Contemporary Art Festival SURVIVAL KIT to Explore 'Outlands'

July 5, 2018
Author Echo Gone Wrong
Published in News from Latvia

survival-2-32-3The largest annual contemporary art event in the Baltics
SURVIVAL KIT 10: Outlands
September 6 – 30 in the building of Riga Circus

The tenth edition of SURVIVAL KIT, the largest annual contemporary art event in the Baltics organised by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, will take place in two parts: this September in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Riga in the building of the Riga Circus, while a broad concluding programme of the festival is planned for May 2019 at a venue yet to be announced.

In September and May, SURVIVAL KIT 10 will turn to the investigation of the concept of outland, questioning the traditional division of geopolitical and cultural space into centre and periphery.

Solvita Krese, director of the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, explains: “Outland is not always geographical, it can be any territory characterised by a complex politico-economic situation which makes it more difficult to reach both literally and metaphorically. Thus, although physical distances from Riga are similar, Western Countries are much more accessible and attractive than Kiev, Bucharest or Ljubljana, with which we share our recent history.

Curators Solvita Krese and Inga Lāce from the Latvian Centre of Contemporary Art will be joined by curator Sumesh Sharma from Bombay as well as Barcelona and Berlin-based curator Àngels Miralda. Sharma is one of the founders of Clark House Initiative, an association of artists and curators, while Miralda has worked with exhibitions in the Santiago Museum of Contemporary Art in Chile and elsewhere.

Through the subject of outland, the festival will also look at the locally and internationally significant issue of global migration, which has brought to the forefront a row of other problems: racism, growing right-wing nationalism and intolerance towards difference. As part of the festival, Latvian and international artists will be invited to create new works dealing with this subject.

The Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Riga has titled the September festival Tukšā | Telpa – Leer | Stelle

The project is supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation, Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, Riga City Council and Lux Express.

About Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art

The Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art is the largest institution of contemporary art in Latvia that curates and produces contemporary art events of national and international scale. As of 1993, it has researched and curated contemporary art processes both in Latvia and abroad to provoke critical reflection on issues topical for contemporary society.

We are widely recognized for the largest annual contemporary art event in the Baltics SURVIVAL KIT, regular exhibitions at the Latvian National Art Museum, as well as Latvian participation at the Venice Biennale, São Paulo Art Biennial, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Rauma Biennale of Contemporary Art, etc.