Selling Water by the River was Skuja Braden’s exhibition for the Latvian Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, presented from April 23 to November 27, 2022. Curated by Solvita Krese and Andra Silapētere, the exhibition brought together more than 300 porcelain objects, including newly commissioned works alongside pieces created over the previous two decades.
For the pavilion, Skuja Braden transformed their shared living environment in Aizkraukle, Latvia, into a multilayered installation within the Arsenale. Drawing on the artists’ domestic space as both a physical and conceptual framework, the exhibition explored the shifting boundaries between private and public life, and the ways personal identity is shaped within wider social and political structures.
Through porcelain sculptures mapping the mental, physical, and spiritual dimensions of their lives, Skuja Braden brought together autobiographical references with broader questions surrounding identity, belonging, conflict, and social change. Their shared identity as a collaborative duo, formed through the meeting of Ingūna Skuja’s Latvian background and Melissa D. Braden’s Californian experience, became an important part of the exhibition.
The installation addressed the tensions that emerge where private and public values meet, including attitudes towards LGBTQIA+ identities in Latvia and the wider Eastern European region. Queer identity, gender, sexuality, spirituality, and the legacy of post-socialist society were woven into an expansive domestic environment that challenged the boundaries between the personal and political.
The title Selling Water by the River refers to the artists’ connection to the Daugava River and to Aizkraukle, the Latvian town where they lived and worked for many years, while also evoking the meeting of different places, histories, and perspectives. The exhibition brought together influences from Latvian and Californian cultures, Buddhist philosophy, and the artists’ shared life and practice, creating an intimate yet socially engaged portrait of a home, a partnership, and a changing society.