Laura Veļa. Wounded Memory
From 28 September to 24 November 2024, Laura Veļa's solo exhibition Wounded Memory will be held in the Cupola Hall of the main building of the Latvian National Museum of Art (Jaņa Rozentāla laukums 1, Riga).
The exhibition Wounded Memory creates space for a discussion about the effect the trauma caused by the deportation of residents of Latvia has on contemporary society.
The title Wounded Memory comes from a combination of two concepts – “social memory” and “wound”. Social memory — an understanding about historical events, socio-political processes, their interpretation. Meanwhile, “wound” – for a living organism leads to changes where the wound either rapidly heals and becomes unnoticeable or there is a scar, while sometimes the wound is too deep for the organism to continue to function. There are moments when the wound can easily be covered up with a plaster, by either completely concealing one's injury or making it more visible to the world. Some do not have a wound at all, yet carry a plaster to receive more attention. With each wound we acquire new information on how to better deal with the next one, as well as fear of experiencing pain again. Yet irrespective of the process of change that follows a wound, the body will never be the same as before.
To what extent can we link physical wounds with mental ones, while, if it is collective memory that has been wounded, what is its process of healing – is this memory overgrown with scar tissue or does a new surface for memory space arise? How do the traumas acquired from the colonialism and the totalitarian form of government experienced under the Soviet Union shape a generation living already in a post-colonial space? How do a family's past experiences weave through generation after generation manifesting themselves both corporeally and mentally in the memory of the subsequent generations?
About the artist
Laura Veļa studies the ideas of identity and social memory, which she uses as the conceptual basis of her works. Laura Veļa studied the piano, information technology, image processing and painting. In 2020, she completed her master's studies at the Department of Painting of the Art Academy of Latvia and earned a Boris and Inara Teterev scholarship as well as the Nordic and Baltic Young Artist Award in 2021.