TELPA designs the flow that brings together story and space
I believe in the potential of exhibitions to convey complex stories, and to create space and time for audiences to experience those stories. Successful exhibition design allows objects to thrive through giving them a place in a larger context.
Beginning with the story that an exhibition-maker wishes to communicate, I enact thoughtful, minimal gestures that connect objects with the exhibition space they inhabit. The space itself is a key reference point for the design, and I use the given ingredients of each location as thoroughly as possible: its architecture and existing material resources are always used to the advantage of the project.
Telpa's work is characterised by an integrative approach, a light touch, and a respect for materials that looks toward re-use and adaptability.
WHAT TELPA OFFERS
Telpa translates the exhibition concept into a functional, coherent spatial design. Since 2014, I have executed large and small shows, including travelling exhibitions. Beyond the spatial, Telpa also offers expertise in graphic design, education design and participatory workshops.
Telpa will assist with: spatial translation (concept sketches, 2D and 3D visualizations); functional design (floorplans, technical drawings, routing, furniture design); supervision of execution (managing subcontractors, working with producers, onsite troubleshooting), and project management (communicating with organizations, producers, artists, graphic designers).
WHO IS TELPA
Telpa is Asnate Bočkis and collaborators, contributors, partners. I am an artist with background in sculpture and an autonomous designer based in Rotterdam and Riga. My work in exhibition design brings together my love for both fields. Since 2014, I have found exhibition design the means for combining my expertise and executing large-scale, sensitive sculptural gestures.
As Telpa, I have worked with curatorial thinkers Inga Lāce, Andra Silapētere, Solvita Krese among others; and institutions including the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art; the Latvian National Museum of Art; Riga Bourse; Riga Art Space; and the regional museums of Kuldiga, Bauska and Rezekne. In realisation of projects Telpa has collaborated with Egons Barānovs, AH!OH!, Kārlis Krecers, and others.
PROJECTS
Shared History - Art Museum Riga Bourse, 2018
"Exhibition Shared Histories is an unobtrusive invite for a conversation. (...) Works of this exhibition talk about different type of power relations- national and multicultural, individual and collective, our own and alien, as well as the identities that these relationships create."
- Helmuts Caune, "Neuzbāzīgs piedāvājums sarunai", Artteritory.com, 02.11.2018.
The works of the exhibition are placed in the galleries of the permanent collection inconspicuously but purposefully. The design of the exhibition furniture is inspired by the historic interior of the building, its architectonic details and decorative surface finishings. The exhibition furniture both blends in the interior and stands on itself due to material color and texture combinations used in designs.
Client: Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art; Curator: Inga Lāce; Exhibition design: Asnate Bočkis; Graphic design: Isabel Mager studio, Rogier Arents;
Place: Art Museum Riga Bourse galleries of permanent collection;
Year: 2018
Portable Landscapes - Latvian National Museum of Art, 2018
(...) people's migrations caused by wars or political and economic change have taken place ceaselessly. Exile, diaspora and migration are characteristic elements of global culture and their manifestations have not only determined changes in the world's map but also contributed to the basis for the development of various trends in art and culture (...).
In addition to historical stories, which are revealed with the help of archives, works of art and artifacts, the exhibition has welcomed contemporary Latvian artists who live and work abroad, as well as artists who have addressed the theme of migration or, with their interpretations, are adding to some of the narratives developed in it.
- lcca.lv
The exhibition consists of five complimentary stories or culture-geographical 'islands' - Gotland, Berlin, Paris, New York, Montreal. In the design of the exhibition every story inhabits a specific part of space, but these spaces are not secluded, they are open for interaction. The spatial layout and shapes of structures are referring to geographic coordinates and outlines of places. The exhibition routing offers to start the journey from Gotland, the closest point to Riga- place that brings all stories together, but as the last one visitors can learn the story of Montreal.
Client: Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art;
Curators: Solvita Krese, Andra Silapētere, Diāna Popova, Inga Lāce, Antra Priede-Krievkalne;
Exhibition design: Asnate Bočkis;
Graphic design: Kārlis Krecers, Rudy Guedj;
Place: Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga, Latvia;
Year: 2018;
Lost in the Archive - Riga Art Space, 2016
The exhibition explores the archive of the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA), which not only preserves and organizes an important body of information, but also creates a unique view on the history, the present and the future of a certain place. (...) Meanwhile the broader view on the archive will offer an insight in the work of artists who create and analyze archives, opening up important questions of how historical facts are construed, while looking at the relationships between culture, politics and ideology at certain periods in the past and nowadays. Central to the context of this exhibition are the notions of the post-Soviet and postcolonial as significant tools for understanding the current situation locally, as well as globally.
- lcca.lv
The spatial and graphic design of the exhibition is an attempt to deconstruct the idea of an archive as a perfectly structured environment or complete system. The core of the design is the architecture of Art Space Riga itself. The grid of columns and its projection in 15, 30 or 45 degree angles structures the works, but leaves lots of space for free wonder, interpret and imagine new subjective systems.
Client: Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art;
Curators: Andra Silapētere, Inga Lāce;
Exhibition design: Asnate Bočkis;
Graphic design: Anna Salmane, Asnate Bočkis;
Place: Art Space Riga;
Year: 2016;
Lost in the Archive - Touring exhibition Cycle, 2014-2016
The exhibition Lost in the Archive has been sourced from the database and archival materials belonging to the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, which is the largest source of information on contemporary art processes in Latvia. As part of this exhibition, a tandem of artists and curators highlight the potential of archive as a significant collection of culture, exploring its functions as a multidimensional carrier of information, constantly forming and redefining our relationship with history, while simultaneously involving the viewer as an active user of the archive and artwork.
- lcca.lv
This exhibition is almost as close-packed as the archive of LCCA itself. Having in mind different locations were the show would travel, the constructive elements of the exhibition are made self-supportive and compact, which gives the ability to adapt to the tiniest exhibition spaces of some regional museums. By using a pipe system in design, the set is easy to transport, build-up and adjust when needed.
Client: Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art;
Curator: Andra Silapētere;
Exhibition design: Asnate Bočkis;
Graphic design: Anna Salmane, Asnate Bočkis;
Place: various regional museums in Latvia;
Year: 2014 - 2016;
The Great Magnifying Glass - Educational Programme, 2014-2016
The educational programme Lielā lupa (The Big Magnifying Glass), developed from materials available in the LCCA's archive about the contemporary art processes in Latvia. The aim of the programme is to provide a compelling introduction for children and young people about the language of contemporary art, as well as the history of Latvian art and culture.
- lcca.lv
The educational programm consists of games, toys and work sheets. The content of work sheets is created by experts of youth education.
Client: Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art;
Curators: Linda Veinberga;
Design: Asnate Bočkis;
Year: 2014;
CONTACT
TELPA Exhibition Design
Asnate Bočkis
+31 (0)624388638
asnate@telpa.space
Address:
1e Pijnackerstraat 38
3036 GJ Rotterdam
The Netherlands