From 24 August, an open-air exhibition can be seen in Ķemeri National Park by the Forest House, offering an unusual invitation to get to know floodplain forests, or swamp forests. The aim of the exhibition is to show the uniqueness and species diversity of swamp forests in a different light, and so the paintings have been created in electrically vivid, luminescent colours, while UV light brings out the previously hidden qualities of these swamp forests. The exhibition is made up of works by 12 artists, created a week ago at an educational plein air session organised by the Nature Conservation Agency (the agency).
The exhibition of luminescent paintings is part of “Mūzika. Daba. pārVērtības”, an electronic music ambience event taking place in Ķemeri on 24 August. During the event, three different points, or stations, will operate simultaneously, inviting visitors to call at each of them and, on an unhurried walk, discover various strands of electronic music and enjoy their sound in the natural surroundings so characteristic of Ķemeri. One of the stations will be by the Forest House, where from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m. the musical mood will be in the hands of DJ Ķirsis, DJ LIENjuks and DJ skaliņš, who will play fast electronic music with a very low bass frequency, creating an entirely new atmosphere in which to discover the values of nature.
The exhibition of luminescent paintings is, taken as a whole, a unique achievement in which each work highlights the splendour and importance of the swamp forest as a habitat. In their work, each artist depicts some element of the swamp forest or creates a story, bringing out the power of this wetland. The exhibition, accompanied by the sounds of nature, can be visited at a time to suit you right up to the end of 6 October. It is open to anyone interested, free of charge and with no need to book in advance.
“Ķemeri is a kingdom of wetlands, where alongside the swamp forests, or wet black alder woods, there are also floodplain meadows with wild horses and cattle, coastal lakes rich in waterfowl, untouched raised bogs and, deep underground, sulphurous waters too – our famous elixir of health with its aroma of rotten eggs. The role of wetlands was thrown into particularly sharp relief by the recent storm Kristija, which caused substantial damage in the Ķemeri area. For the wetlands of Ķemeri, however, this was a real moment of glory, proving their strength and capability in all their splendour. The floodplain forests, or swamp forests, that surround Ķemeri actively took in the flood waters carried down from Ķemeri by the Vēršupīte, giving the river room and allowing the waters to spread across areas never seen before downstream of Ķemeri, around the Forest House and Lake Sloka. On top of that, the storm also brought down many trees. To the human eye this might look like real devastation, but from nature’s point of view that is not the case – floodplain forests are adapted to regular fluctuations in water level, and a quite special world of plants and animals is to be found here. The trees felled by the storm will create natural openings in the forest that will become the beginning of new life for more light-loving species. The fallen trees, in turn, will become home to species that favour dead wood at its various stages of decay,” explains Agnese Balandiņa, head of the agency’s Ķemeri National Park nature centre.