Artist Reveals That Working with Angry Uncles is Harder Than Dealing with Street Lamps

While artists in Riga are still arguing about whether their works are conceptual enough, in Liepāja Dāvis Kristaps Aigars has been proving for years that real art emerges when everything gets complicated. This time he illuminated the Loču Tower, which turned out to be as complex as trying to sing a duet with the St. Trinity Cathedral organ — you can feel the sound from the courtyard, but achieving harmony isn't simple.

He says that the biggest advantage of light art is anonymity — you can stand in the crowd and hear what people think about your work. "It's very interesting," says Dāvis Kristaps, "to hear both good words and criticism." In his opinion, the worst thing is when a person has no opinion at all. "You don't know if you've made something so bland that there's nothing to say."

This time the work was particularly challenging because he couldn't go to the site for a proper inspection. As soon as Dāvis started photographing the tower, an angry "uncle" appeared and told him to stop. So the visual solution was created based on minimal materials and maximum hope that everything would work out.

Another obstacle was the powerful street lighting — lamps that work as competitors to the artist. "Additional challenges were created by the surrounding environment," explains Dāvis, who initially planned to connect his work with the nearby mural. It turned out that the mural was colorful and dynamic, but he had already created a black and white version. As local culture expert Gunārs says: "Well yes, that's how we do it in Liepāja — first you do it, then you find out how it should have been done."