Gints Gabrans
Gints Gabrans (b. 1970, lives and works in Riga) is known for blending the practices of art, science, esotericism and mysticism into a united method, simulating in his art the special effects of a parallel world: the ability to walk through walls, disappearing, levitation and transferring to a different space, thus figuratively expanding one’s consciousness band and preparing it for another levels of perception. His works are left open for interpretation but they certainly reveal that there is more to the reality around us than meets the eye.
Gabrans is considered one of the leading Latvian artists of his generation. Gabrans represented Latvia at the 26th Sao Paulo Biennial (2004), the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007), and the 4 Moscow Biennale (2011). In his works he has used different media including found and ready-made objects, internet resources, videos of staged events, live performance, photographs, and installations. The recent work explores themes that remain in the ambiguous space between physics and metaphysics, observation and revelation, science and pseudoscience. Often the actual realisation of his works is based on mathematically calculated ratios, integrated or ready physical or mystical systems.
For Frontiers in Retreat, Gabrans has explored ideas related to food, envisioning how its production and consumption might change in the years to come. He has developed an idea of digestive enzymes that would enhance humans' metabolic system in a way that would allow us to consume previously unedible materials, such as wood fibres. This enhancement would greatly benefit the world's human population's nutritional situation, especially in times when the intensifying ramifications of global warming take an effect on the existing food systems and supplies that consumers citizens have learned to take for granted.
Gabrans was invited to participate in Frontiers in Retreat by Signe Pucena, Curator and Director of the Interdisciplinary Art Group SERDE, a residency and cultural centre located in the village of Aizpute, Latvia.