Photo reportage from the exhibition ‘Measures (’Festival 'Survival Kit') in Riga

September 26, 2024
Author Echo Gone Wrong

Published in Photo / Video from Latvia

Māris Ārgalis 'The Eye' (triptych), no later than 1981

Until October 6, the exhibition ‘Measures’ curated by Jussi Koitela is on view at 4 Amatu Street, 34a Eduarda Smiļģa Street (‘Smilga’), and 4 Strazdu Street, Riga.

For the 15th time, this autumn, the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art will host the Survival Kit festival in Riga – one of the most notable annual contemporary art events in the Baltics. The exhibition ‘Measures’, curated by the festival’s artistic director Jussi Koitela, will be open from 6 September to 6 October at three locations on both banks of the River Daugava – Amatu Street 4, E. Smiļģa Street 34a and Strazdu Street 4. As every year, the festival will be accompanied by an extensive public and educational programme, keeping in mind the accessibility of contemporary art to different groups of society. A separate programme of events will also take place within the framework of the contemporary culture forum ‘White Night’.

To take ‘measure’ is a two-fold act: on one hand, it is scientific and quantitative, and on the other, it is a call to action. Presented across a number of nearby sites in Riga’s city centre on both sides of the Daugava river, ‘Measures’ demonstrates how the knowledge of a city emerges from acutely personal experience, but also from communal struggles and values. It considers possible pasts, presents and futures by measuring, investigating and embracing the diverse knowledges embedded within the city of Riga and beyond, and invites audiences to engage with nature-culture environments, daily bodily experiences, and data and truth-making.

Curator Jussi Koitela elaborates, ‘Following various trajectories in both its physical environment and subject matters, audiences can engage with the exhibition by encountering causalities that connect different temporalities, collapsed distances and bodies across communities and locations, all the while fumbling amid a mesh of truth, alternative histories and situated knowledges.’

Continuing the theme of the exhibition ‘Measures’, the public programme of the festival invites artists and thinkers to reflect on the different forms of knowledge produced by the city and its communities. Gundega Laiviņa, curator of the Survival Kit 15 public programme, says: ‘The programme is designed to remind people of their right to access the city’s resources, their right to change the city and to change themselves. It invites us to see the city not as a fixed and finished environment to navigate, but rather as a porous and ever-changing space where things become possible.’

The Survival Kit 15 public programme, curated by Gundega Laiviņa, is divided into four episodes – ‘Artist’ (11 September), ‘Place’ (21 September), ‘Nature’ (29 September) and ‘Future’ (5 October) – held at all festival’s exhibition addresses and throughout Riga.

With a continued focus on accessibility of contemporary art and creating an inclusive environment, Survival Kit 15 will be enriched by an educational programme for diverse groups of society. Throughout the festival, until 6 October, everyone is also invited to apply for guided tours led by art mediators at the central venue of the exhibition ‘Measures’ at Amatu Street 4.

Participating artists (*denotes a new commission)

*Linda Boļšakova (LV), Jeremy Deller (UK), *Kritoffer Ørum (DK), Monia Ben Hamouda (IT), Eero Yli-Vakkuri (FI), Toril Johannessen (NO), *Jaana Laakkonen (FI), Lou Mouw (DE/NL) & Isabella Solar Villaseca (SE/CL), *Gerda Paliušytė (LT), Yuri Pattison (IE), *Rena Rädle (DE) & Vladan Jeremić (RS), *Luīze Rukšāne (LV), Vidha Saumya (IN), *Shubhangi Singh, *Laura Soisalon-Soininen (FI), *Līga Spunde (LV), Jon Benjamin Tallerås (NO), Aimée Zito Lema (AR/NL), Fabien Giraud (FR) & Raphaël Siboni (FR), *Konstantin Zhukov (LV), *Malin Arnell (SE) & Mar Fjell (SE), Luna Lund Jensen (DK), Māris Ārgalis (LV), Monika Czyżyk (PL) & Neil Luck (UK), Renée Green (USA).

Survival Kit 15 is organized by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art.

Survival Kit 15 is supported by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, Riga City Council, State Culture Capital Foundation (SCCF), SIF, Embassy of Italy in Riga, Goethe-Institut Rīga, Mondriaan Fund, OCA fund, Danish Arts Foundation, Culture Moves Europe, NOVUM Riga, British Council, LIAA, Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Arctic Paper, Culture Ireland, Embassy of Finland Riga, Zuzeum, Skrīveru saldumi, LSM, Satori, Echo Gone Wrong, Riga This Week, Riga Neighborhood, Vieglās valodas aģentūra, Pasqua Wines, VV Foundation.

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