From May 8, the Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT 2023 (RPB – NEXT 2023) group exhibition “Time Found” will be on show at the “Pilot”, Experimental Art Space of the Art Academy of Latvia. The exhibition has been created in the frame of the RPB – NEXT Award “Emerging Curator!”. The award – an opportunity to create the exhibition ida applied – is granted to young and promising Latvian curators every other year in part of the biennial’s NEXT program. In 2023, an international jury granted the award to Laima Daberte. Along with her own works, the exhibition will feature the works of the latvian artists Kristaps Freimanis and Armands Andže, and Teresa Faleiro from Portugal. The show will be opened on May 3 6 PM and will be open until July 15. RPB – NEXT program is on since April 27 and will last until July 23.The Award “Emerging Curator!” is held by the Riga Photography Biennial in cooperation with the Curatorial Course of the Art Academy of Latvia. The competition offers Latvia’s emerging curators the opportunity to show their abilities and take part in promoting awareness of curators’ significant contribution to the art ecosystem. It encourages discussion of the role of the curator in contemporary art and culture as a creative personality and mediator building a more successful dialogue with the public. “Emerging Curator! 2023” took place in October 2022 and the laureate – Laima Daberte with the exhibition “Time Found” – was determined by an international jury of art experts.
In the exhibition, the four artists will examine a tendency inherent in human memory, i.e., the way in which the perception of place and space is interpreted in different ways, depending on the individual’s previous experience, feelings, thoughts or the lack of them at a given time. Streets, squares, and even entire cities and landscapes can be defined using associations, thoughts, and even bodily sensations, thus creating collections of sensations and memory maps we carry with us and incessantly experience anew.
“In the turbulent whirlwind of everyday events, artists are increasingly seeking places of refuge to rediscover or return to in order to find what drives our innermost creativity. It seems that Laima has both found these places and continues to search for them in order to provide the audience and the people experiencing the exhibition with a place of refuge,” reads the jury statement.
Laima Daberte (1991) is currently enrolled in the Curatorial Studies MA program at the Art Academy of Latvia. She holds a BA in Sculpture from the Academy as well as a BA in Architecture from the Riga Technical University. She has participated in metal casting and stone sculpture symposiums held in Latvia and created objects exhibited in the urban environment.
The competition jury comprised curator, artist, critic and creative director of “Publics” curatorial platform Paul O’Neill (IE); chief curator of the collection of the Finnish Museum of Contemporary Art “Kiasma” PhD Saara Hacklin (FI); director and curator at the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art Solvita Krese (LV); art historian, curator and Vice-Rector at the Art Academy of Latvia Antra Priede (LV); director and program curator at the Riga Photography Biennial Inga Brūvere (LV).
Riga Photography Biennial’s NEXT program is dedicated to highlighting the young artists and curators. In 2023, the festival’s events are covering the “awkward” topics. In part of the program, already three exhibitions are open to public. On April 27, the biennial’s program was opened with a solo exhibition “Soft Spot” by the polish artist Michalina Kacperak at the exhibition hall “Riga Art Space”. It will be on show until June 18.
Until May 20, a solo exhibition “On Transitions: Impressions of Abu Dhabi” of the young latvian artist residing in the United Arab Emirates Adele Bea Cipste is available at the LOOK gallery.
The third exhibition is available at the annual print publication of the event. The “exhibition in pocket” titled “Safe Light” features the works of nine young Ukrainian artists: Julie Poly, Daria Svertilova, Viacheslav Poliakov, Polina Polikarpova, Vic Bakin, Anton Shebetko, Nazar Furyk, Mykhaylo Palinchak, and Zhenya Trifonova. The exhibition was curated by Evita Goze (LV) and Yulia Krivich (UA/PL). The publication is available at the RPB’s event venues.
In May, several more RPB – NEXT 2023 program exhibitions are to open at the ISSP Gallery, Latvian Museum of Photography, and Gallery of the Artist’s Union of Latvia. In the first part of June, an outdoor project will be held in 10 Riga city public transport stops. Several events will also be held for fostering development of photography industry: presentations of works by the young artists, an international conference on „awkward topics” in photoart, and a discussion on the role of a curator, as well as a creative workshop for children.
For more information please visit: www.rpbiennial.com; www.lma.lv
Supporters and partners: State Culture Capital Foundation, Riga City Council, Art Academy of Latvia, Experimental Art Space of the Art Academy of Latvia “Pilot”, Rixwell Hotels, Printing house “Adverts”, Arterritory.com, Echo Gone Wrong, Noba.ac, BLOK
