Kim? Contemporary Art Centre has just opened three exhibitions of the winners of the Open Call 2023 competition. One of them is Cheap Destinations, a joint project by designers and artists Ieva Jakuša and Gundega Strauberga, which looks at the city’s identity through the prism of tourism, crafts, and marketing. In the Nice Touch section, Ieva shares how to find information that inspires new and unexpected concepts.
«I see conceptual design as a crossword puzzle that I compose and give to the public for them to solve. When I think of a nifty feature that inspires me to formulate new questions, I think of Wikipedia’s Random Article function, which works on the English version of the site and takes me to a new place every time. For example, today I read about the Italian Baroque poet Ansaldo Cebà and the world’s largest found bacterium, Thiomargarita magnifica.»
Ieva Jakuša graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2020. She enjoys working on interdisciplinary projects, especially social design. She has created a research project–internet archive I Grew Up in the Blockhouse, which collects the experiences of blockhouse residents and aims to strengthen the understanding between neighbourhood communities.
The exhibition Cheap Destinations, jointly created by Ieva and Gundega Strauberga, looks at the role and influence of crafts and culture in the contemporary tourism industry. Through manipulated traditional Latvian souvenir products, the project provides an insight into the complexity of cultural representation. It questions the conversion of heritage into products, inviting reflection on the authenticity of cultural artefacts and traditions. The exhibition at the Kim? Contemporary Art Centre is on view until February 25.
Viedokļi