The “KARAOKE WALL” was created for the third edition of the Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art “Exercises in Respect”, led by Chief Curator René Block. At the centre of this exhibition was the Andrejsala space and buildings.

“Andrejsala, the old port area comprised of vast architectural structures, defined the search for the artistic voices invited as if pursuing musicians for an extraordinary industrial concert hall bearing unique and fascinating conditions. From an exploration of the area that uncovered features including an imposing storage building to gigantic grain silos, the questions emerged: Who would be able to cope with these conditions in form and content? Who might have the right “instruments” to fill the space? And who would best resonate with these buildings?” – from the curatorial text by René Block and Nico Anklam.

I visited the warehouse building in 2021, at a time when it was filled with grain. During the Biennale, this building was supposed to be filled with artworks, but the Biennale was first postponed to 2023 and then cancelled. I couldn’t resist restoring this space as I remembered it and installing my work there.

Ad Reinhardt’s 25 LINES OF WORDS ON ART STATEMENT is translated into karaoke and broadcasted on a video wall which consists of five CRT monitors and twenty-five empty cells. The viewer is invited to perform.
Karaoke originally means ‘empty orchestra’. For “Exercises in Respect” I wanted to unite karaoke and video wall. First I was going to build the wall from thirty monitors, twenty-five of which would show no signal, blackness. Then I decided to use the empty cells of the construction as an embodiment of the empty orchestra around Ed Reinhardt’s statement:

1. ART IS ART. EVERYTHING ELSE IS EVERYTHING ELSE.
2. ART-AS-ART. ART FROM ART. ART ON ART. ART OF ART. ART FOR ART.
ART BEYOND ART. ARTLESS ARTIFICE.
3. PAINTERS` PAINTING. PAINTINGS` PAINTERS. PAINTERS` PAINTERS.
4. PAINTING THAT “CANNOT BE TAKEN HOLD OF”
THAT “CANNOT BE USED”, THAT “CANNOT BE SOLD”.
5. PAINTING “ABOUT WHICH NO QUESTIONS CAN BE ASKED”.
6. PAINTINGS AS “NOT AS A LIKENESS OF ANYTHING ON EARTH”.
7. ICON AS IMAGE AS IDEA AS SYMBOL, AS IDEAL, AS FORM AS ICON.
8. ICON AS DEVICE, DIAGRAM, EMBLEM, FRAME, GAME, SIGN, SPECTACLE, ET CETERA.
9. DEVICE AS EMPTY. DIAGRAM AS DEAD, EMBLEM AS ARCHETYPE.
FRAME AS (OF) MIND, SIGN AS FORECAST, SPECTACLE AS INVISIBLE.
10. PAINTING AS ABSOLUTE SYMMETRY, PURE REASON, RIGHTNESS.
11. PAINTING AS CENTRAL, FRONTAL, REGULAR, REPETITIVE.
12. PREFORMULATION, PREFORMALIZATION, FORMALISM, REPAINTING.
13. FORMS INTO UNIFORM INTO FORMLESSNESS. STYLE AS RECURRENCE.
14. LIGHT AS REAPPEARANCE, DULLNESS. COLOR AS BLACK, EMPTY.
15. SPACE AS HALVED, TRIPARTED, QUARTERED, QUINQUESECTIONED, ET CETERA, AS ONE.
16. VERTICALITY AND HORIZONTALITY, RECTILINEARITY, PARALLELISM, STASIS.
17. OUTLINES, MONOTONES, BLANKNESS, QUIESCENCE, PREMEDITATION.
18. BRUSHWORK THAT BRUSHES OUT BRUSHWORK.
19. MATTER ONLY TO THE MIND.
20. THE STRICTEST FORMULA FOR THE FREEST ARTISTIC FREEDOM.
21. THE EASIEST ROUTINE TO THE DIFFICULTY.
22. THE MOST COMMON MEAN TO THE MOST UNCOMMON END.
23. THE EXTREMELY IMPERSONAL WAY FOR THE TRULY PERSONAL.
24. THE COMPLETEST CONTROL FOR THE PUREST SPONTANEITY.
25. THE MOST UNIVERSAL PATH TO THE MOST UNIQUE. AND VICE-VERSA.