Desire
Juried Exhibition of Artists from the Latgale Region
The concept of desire needs little explanation. Its numerous derivatives and synonyms convey an attitude towards something one finds pleasing or appealing. They signal praise and admiration and signify an expectation or intention to acquire.
In children, desire can mean a dream or longing for something wonderful, almost miraculous, to happen or come true. For artists, it may mean craving recognition, unleashing one’s creative thought, or maybe winning favour with the market.
In Latvian, the word ‘desire’ is almost perfectly homonymous with ‘election’, identical in all but one small diacritic. This linguistic connection ties desire to political action aimed at positive change or improvement, the goal of every meaningful and reasonable civic act. In this sense, an election and its outcome will affect the crumbling or fulfilment of a citizen’s desires by bringing satisfaction, inspiring hope, or shattering all illusion. Because, when all is said and done, every election involves an active interplay between our personal ambitions and collective choices, where individual desires and value-driven motivations inevitably clash or merge with our collective action and our shared responsibility.
In Latvian (and many other languages), the meanings of certain words will shift depending on the presence of diacritic marks. This playful duality resonates in the Rothko Museum’s challenge to artists from the Latgale Region who wish to contribute to the 2025 edition of the museum’s annual juried exhibition. By continuing to inspire artistic creation, the theme invites artists to engage with present-day concerns in the language of art while staying mindful of our personal and collective hopes and visions for the future.
