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 21 st century.
The biennial covers issues ranging from cultural theory to current socio-political processes in
the Baltics and the wider European region. Using the format of an art festival, Riga
Photography Biennial attempts to record changes taking place all over the world and invites
us to collectively interpret them – something we not only need to see but also imagine
whilst translating the complicated and oversaturated contemporary visual language into
meaningful relationships between our daily reality, the camera lens, historic material,
contemporary art, technologies and the future. How has our understanding of photography
and image changed because of digital technologies, and how does it manifest itself in the
work of art? For the organisers of the biennial these are important questions to present
and analyse, whilst at the same time introducing Latvian audiences to leading works of
international art as well as the ideas of prominent art theoreticians presented in the form of
symposiums, discussions and publications in parallel with exhibitions and performances.
The first Riga Photography Biennial took place in 2016. It was followed by the Off-Year
Programme in 2017 focusing on emerging artists.
The second Riga Photography Biennial begins in April 2018 and will continue to run for the
rest of the year as part of a wider programme celebrating the centenary of the Republic of
Latvia. The programme of the biennial will consist of two parts: exhibitions across several
indoor and outdoor venues in Riga, Liepāja, Cēsis, Daugavpils, Tartu (Estonia), and Moscow
(Russia), as well as an education programme with discussions, presentations by artists, a
multidisciplinary symposium and other activities.
The identity of Riga Photography Biennial 2018 – ‘I Like Your Face’
In the post-internet era when the prospect of becoming a unicorn, cardinal, gourmet,
mythical being or Instagram hipster is just a few clicks away, self-awareness and
the continuous redefining of who we are in different contexts, how others perceive us, and
who we wish to be, has become imperative. The performance of looking and the image have
become integral parts in self-representation and communication. On social media we often
‘like’ something – but what does it really mean? What do we see and what is imagined? And
what exactly is it that we ‘like’? Just as in physical reality we encounter many ‘faces’ daily,
our digital reality is also populated by countless faces that enter our consciousness. Thus the
metaphor of face becomes an important part of identity. ‘Face’ as a mask/role we put on
every day to communicate ourselves to the rest of the world and ‘face’ as a reality/image
we see when we look at the face of the other, which according to a French philosopher
Emanuel Levinas is most fragile and vulnerable, and thereby invites us into a relationship
with the other. However, is it possible to interact with the other without categorising and
thematising – simply by candidly liking? The biennial examines these relationship issues by
looking at how human expressions such as emotions, pain and empathy survive in the modern context of technologies, and how imagined belonging to some other reality co-
exists with social identities.