Latvia 2018

Title: “Together and Apart”
Commissioner: Jānis Dripe
Curators: Matīss Groskaufmanis, Gundega Laiviņa, Evelīna Ozola, Anda Skrējāne

The Latvian pavilion, “Together and Apart” looks at apartment buildings in relation to architecture’s role in organizing the society. It examines how this architectural typology generates ways of living together and apart — with one another, the market, and the state.
The exhibition is the result of a study of housing and nation building of the Latvian state. During its 100–year–long history, Latvia has undergone several fundamental political and economic transformations that have employed housing as a means of reform. Today, despite being one of the most sparsely populated regions of Europe, nearly two thirds of Latvians live in apartment buildings which is the highest ratio in Europe. Whilst the tendency in politics is to withdraw from the housing question, the exhibition aims to highlight it as an architectural, but also a political, economic and an ecological project.