A new biennial for the Baltics and Nordic region to launch in Riga in 2018

The inaugural edition of the Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA) will launch in Latvia in June 2018. RIBOCA has appointed Katarina Gregos as chief curator of the event and will be launching the concept for the biennial this spring.

RIBOCA plans to commission a significant number of artists who were born in, or live and work in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuanina, “a territory which still remains relatively unexplored despite its prolific artistic production.” The identity for the event is designed by London-based studio Wiedemann Lampe.

“Taking the rich history of Riga and the Baltic states as its underlying framework, the Biennial highlights the artistic landscape of the wider region and creates opportunities for artists to enter into dialogue with the cultural, historical and socio-political context of the city and its geographic surrounds,” says the organising body. “Taking into account criticisms of the proliferation of biennial culture, or ‘biennialisation’ as it has been called, RIBOCA aims to create a sustainable model based on best practices that prioritise artists, artistic production and the meticulous presentation and mediation of art. The biennial is based on a working process that starts from the local, expanding to the national and the regional, and finally to the transnational. The biennial aims to take root and make roots in the place where it is situated. “