Riga Biennial 2018
EVERYTHING WAS FOREVER UNTIL IT WAS NO MORE
02 Jun - 28 Oct 2018
1st Riga Biennial 2018
James Beckett, Palace Ruin, 2016 (installation view)
Public sculpture (powder-coated steel, accoya acetylated wood, multiplex, Indian ink, smoke). 7.2 × 3.5 × 5.7 m. Courtesy of the artist and Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam. Photo: Andrejs Strokins
Public sculpture (powder-coated steel, accoya acetylated wood, multiplex, Indian ink, smoke). 7.2 × 3.5 × 5.7 m. Courtesy of the artist and Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam. Photo: Andrejs Strokins
Nabil Boutros, Ovine Condition (Celebrities), 2014 (installation view)
Series of digital prints on Dibond, 60 × 60 cm each. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Andrejs Strokins
Series of digital prints on Dibond, 60 × 60 cm each. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Andrejs Strokins
Nabil Boutros, Ovine Condition (Celebrities), 2014 (detail)
Series of digital prints on Dibond, 60 × 60 cm each
Series of digital prints on Dibond, 60 × 60 cm each
Julian Charrière, Tropisme, 2015 (installation view)
Cryogenized pre-historic plant in refrigerated showcase (stainless-steel, double insulated glass). 207.85 × 65.3 × 65.3 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin. Photo: Andrejs Strokins
Cryogenized pre-historic plant in refrigerated showcase (stainless-steel, double insulated glass). 207.85 × 65.3 × 65.3 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin. Photo: Andrejs Strokins
Julian Charrière, Tropisme, 2015 (detail)
Cryogenized pre-historic plant in refrigerated showcase (stainless-steel, double insulated glass). 207.85 × 65.3 × 65.3 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin. Photo: Andrejs Strokins
Cryogenized pre-historic plant in refrigerated showcase (stainless-steel, double insulated glass). 207.85 × 65.3 × 65.3 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin. Photo: Andrejs Strokins
Mark Dion, A Tour of The Dark Museum, 2018 (detail)
Site-specific installation, mixed media, flashlights. Dimensions variable. New commission for the 1st Riga Biennial. Courtesy of the artist and Waldburger Wouters, Brussels. Photo: Andrejs Strokins
Site-specific installation, mixed media, flashlights. Dimensions variable. New commission for the 1st Riga Biennial. Courtesy of the artist and Waldburger Wouters, Brussels. Photo: Andrejs Strokins
Stelios Faitakis, The New Religion, 2018 (detail)
Site specific installation (6 monumental wall paintings, mixed media on aluminium composite panels). Approx. 433 × 186 cm each wall painting. New commission for the 1st Riga Biennial. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Vladimir Svetlov
Site specific installation (6 monumental wall paintings, mixed media on aluminium composite panels). Approx. 433 × 186 cm each wall painting. New commission for the 1st Riga Biennial. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Vladimir Svetlov
Stelios Faitakis, The New Religion, 2018 (detail)
Site specific installation (6 monumental wall paintings, mixed media on aluminium composite panels). Approx. 433 × 186 cm each wall painting. New commission for the 1st Riga Biennial. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Vladimir Svetlov
Site specific installation (6 monumental wall paintings, mixed media on aluminium composite panels). Approx. 433 × 186 cm each wall painting. New commission for the 1st Riga Biennial. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Vladimir Svetlov
Kerstin Hamilton, Zero Point Energy, 2016 (still)
Single-channel video, colour, sound, 18’ 39”. Supported by Hasselblad Foundation, Chalmers University of Technology, Lund University and Valand Academy. Courtesy of the artist
Single-channel video, colour, sound, 18’ 39”. Supported by Hasselblad Foundation, Chalmers University of Technology, Lund University and Valand Academy. Courtesy of the artist
1st RIGA BIENNIAL
EVERYTHING WAS FOREVER UNTIL IT WAS NO MORE
Speed is the form of ecstasy the technical revolution has bestowed on man... He is caught in a fragment of time cut off from both the past and the future; he is wrenched from the continuity of time; he is outside time...
—Milan Kundera, Slowness, 1996
Change is a constant and imperceptible process. Nothing remains the same and yet it often feels as if things are fixed, solid certainties. Change operates in strange ways. ‘Ta panta rhei’ (everything flows), the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus pointed out, meaning that: everything is constantly changing, from the smallest organic particle to the whole universe. According to him, every seemingly stable object is ultimately a figment of one’s imagination; only change itself is real, being constant and in eternal flux, like the continuous flow of the river, which always renews itself and only appears to remain the same over time. Until recently – and excluding those rarer radical moments of personal, social or political transformation – change has appeared to creep up on us slowly. But then it sometimes happens that one day we ‘wake up’ and experience a sudden break in consciousness. It abruptly dawns on us that our world has changed beyond recognition. We feel as if we have been thrust into the future, unwittingly. In recent years, and particularly since the advent of the technological revolution, it seems that even the Heraclitan constant flow of things has turned into a torrent. Our world seems to be ever accelerating. As James Gleick argues in Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything: “We have reached the epoch of the nanosecond. This is the heyday of speed”. The 1st Riga Biennial will reflect on the phenomenon of change – how it is anticipated, experienced, grasped, assimilated and dealt with at this time of accelerated transitions and the increasing speeding up of our lives.
Curators:
Katerina Gregos, Chief Curator
Solvej Helweg Ovesen, Associate Curator
Ioli Tzanetaki, Assistant Curator
Kolektīvs – Zane Zajančkauska & Ilze Kalnbērziņa Praz, Public Programme Curators
Artists:
Agency of Singular Investigations (Stanislav Shuripa, Anna Titova)
Hannah Anbert
Ēriks Apaļais
Ieva Balode
Petra Bauer + Rebecka Katz-Thor
James Beckett
Marisa Benjamim
Alexis Blake
Melanie Bonajo
Nabil Boutros
Francesco Cavaliere
Julian Charrière
Danilo Correale
Eli Cortiñas
Alexis Destoop
Mark Dion
Andris Eglītis
Ieva Epnere
Kristaps Epners
Stelios Faitakis
Aslan Gaisumov
Johanna Gustafsson-Fürst
Kerstin Hamilton
Johannes Heldén + Håkan Jonson
Femke Herregraven
Lynn Hershmann-Leeson
Saskia Holmkvist
Han Hoogerbrugge
Sasha Huber + Petri Saarikko
IC-98
Stine-Marie Jacobsen
Maryam Jafri
Sven Johne
Anne Duk Hee Jordan
Maria Kapajeva
Erik Kessels
Eve Kiiler
Jacob Kirkegaard
Karel Koplimets
Teemu Korpela
Sandra Kosorotova
Nicolas Kozakis + Raoul Vaneigem
Robert Kuśmirowski
Michael Landy
Žilvinas Landzbergas
Diana Lelonek
Paulis Liepa
Ariane Loze
Oswaldo Maciá
Taus Makhacheva
Jonas Mekas
Marge Monko
Marco Montiel-Soto
Henrike Naumann
Nikos Navridis
Katrīna Neiburga
Orbita
Trevor Paglen
Sputnik Photos
Marina Pinsky
Annaïk-Lou Pitteloud
Katarzyna Przezwańska
Minna Rainio & Mark Roberts
Luiz Roque
Julian Rosefeldt
Hans Rosenström
Jani Ruscica
Michael Sailstorfer
Tomoko Sauvage
Augustas Serapinas
Indrė Šerpytytė
Liina Siib
Emilija Škarnulytė
Nedko Solakov
Andrejs Strokins
Vladimir Svetlov
Fernando Sánchez Castillo
Diana Tamane
Valio Tchenkov
Sissel Tolaas
Julijonas Urbonas
Maarten Vanden Eynde
Ivar Veermäe
Viron Erol Vert
Adrian Villar Rojas
Clemens Von Wedemeyer
Tilman Wendland
Tobias Zielony
Jevgeni Zolotko
EVERYTHING WAS FOREVER UNTIL IT WAS NO MORE
Speed is the form of ecstasy the technical revolution has bestowed on man... He is caught in a fragment of time cut off from both the past and the future; he is wrenched from the continuity of time; he is outside time...
—Milan Kundera, Slowness, 1996
Change is a constant and imperceptible process. Nothing remains the same and yet it often feels as if things are fixed, solid certainties. Change operates in strange ways. ‘Ta panta rhei’ (everything flows), the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus pointed out, meaning that: everything is constantly changing, from the smallest organic particle to the whole universe. According to him, every seemingly stable object is ultimately a figment of one’s imagination; only change itself is real, being constant and in eternal flux, like the continuous flow of the river, which always renews itself and only appears to remain the same over time. Until recently – and excluding those rarer radical moments of personal, social or political transformation – change has appeared to creep up on us slowly. But then it sometimes happens that one day we ‘wake up’ and experience a sudden break in consciousness. It abruptly dawns on us that our world has changed beyond recognition. We feel as if we have been thrust into the future, unwittingly. In recent years, and particularly since the advent of the technological revolution, it seems that even the Heraclitan constant flow of things has turned into a torrent. Our world seems to be ever accelerating. As James Gleick argues in Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything: “We have reached the epoch of the nanosecond. This is the heyday of speed”. The 1st Riga Biennial will reflect on the phenomenon of change – how it is anticipated, experienced, grasped, assimilated and dealt with at this time of accelerated transitions and the increasing speeding up of our lives.
Curators:
Katerina Gregos, Chief Curator
Solvej Helweg Ovesen, Associate Curator
Ioli Tzanetaki, Assistant Curator
Kolektīvs – Zane Zajančkauska & Ilze Kalnbērziņa Praz, Public Programme Curators
Artists:
Agency of Singular Investigations (Stanislav Shuripa, Anna Titova)
Hannah Anbert
Ēriks Apaļais
Ieva Balode
Petra Bauer + Rebecka Katz-Thor
James Beckett
Marisa Benjamim
Alexis Blake
Melanie Bonajo
Nabil Boutros
Francesco Cavaliere
Julian Charrière
Danilo Correale
Eli Cortiñas
Alexis Destoop
Mark Dion
Andris Eglītis
Ieva Epnere
Kristaps Epners
Stelios Faitakis
Aslan Gaisumov
Johanna Gustafsson-Fürst
Kerstin Hamilton
Johannes Heldén + Håkan Jonson
Femke Herregraven
Lynn Hershmann-Leeson
Saskia Holmkvist
Han Hoogerbrugge
Sasha Huber + Petri Saarikko
IC-98
Stine-Marie Jacobsen
Maryam Jafri
Sven Johne
Anne Duk Hee Jordan
Maria Kapajeva
Erik Kessels
Eve Kiiler
Jacob Kirkegaard
Karel Koplimets
Teemu Korpela
Sandra Kosorotova
Nicolas Kozakis + Raoul Vaneigem
Robert Kuśmirowski
Michael Landy
Žilvinas Landzbergas
Diana Lelonek
Paulis Liepa
Ariane Loze
Oswaldo Maciá
Taus Makhacheva
Jonas Mekas
Marge Monko
Marco Montiel-Soto
Henrike Naumann
Nikos Navridis
Katrīna Neiburga
Orbita
Trevor Paglen
Sputnik Photos
Marina Pinsky
Annaïk-Lou Pitteloud
Katarzyna Przezwańska
Minna Rainio & Mark Roberts
Luiz Roque
Julian Rosefeldt
Hans Rosenström
Jani Ruscica
Michael Sailstorfer
Tomoko Sauvage
Augustas Serapinas
Indrė Šerpytytė
Liina Siib
Emilija Škarnulytė
Nedko Solakov
Andrejs Strokins
Vladimir Svetlov
Fernando Sánchez Castillo
Diana Tamane
Valio Tchenkov
Sissel Tolaas
Julijonas Urbonas
Maarten Vanden Eynde
Ivar Veermäe
Viron Erol Vert
Adrian Villar Rojas
Clemens Von Wedemeyer
Tilman Wendland
Tobias Zielony
Jevgeni Zolotko