughts on communication, technologies, and society, reflecting on the most relevant news and peculiarities in communication. The artist has created smart artworks that you can call with the technological solutions support offered by the LMT company and giving an opportunity to everyone to make an interactive "conversation" with them.

Call some of the three exhibition artworks remotely from Wednesday to Saturday, 12.00–18.00:
LV - "+371 2 8610046"
ENG - "+371 2 5468729"
Beverage vending machine artwork ENG - "+371 2 6663413"

The author of the exhibition Martins Vizbulis and curator – Raitis Smits will introduce the exhibition artworks and their creation process during the virtual exhibition opening. For several years the passion of the artist is the studies of microcontrollers and various sensors. When the artist started several practical experiments with a SIM card module, he concluded that a SIM card module can successfully replace a WiFi absence, it will be the heart of his artworks. Each artwork is equipped with SIM cards and they are operated by phone calls – everyone can interact with artworks with their phones, creating an opportunity for mutual communication, creating a sort of a database. Perhaps, similar smart artworks soon will be available in the smart houses, where next to a robotized conversation partner, there will be an artwork only a phone call away.

Artworks do not have any titles – they are anonymous and they are identified by phone numbers. The exhibition consists of three artworks – an artwork in Latvian – "+371 2 8610046"; an artwork in English – "+371 2 5468729" and a beverage vending machine artwork (also in English) – "+371 2 6663413".

It is possible to call artworks during the working hours of the RIXC gallery – from Wednesday to Saturday 12.00 – 15.00.

How to call the artworks? Follow the instructions in the exhibition annotation's pdf file here (scroll down in the file for the annotation in English).

The documentation of the exhibition artworks, as well as 360-degree video tour, is available on the RIXC virtual gallery: https://immersive.rixc.org/

As soon as possible, the +371 28649002 exhibition will be available at the RIXC gallery until May 15.

Martins Vizbulis is an artist who has graduated from the Riga College of Applied Arts, Department of Wood Sculpting (2001) and has graduated with a Bachelor’s degree (2004) and Master’s degree (2007) from the Visual Communication Department in the Art Academy of Latvia. The artist is the head of the Department of Environmental Art in the Department of Design, in the Art Academy of Latvia. Simultaneously to his studies at the Visual Communication Department, the artist also started his work of arranging the exhibition expositions, something that he continues to do today. Martins Vizbulis has participated in arranging five Latvian state expositions and one parallel art event at the Venice Art Biennale; he is the author of arranging expositions for all Purvītis Prize art exhibitions, as well as other large expositions. The author has created expositions for such foreign artists as James Benning, Jonas Mekas, Christian Boltanski, and Braco Dimitrijević.

In his art practice, the artist has exhibited his artworks at the "Jukas" group exhibition in the LNMM "Arsenals" exhibition hall in 2005, at the “Waves” group exhibition in the LNMM "Arsenals" exhibition hall in 2006, and at the “Time Will Show – Junge Kunst aus Lettland” group exhibition in Flensburg, Germany, in 2008. Even then, the artist's works were very much about technology. What would characterize these artworks in the "hashtags" are: sound, waves, time, interference, communication.

The exhibition's documentation and 360-degree video tour on the RIXC Virtual Gallery: http://immersive.rixc.org 

The exhibition is on view in the physical space until May 15.

Support: State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia,  the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia.

The telecommunications of the exhibition artworks are supported by the Latvijas Mobilais Telefons.

Many thanks to Rižskij Samogon, memorywater.com, Gāgas Āboli, Konstantīns Višņevskis, Uldis Brūns, Einārs Cintiņš / 3S, Palmer group, Posmaster.