IV International Latgale Graphic Art Symposium
This is the fifth year when Latgale Graphic Art Symposium takes place in Daugavpils, and it can be rightly called a successful and invaluable tradition of printmaking media in the region. For five years, the Symposia have been fertile grounds for communication between artists, as well as creative work in cultural space of Latgale, thus uniting like-minded and different-minded Latvian and foreign printmakers.
Last year, the IV International Latgale Graphic Art Symposium ended as a sustainable project laying grounds for this year’s event, thus shaping up a diverse cultural space of Latgale.
No specific theme was set for the symposium of this year. The artists were given an opportunity to talk about things that are topical to them. However, similarly to the previous symposia, this year’s symposium brought together 11 graphic artists from 9 countries focusing on professional conversation and international dialogue in printmaking.
Presentations and other cultural formats advancing printmaking processes in the symposium gathered the following artists: Zoran Mise (Macedonia), Laura Manfredi and Irene Podgornik Badia (Italy), Anastasia Dubovska (Latvia), Vaida Varnagiene (Lithuania), Agnieszka Zavadska and Robert Rabiej (Poland), Miroslav Mandić (Serbia), Jürgen Höritzsch (Germany), Taida Jasarevic Hefford (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Inga Heamägi (Estonia).
This year, visitors of the graphic art exhibition are awed by skills of the artists in different deep printing techniques, with a few exceptions – brilliant linocuts and monotypes.
Growing and maturing over time, the symposium has become a serious gathering and display point for printmaking artists in the region. The interest of potential participants keeps growing with every year which is shown by the number of applicants wanting to become a part of the symposium. It is hoped that the presence of internationally reputed finest printmakers will help the generation of Daugavpils graphic artists to grow and to present the results of their work in projects in Daugavpils Mark Rothko Centre and elsewhere.
