Zenta Dzividinska

Probably the publication of Zenta Dzividzinska's works right now is driven by the circumstances. The photographic rights of "mums" freshly captured by her are protected by two waves of the contemporary culture: the feministic and especially the technological. Part of the images shown in the exhibition "Black and White" have an obvious similarity with the so called fake photography, it is created by the formal structure of the image and the subjects as well, that remind the documents recorded by carelessly controllable digital camera.

The images shown in the exhibition are created in the second half of the sixties: in time when the photography and its appearance had become an important technique in arts. Every publication is a subject to a selection. But I have to admit that "Black and White", the first solo exhibition of Zenta Dzividzinska, remind more of archaeological excavations in some private territory – in the collection of negatives created thirty years ago. That's why the bigger part of the exhibition consists of previously unpublished works. Beside the "excavations" they demonstrate a striking tradition of the postmodern age – free inclusion in an unexpected context. The photographic experiments of Zenta Dzividzinska would not be called consciously constructed aesthetic messages in the time when they were made. They gain the traits of artistic theory right now, found and exhibited after a long time. In contrary to the tradition of curator's selection, the choice have been made by the author herself, thus transforming her role from "just" photographer to a "constructor" of the exhibition. Although a woman is one of the most popular themes of photographic expression, the women we see in the photographs of Zenta are not there because of the tradition, but more likely, to adjust the tradition. Her "wandering", "non-purposeful" lens has captured a woman, urged by unorganized reasons, but the artist herself explains it with her "interest about non-beautiful people", directing our attention towards the kitschy meaning of the word "beautiful" in the context of describing humans and ancient sculptures as well.

We almost never know what really is true. If art would not been so closely connected with the culture, especially the visual culture, I can assume that its absolute achievements would be magnificent. Nine photographs in the exhibition "Black and White" that have emerged from the state they were left 30 years ago from "ordinary" pictures became – allowing myself to be romantic – a "time machine". You can go in all known cultural directions and dream about what could be.

Inga Steimane, art critic