Designers: Valdis Celms, Kaspars Endols, Arvīds Endziņš, Jr., Arvīds Endziņš, Sr., Barbara Freiberga and Gustavs Muzikants, Marta Ģibiete, Anna Hensberga-Varnase, Vīva Ieviņa, Līga Kausiniece, Valters Kiršteins, Linda Lazdiņa, Inese Līne, Miks Pētersons, Sinta Sprudzāne, Jānis Straupe, Iveta Šmita and Kaspars Šmits, Diāna Vernera, Ingrīda Žagata, Lāsma Liepiņa, and ART+.

Artist: Anna Heinrihsone

Curator: Auguste Petre

Project Manager: Barbara Freiberga

The origin of an idea is always silence. An idea crashes into silence like a meteorite, or creeps up to it slowly and calmly, like a ship. Silence absorbs the idea, inhales it, transforms it, and drives it off like a noise. American writer and intellectual Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) wrote that the impulse of creation begins in a tunnel of silence (1), and Paul Goodman (1911–1972) once reflected upon nine kinds of silence (2), including the dumb silence of slumber or apathy, musical silence, and the alive silence of alert perception.

The natures of silence have many facets, describable as contrasting perceptions. Emptiness versus abundance. Depth versus flatness. Beginning versus end. Peace versus fear. The meanings and contents of this concept change along with its context, and each of us has their own precise definition of the nature of silence.

A concert hall is a space where the function of sound plays the most important role. Within the context of the exhibition, it challenges the subjugation of contrasts and, through design elements, the creation of relative points of silence or meditative halts. In other words, it is an opportunity to detach from the immediate world and hear silence in communication with design.

(1) Adrienne Rich, Arts of the Possible. 1997.

(2) Paul Goodman, Speaking and Language: Defence of Poetry. 1972.

Admission: free

Opening hours: Mon–Fri 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Sat–Sun 10 a.m.–3 p.m.