Will Daugavpils be Bilbao?

Photo by Juris Smalinskis. Reconstruction works about a year ago

The grand Mark Rothko Art Centre opening took place on 24th April in Latvia’ s second largest city, Daugavpils. Mark Rothko, the famous Abstractartist, was born in this city and lived there until the age of 10 when his family emigrated to America.

The Art Centre is located within the impressive former Arsenal (1833). Part of it has now been made a multifunctional building containing exhibition halls, art studios, artist residences, Mark Rothko’s room and more.

At the moment six of Rothko’s original works are on display (courtesy of a long-term loan by the artist’s family). Last year a Rothko’s large scale masterpiece sold at Sotheby’s auction for $75,1 million), which gives some idea of the value of this collection.

Entrance tickets are priced 3 LVL per person which is a bit higher than average ticket price in the art museums in Riga (1.50 – 2 LVL). It is expensive for Latvians but more than fair by international standards. So, it seems they are clearly targeting foreign visitors.

Daugavpils is located in south-eastern Latvia, not far from the Lithuanian and Belarusian borders, in Latgale, which is the poorest region of the country with generally bad infrastructure. A car or train journey from Riga takes more than three hours. The road is not the best and there are only two trains per day. Accomodation is mainly represented by low cost segment places. There is an old military airport with controversial ownership status – hence it has never been properly developed for civilian use.

Tourists who could potentially come to visit the centre generally represent medium and high level of customer. Unlikley they’d be pleased to spent more than 3 hours in slow train to Daugavpils or challange the region’s motorways. Organized package tours from Riga perhaps is an answer but not very satifactory in long term.

The project developers are hoping that the Mark Rothko Art Centre will be a stimulus to the city and region and hence the infrastructure will improve. Inevitably that makes one think about the so-called “Bilbao effect”.

The famous Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (which also hosts some Rothko works) was opened in 1997 as part of a revitalisation effort for the city. The Guggenheim quickly became a popular place for art lovers.

Bilbao is now known tourism destination and tourists come from all over the world to a place which never previously featured on tourists’ wish lists. Tourism has had a huge impact on the local economy. Bilbao has served for many other towns as an example how ambitious planning and the names of famous artists or architects can transform the urban landscape.

Will Daugavpils be one of these examples too? Can local authorities commit themselves to serious investment into infrastructure which is the main problem in this case? Will there enough forward looking attitude and understanding? It remains to be seen. The pure fact is that Daugavpils is lucky to be the birthplace of such a world-renowned artist as Rothko as well as particularly lucky to have support from Rothko’s family and lucky to have enthusiasts whose dream about turning the fortress into Rothko’ s art centre has finally become a reality after years of work.

It will be exciting to follow future developments and see if the centre hits its target of 90,000 visitors per year…

By Eva Staltmane

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