The Riga Photography Biennial 2024 Focuses on Identity Issues

Synnøve Sizou G. Wetten, “Is this now? XXYX”, video still, 2019

Riga Photography Biennial 2024
April 18, 2024 – July 14, 2024
rpbiennial.com

This year the Riga Photography Biennial (RFB) is taking place for the fifth time. Continuing to follow the development of image culture, the RFB invites to think about identity with a wide-ranging program of exhibitions and education in Riga and Sigulda from 18 April to 14 July.

As usual, the Biennial’s themes range from cultural theory to current socio-political processes, focusing on the Baltic, Nordic and European regions. Riga Photography Biennial 2024’s international program addresses a range of existential questions, including the impact of technology on human nature, the relationship between man and nature, as well as the informative code of the contemporary image in nine exhibitions, an extensive educational program, as well as the annual RFB catalogue. “Using the format of an art festival, Riga Photography Biennial attempts to record changes taking place all over the world and invites us to collectively interpret them – something we not only need to see but also imagine whilst translating the complicated and oversaturated contemporary visual language into meaningful relationships between our daily reality, the camera lens, historic material, contemporary art, technologies and the future. How has our understanding of photography and image changed because of digital technologies, and how does it manifest itself in the work of art? For the organisers of the biennial, these are important questions to present and analyse, whilst at the same time introducing Latvian audiences to leading works of international art as well as the ideas of prominent art theoreticians presented in the form of symposiums, discussions and publications in parallel with exhibitions and performances,” tells Inga Bruvere, the director and one of the curators of the Riga Photography Biennial 2024.

The central event of the Biennial – the exhibition “Human Computer” at the exhibition hall “Riga Art Space” – seeks the essence of contemporary human, which has changed under the influence of the fast pace of life and the constant development of technology. The international group exhibition from 19 April to 16 June will feature works by eight artists. In the meantime, the Intro Hall of “Riga Art Space” will host the exhibition “Vamp(yre) Reality” by British artists Lindsay Seers and Keith Sargent. Artists’ concerns are the nature of consciousness and how it shapes human life. But the relationship between artificial intelligence and photography will be the focus of the exhibition “A Breaking Point, A Delicate Balancing Act”, which will be on view from 20 April to 15 June at the RIXC Gallery.

On 27 April, the Cultural Centre “Siguldas Devons” will also open the exhibition “To Be We Need to Know the River”, where three Baltic artists share their thoughts and emotions about nature – the living, unified system, one of whose elements is human. In May and June, the National Library of Latvia, the ISSP Gallery and the “Smilga” Culture space will open their doors to the Biennial’s visitors, while Riga’s public transport stops will host the project “The Apparent – Un/believable” in collaboration with the Latvian Museum of Photography from 13 to 26 May, offering an insight into the experiments of photographers from the first half of the 20th century.

The program will be complemented with lectures and discussions continuing to analyse the themes of the exhibitions and explore the role of photography in today’s world. But children and young people are invited to participate in creative workshops with the artist Liga Spunde. A RFB catalogue – a collection of articles by international authors that will further expand on the issues covered in the Biennial’s events – will be available at the Riga Photography Biennial 2024 exhibition and event venues.

The Riga Photography Biennial is an international contemporary art event, focusing on the analysis of visual culture and artistic representation. The term ‘photography’ in the title of the biennial is used as an all-embracing concept encompassing a mixed range of artistic image-making practices that have continued to transform the lexicon of contemporary art in the 21st century.

Supporters and partners of the Riga Photography Biennial 2024: State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, Riga State City Council, Associations of Culture Institutions of Riga State City Council exhibition hall “Riga Art Space”, National Library of Latvia, Latvian Museum of Photography, Sigulda City Council, Cultural Centre “Siguldas Devons”, RIXC Gallery, ISSP Gallery, “Smilga” Culture space, Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OKA), Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Latvia, British Council in Latvia, Royal Norwegian Embassy in Riga, Danish Cultural Institute, Embassy of Finland in Riga, Estonian Embassy in Riga, Hibnerstudio, printing house “Adverts”, Valmiermuiža Craft Brewery, “Rixwell Hotels”, Arterritory.com, Echo Gone Wrong, NOBA.