Opening a new exhibition, Dismantling the Wall. Latvian Art 1985–1991, on Friday, 3 February 2023, at 6 p.m., the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga (Jaņa Rozentāla laukums 1) invites you to a live performance by Ukrainian artist Daria Kalashnikova How long can this all last?.

The performance How long can this all last?, which has moved critics and spectators at many art festivals, will be shown in the Latvian National Museum of Art (LNMA) for the first time. During the performance, Daria Kalashnikova combines the elements of gymnastics, lights and sound. By repeating a gymnastic exercise, she measures the duration of the ongoing war in debilitating monotony and talks about Ukrainian cities that are currently partially or completely destroyed.

Daria Kalashnikova, an artist, political activist and a former gymnast from Luhansk, Ukraine, hasn’t been home since the Russians occupied her home region in 2014. The then occupation was a response to the Euromaidan movement, one of the founders and main organizers of which was the artist herself. She is currently going through her second war.

“I met the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2022 in Kyiv. On the morning of the 24th February, I was sleeping in my apartment. First three days of the war I spend in the shelter in Kyiv, then moved to Lutsk in the west of Ukraine. After two months of living in Lutsk I felt that the world starts getting used to the war in Ukraine. Based on that I made another challenging decision – to move to Europe and to bring the awareness about the war through my art,” Daria Kalashnikova says. In addition to performance art, she is also writing, painting and has graduated in directing and scriptwriting.

Visitors to the event will be the first to get acquainted with the new exhibition Dismantling the Wall. Latvian Art 1985–1991, which is on display in the left wing halls at the 2nd floor of the museum and tells about the processes in Latvian contemporary art during the period of socio-political change. The backbone of the exposition consists of works from the LNMA collection whose content responds to and turns critically against Soviet socio-political reality, also retaining stark relevance today when close to our borders Russia is waging war and ravaging the territory of Ukraine and the lives of its people. The artists reveal the contradictions and existential experiences characteristic of this era of change by using ideologically charged symbolism, mythological allegories and images as well as speaking entirely openly about significant events.

Anyone interested is invited to the performance!

Free admission. No prior registration is required.

Event is supported by:
The State Culture Capital Foundation

More information:
Grieta Sīpola,
Head of Education and Communications Project Management /
Latvian National Museum of Art
Ph: (+371) 67 324 461,
E: