On 8 May at 18.00 in the Intro Hall of the Riga Contemporary Art Space, will open the next event of the Riga Photography Biennial—NEXT 2025 – the solo exhibition ‘Chronosphere’ by Ukrainian artist Lesia Vasylchenko (UA/NO). The exhibition will be on view from 9 May to 6 July. Curators: Inga Brūvere (LV) and Marie Sjøvold (NO).
Lesia Vasylchenko works across a range of media, including video, photography, installation and curation. She holds a degree in journalism from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and in Fine Arts from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. In her research-based practice, Vasylchenko explores encounters between visual cultures, media technologies and chronopolitics. Vasylchenko has recently exhibited at the Pochen Biennial for Multimedia Art (Ex Oriente Ignis), the Munch Museum’s Triennale (The Machine Is Us), and the Henie Onstad Triennale for Photography and New Media (New Visions) and her work is part of the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma/Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki, Finland. ‘Chronosphere’ is the artist’s first exhibition in Riga.
The ‘Chronosphere’, a constellation of interconnected works, explores the intricate interplay of temporal scales, ranging from the microtemporal, such as remote sensing of planetary surfaces and computational cycles, to the macrotemporal, including ecological trauma and the nuclear age. The ‘Chronosphere’ exhibition extends its exploration of time to the context of the current war in Ukraine. The exhibition uncovers how war disrupts, ruptures, intersects with and reshapes the temporal fabric of human and more-than-human existence, embedding itself in personal and collective time.
Taking as a starting point Eduard Suess’s concept of Earth’s envelopes and Volodymyr Vernadsky’s notion of the Noosphere – the “sphere of human thought” – the ‘Chronosphere’ represents an additional layer where time itself becomes a medium of interaction. Historical narratives, cultural artifacts and the scars of systemic inequities form the foundation of the now, while technologically predicted futures unfold as a response to these legacies.
The ‘Chronosphere’ encapsulates the dynamic interactions between scales of time, highlighting how individual experiences are interwoven with planetary infrastructures and visionary technologies. It builds on Vasylchenko’s call to rethink the temporal dimensions of contemporary existence, urging us to move beyond linear narratives and into a realm of interconnected and simultaneous temporalities. It invites viewers to navigate the continuum of temporalities, uncovering the intimate and often invisible threads that bind us to one another and the world around us.
The Riga Photography Biennial (RPB) 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. The Riga Photography Biennial—NEXT offers visibility and provides a platform for promising young artists and helps to announce themselves to a wider audience and context. Riga Photography Biennial—NEXT 2025 program from 24 April to 6 July, the Riga Photography Biennial—NEXT 2025 program will offer a wide-ranging program of exhibitions and education events, giving the floor to emerging artists and curators from the Baltic and other countries who have addressed aspects of the theme ‘invisible but present’.
Supporters and partners: State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, Riga City Council, Exhibition Hall ‘Riga Contemporary Art Space’, Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Latvia, Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OKA), ‘Riga Art Week’ (RAW), printing house ‘Adverts’, ‘Hibnerstudio’, ‘Rixwell Hotels’, ‘Arctic Paper’, Valmiermuiža Craft Brewery, Arterritory.com, Echo Gone Wrong, NOBA
For more information: www.rpbiennial.com
