RIBOCA2: The Biennial Reimagined as a Feature Film Now Premieres Across Six Cities

Nina Beier, Total Loss, 2020. Site-specific installation, marble lions, milk, performance. Commissioned by the Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, RIBOCA2. Supported by Danish Arts Foundation and Danish Cultural Institute. Photo: Andrejs Strokins. Courtesy of RIBOCA.

Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA)
https://www.rigabiennial.com

In March 2020, plans for the second edition of the Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA2), a major international contemporary art event, were abruptly stopped by the rapid spread of COVID-19 just a few weeks before the opening. Chief curator Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel decided to transform the exhibition into a film set, reimagining the biennial as a feature film in anticipation of the closure of all public events in summer 2020. The resulting film was shot during the exhibition’s three-week run. From September 2021, and suddenly it all blossoms will make its film debut across London, Berlin, Paris, Moscow, Basel, and Riga, and will subsequently be made available to online audiences.

RIBOCA2, and suddenly it all blossoms, was developed out of the urgent pursuit for alternative perspectives and propositions to humanity’s obsession for growth, expansion, and consumption. From 20 August – 13 September 2020, 46 international artists shared the abandoned and iconic industrial space of Andrejsala in Riga. The exhibition sought to reimagine the ways humans inhabit the world and to explore ideas for building conscious and inclusive relationships with an endangered planet.

Chief curator, artistic director and scriptwriter Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel invited the acclaimed Latvian film director Dāvis Sīmanis to co-direct the film, collaborating with his team including Andrejs Rudzāts as director of photography. Singer and songwriter LAFAWNDAH created the film’s soundtrack, guiding viewers through the story.

Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel comments:

From its inception, the Biennial exhibition was about the possibility of reenchantment. Not to wish for another world, but to build renewed and constructive relationships within the endangered world we inhabit. When the epidemic started and our original plans collapsed, there was no option but to accept this situation and grow from it. The partly finished exhibition, the absent works, the aborted scenography, the transformation of the exhibition into a film set, and the film itself, are the children of this event. The experience was incredibly intense, yet opened so many horizons, giving us the chance to make the project resonate even more with the challenges we are facing today and their urgent call for reinvention. 

Works by Pawel Althamer, Kristaps Ancāns, Félicia Atkinson, Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Nina Beier, Oliver Beer, Hicham Berrada, Dora Budor, Eglė Budvytytė, Valdis Celms, Edith Dekyndt, Erika Eiffel, Vija Eniņa, Miķelis Fišers, Heinz Frank, Cyprien Gaillard, Bendik Giske, Honkasalo-Niemi-Virtanen, Katrin Hornek, Marguerite Humeau, Pierre Huyghe, IevaKrish, Mikhail Karikis and Uriel Orlow, Agnese Krivade, Lina Lapelytė and Mantas Petraitis, Eva L’Hoest, Hanne Lippard, Mikhail Maksimov, MAREUNROL‘S, Berenice Olmedo, Dominika Olszowy, Sarah Ortmeyer, Philippe Petit, Bridget Polk, Ugo Rondinone, Jaanus Samma, Tomás Saraceno, Augustas Serapinas, Timur Si-Qin, Nikolay Smirnov, Anastasia Sosunova, Daina Taimiņa are featured.

The film will be premiered in Moscow at the Garage Museum as part of The Art Newspaper Russia Film Festival (15 September) and in Basel at the Stadtkino Basel as part of the Art Basel Film Program (23 September). The premiere in Latvia will then take place during Riga International Film Festival (Riga IFF) on October 17. In November, the film travels to Berlin’s KINDL Center of Contemporary Art (3 November) before finally being shown in Paris at the Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation Galeries Lafayette (9 November). This Autumn, the film will also be premiered in London and Baltic countries.

The making of the film was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia and State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia. The film screenings in Berlin, London, Moscow, Paris, Basel are supported by Baltic Culture Fund (BCF) and Investment and Tourism Agency of Riga “Live Riga”. BCF project “The Parcours of the Blossoming” is carried out in partnership with Temnikova and Kasela gallery (Estonia) and Rupert, centre for arts, residencies and education (Lithuania).