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Inta Ruka |
The Baukunst Galerie dedicates the forthcoming exhibition to the Latvian photographer Inta Ruka. The opening takes place on the 29th of January 2003. It is the first large solo-exhibition with the Riga-based photographer in Germany. We have initiated a cooperation with the PAK ‚“Palais für aktuelle Kunst“ in Glücksstadt where another exhibition with the artist opens on the 2nd of March, which can be seen until the 6th of April 2003. The exhibition project is accompanied by a booklet.
Inta Ruka (born 1958) lives and works in Riga. In 1978 after she has graduated at a business school as a sewer she started to take photos and was trained at the Nation’s-Photo-Studio (V.E.E.). 1986-88 she worked as a freelance photographer in Vladivostok (former USSR). Over the years she has become one of the most well-known photographers in Latvia. In 1998 the artist got a scholarship of the Hasselblad Foundation and in the summer of 2002 a working grant in Feldafing/Starnberger See. Photos of the artist are shown in international collections and museums, p.e. in the photo-collection of the Folkwang Museum, Essen, at the Fotomuseum in Munich and at the Nordiska Museet in Stockholm. The most important international exhibition was her participation at the 48th Biennale of Venice in 1999. For the first time Ruka’s photos have caused international attention in 1990, when her work was shown at the Musée de l’Elysee in Lausanne. In 1991 followed an exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (USA) and an exhibition tour through Canadia until 1993. From 1993 to 1994 her work was shown in the context of the exhibition „The memory of pictures. Baltic photography now“ in several European cities. In 2003 the State Art Museum of Riga dedicated a considerable exhibition to her.
Inta Ruka’s motives are the people of Latvia. She focuses on the portrait of people from Riga or Balvi, a rural region near the Russian border where Ruka has spent her childhood. Ruka works in series, lately she worked on the series „People I Happened to Meet“ and „Latvia. Changing and Unchanging Reality“. In 1983 she started the most well-known series „My Country People“ which has been shown at the Venice Biennale in 1999. By undertaking trips to Balvi for about twenty years, she regularly meets people and takes photos of them. In this long-term project Ruka documents the faces and histories of whole families. She makes notes of the names and biographical facts of the portrayed persons. She adds some sentences to each photo which can be quotes or part of their conversation as an additional information.
The artist chooses the situation for the taking while communicating with the people about their lives wishes and ideas. This way the setting has always to do with the living conditions of the person. Inta Ruka’s black and white photos have a timeless character by focussing on the human being. The artist works with a Rolleiflex-camera from 1937 on a tripod. She only uses natural light sources and succeeds in using light as an expressive but also subtle demonstration of the brilliant contrasts of photos.
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