The Riga Photography Biennial 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 21st 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.
This year, the Riga Photography Biennial is taking place for the
fifth time, and, continuing to follow the development of image
culture, the programme of the Riga Photography Biennial 2024 focuses
on issues of identity - a range of existential questions, including
the impact of technology on human nature, the relationship between
man and nature, as well as the informative code of the contemporary
image.