During the residency Viktorija Eksta worked on the creation and development of analogue prints for her long-term photography project “The Devils lake” (Velnezers), which will be exhibited during the Cesis Art Festival in 2021. Viktorija shares that she started working on this project in 2015 – “I got curios to explore the myths and rumors surrounding Velnezers – a round and deep lake with intensely green water that is located in the middle of a forest in the Aglona district in Eastern Latvia. I do not seek to discover the truth, but rather to capture the nature of Velnezers and its peculiar magnetizing force and understand how the lake and the surrounding landscape acts on its visitors by activating their mythical thinking. So, at the moment I am taking a closer look of the landscape and elements that constitute it”.
Viktorija Eksta creates conceptual art projects using photography, moving image, performance art, as well as research of audiovisual archives. Since 2014 Viktorija has participated in exhibitions in Latvia and abroad. She won the ADC Young Guns Award, the FK Magazine Portfolio Award, Award for Young Photographers from the Riga Photography Biennial and was nominated for Purvitis prize – Latvia’s highest award in the visual arts. Over the past 3 years, Viktorija has done several solo shows – “Snakes and Ladders” with Riga Photography biennial, “Velnezers” at the ISSP gallery, solo show in KKKC gallery in Klaipeda, “P” at Alma gallery and “Emoji poetry” at Raina and Aspazijas museum. She has also participated in various group shows “MELOS” at the Exhibition Hall Arsenals, “The Poetry and Works of Eizens Bergs” at Kim? Contemporary Art Center and “What even” in the concert hall of Great Amber in Liepaja.
