The Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA) opened to the public on the 2nd of June in Riga, Latvia. Entitled Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More, the biennial showcases the work of 104 artists, including 10 collectives, and takes place in eight different venues across the city, reflecting the rich architectural heritage of Riga and its changing political, social and historical circumstances.
The Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA) is an international biennial with a European focus and a strong regional profile, founded in 2016. Taking the rich history of Riga and the Baltic states as its underlying framework, the Biennial highlights the artistic landscape of the wider region and creates opportunities for international artists to enter into dialogue with the cultural, historical and socio-political context of the city and its geographic surrounds. Each venue constitutes a different chapter of the biennial. RIBOCA was conceived by Commissioner Agniya Mirgorodskaya to provide a new global platform for international and Baltic artists, provide educational and community support within the region, and increase artistic engagement between the Baltic region and the rest of the world. The chief curator of the first edition of RIBOCA is Katerina Gregos, who has been instrumental in setting up the biennial alongside the Commissioner.
The title of first edition of RIBOCA, Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More, is borrowed from the book written by the Russian author Alexei Yurchak of the same name. The book references the paradox of sudden but expected social and political change as it occurred in the Soviet Union. Taking the title of Yurchak’s book as a metaphor for the present moment of accelerated transitions, the exhibition will reflect on the process of change and how this is registered, anticipated, experienced, grasped, assimilated and dealt with at a time of rapid transformations. The world is facing major challenges: there is climate change; the transition from a material-based to knowledge-based economy and ‘cognitive’ capitalism; increasing automation which will make humans redundant and transform the labour market; rapidly changing demographics; and finally ‘transhumanism’ – the belief that the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations by means of science and technology. More and more of us, old and young, are struggling to keep up with the incessant, overwhelming flow of information and increasing acceleration of our lives and work. Latvia seems to be the perfect place to explore the nature of change, as the country has often experienced pivotal transformations. The Baltic region itself has become the locus of political and economic restructuring, identity renegotiation, and global reintegration, major changes in themselves. From the personal to the political, the ecological to the scientific and technological, and finally, to the philosophical and the existential, the exhibition probes how contemporary artists are responding to these issues, how they register change, and how they imagine the future. The biennial looks into our anxious present and pinpoints the tectonic shifts that are taking place in the public as well as private realm today.
Amongst the list of participating artists are well-known names, including: Jonas Mekas, Mark Dion, Erik Kessels, Robert Kuśmirowski, Trevor Paglen, Lynn Hershmann Leeson, Adrián Villar Rojas and Nedko Solakov; as well as a large number of young, emerging and relatively undiscovered artists from the Baltic region and beyond. Visitors will be able to gain a more in-depth understanding of many of the artists’ work, as multiple pieces by the same artists will be shown in more than one venue. More than half of the exhibited works are newly commissioned.
The Public Programme, which was launched in February this year will continue until the end of October 2018 and encompasses performances, talks, debates, symposia, workshops and film screenings, further exploring the themes of the biennial. Also, the Public Programme invites international guests to connect with local communities in Riga, broadening the reach of the Biennial beyond the confines of the art world.
2 June – 28 October 2018
https://www.rigabiennial.com/
Photo: Maarten Vanden Eynde, Pinpointing Progress, 2018, Installation, New commission for the 1st Riga Biennial, Courtesy of the artist and Meessen De Clercq Gallery, Photo Andrejs Strokins
PR: Riga Biennal