In “Artifacts of Process” Oto Holgers Ozoliņš engaged the conventions of the art space while reflecting on his own position within them. His process-driven practice places equal importance on the act of making and on the conditions that allow work to come into being. Through this approach, the exhibition addresses not only how art is produced and presented, but also Ozoliņš’ role as an artist working in Latvia today. His practice speaks to how artists of his generation navigate inherited structures, cultural expectations, and everyday realities shaped by recent history, situating individual experience within a broader social context.

In “Artifacts of Process,” these concerns take form through two closely connected elements: a physical sculptural structure and the process-driven work that this structure sustains. At TUR, a former garage for emergency vehicles now functioning as a space for contemporary art, Ozoliņš constructed a building from repurposed wood that appears to be hauled by the remnants of a ZIL-130 truck cabin. The structure carries references to use, repair, and continuity, while its interior adopts the restrained language of the white cube gallery. Within this setting, Ozoliņš establishes a framework in which process and outcome remain inseparable. The work unfolds over time through a series of predetermined actions, allowing results to accumulate, shift, and develop as the exhibition progresses.

For his exhibition, Ozoliņš has established a set of limitations and rules that reflect the ideas he finds important. His personal journey, as an artist and citizen of Latvia, connects to broader realities shared by artists and art spaces more generally, as well as to questions of Latvian heritage and the everyday effort required to meet basic needs. These concerns come together through a process that unfolds over time before it is expressed in a single finished gesture. Through a conceptual choreography, Ozoliņš carries out a series of daily actions throughout the five week duration of the exhibition. He forages the city streets in search of wood, traces the collected material in a large, developing drawing, and cuts the wood to be used as fuel for the fire, while setting aside selected pieces to be transformed into artworks. Burning the wood generates warmth, meeting a basic need for shelter and heat within the space. Alongside this, he records the locations where the wood is found by marking them on a map. Once these actions are completed, he creates new works from the gathered materials and from elements of the truck cabin, bringing what he encounters in the present into dialogue with a fragment of heritage.

As new works emerge from this process, they become part of the wider exhibition at TUR. Ozoliņš brings them out of the contained, warm interior where the “object of thought” takes shape and places them into the larger exhibition space. Hung on the wall, these works appear as the visible results of sustained labor. They are formed only once primary needs such as warmth and shelter are met and carry with them traces of the process that produced them. In this way, each work remains closely connected to the conditions of its making.

The exhibition invited visitors to return to TUR over the course of its run and encounter the work at different moments in time. Ozoliņš was present as he carries out his daily practice, while the markings inside the structure continued to accumulate and grow more complex. At the same time, additional works entered the exhibition space, each one shaped by repetition, discipline, and duration. These objects, presented within the conventions of the art space, are available for purchase, entering circulation as artworks beyond the exhibition. They stand as tangible outcomes of an ongoing process, holding together use, memory, and value within a single gesture.

Curator and text: Edd Schouten
Project Manager: Kristīne Ercika
Production Manager: Ada Ruszkiewicz
Graphic Design: Andris Kaļiņins
Technical support: Zane Innuse and TUR team
Photography: Dāvis Drēziņš

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