The exhibition Field of Unheard Voices addresses memory that cannot be obtained firsthand, yet continues to exist. It is the memory of a gap – between generations, between experience and knowledge, between living witnesses and those born later. The artists in the project belong to a generation formed after the key historical traumas of the 20th century, yet within their aftermath. This experience can be described through the concept of postmemory, coined by Marianne Hirsch. Postmemory denotes a form of connection to the past that arises not through personal recollection, but through images, affects, bodily reactions, and silence. It becomes particularly tangible at the moment when the direct transmission of historical experience is interrupted and the past can no longer be heard directly. And yet, this memory has not disappeared.
For the Latvian context, lost-and-preserved knowledge has particular significance. Historical ruptures, regime changes, and prolonged existence in conditions of silence have created a situation in which the past continues to be present as a sensation. Latvia's social memory exists fragmentedly – in bodies, in relation to space, land, and home. In this sense, the body becomes a key medium of memory. Social theory of the body emphasises that history is enshrined not only in institutions and texts, but also in bodily practices, disciplines, and habits. The body retains traces of the past even when it cannot be fully articulated.
Judith Butler's position is important here: identity is not a fixed entity, but is formed through repeated social and bodily practices. Identity is reproduced in gestures, postures, material forms, norms, and prohibitions. The body is a space where history continues to operate in the present. In this project, the female body is viewed not as a biological given, but as a site of intersection between power, norms, vulnerability and memory – a space onto which expectations and social pressures are particularly often projected. Complementing this approach, Sara Ahmed's theory of the cultural politics of emotions allows us to consider memory as an affective environment. Emotions – fear, tension, vulnerability – do not belong to an individual subject but circulate between bodies and spaces, shaping collective experience. Even with the loss of direct witnesses, the past continues to exist precisely through this emotional circulation.
In Field of Unheard Voices, memory manifests as matter and process: clay, textiles, clothing, masks, space and the body. These elements retain traces – what was not spoken but continues to be felt. The exhibition becomes a space where severed links form a new field of identities and experiences capable of coexisting without hierarchy. Field of Unheard Voices proposes viewing Latvian social memory not as a complete narrative, but as a field – unstable, fragmented, and devoid of a single center. In this field, art becomes a means of preserving the presence of the past – not through documents, but through the body, material and affect.
Participating artists: Ojūna Batbajara, Egija Grīnfelde, Katerina Geiduka, Maria Gvardeitseva, Liene Mackus
