The book in the series "Studija library" about the set designer and artist Monika Pormale.
Pormale arrived on the Latvian art scene in the late 1990s with her installations, photographs and videos. Pormale’s work became known in the world through her collaboration with director Alvis Hermanis. She has accompanied productions by the New Riga Theatre in Europe, Russia, America and Asia. Monika has also designed productions at the Schauspiel Frankfurt, the Ruhrtriennale, the Moscow Theatre of Nations, the Schauspiel Köln, the Vienna Burgtheater and the Münchner Kammerspiele.
Monika’s best-known work is her set for ‘Long life’ – a cross-section of the lives of Latvian pensioners who inhabit a shared flat. This is an explosion of hundreds of objects that have accumulated over a long time. In the nineties, Ilya Kabakov, the Moscow conceptualist working in New York, created political installations that made him one of the most effective guides to the labyrinths of Soviet life, but Monika Pormale has applied the material heritage of that same period in spheres other than social polemics and the critique of regimes. She has used it to explore the existential poetry of the private, personal space of life. Up to the autumn of 2009, ‘Long Life’ has been shown in twenty-six countries in Europe, Asia and America.
Margarita Zieda
"Studija Library” is a series of books providing a comprehensive insight into the Latvian art scene of the turn of the 21st century. Each book includes a basic text, an interview, a selection of images as well as full translation into English. The first book of the series was published in 2008.