Until 20 October of this year emerging Baltic curators are invited to submit project proposals for the Award Emerging Curator!, part of the programme of the Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT 2025. The winner will have the opportunity to realise their exhibition at the Pilot Experimental Art

The Riga Photography Biennial was founded in 2015 and its programme NEXT 2025 will take place during its 10th anniversary. RPB – NEXT turns to turns to young and promising artists and curators from the Baltics, Nordic countries and Europe who are still in the early stages of their careers. The Award Emerging Curator! was initiated in 2021, and the first recipient of the award was Tīna Pētersone, curator from Latvia, with her exhibition To Fall in Love, Click Here. Meanwhile in 2023 the award was received by Laima Daberte with her exhibition Time Found.

In 2025, the decennary of the Riga Photography Biennial, for the very first time emerging curators not only from Latvia, but all three Baltic states – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – are invited to apply for the award. Through this platform, the local becomes global, presenting on the international art scene projects that will be important newcomers in the telling of current narratives. The award also serves to stimulate discussion about the importance of curator as a creative personality and mediator between artists, works of art, viewers and society within contemporary cultural processes.

In 2018, a new specialisation – Curatorial Studies – was opened under the Art Science Subprogramme at the Art Academy of Latvia. The establishment of this specialisation was determined by developments in the art scene, since curators have an important role in the art ecosystem not only as managers of these processes, but also their originators and drivers. Another motivation was students’ desire to study art history and the development of its processes not only from the conventional aspect of historical, monographic research, but also expanding the interpretative dimensions of processes in art and their connection to other creative spheres and socio-political events.

As a result of the rapid development of new technologies, we are forced to re-evaluate the meaning and message of images. Today photography is everywhere. The classical understanding of photography as an aesthetic and documentary image has been expanded by a row of other understandings that bring the necessity of becoming aware of new content. The Riga Photography Biennial and the Art Academy of Latvia offer a platform, where emerging Baltic curators can challenge themselves and offer their own perspective on these questions.

Who Can Apply?
The competition is open to applications from emerging curators from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who are at the beginning of their careers.

Application Process
1. Fill application form, providing birth data, information about the project and a description of creative biography, including education and experience.
2. Submit the description of the concept of the exhibition, a list of provisional artists and images of 10 works that give an idea about the concept of the exhibition. Images must be submitted as JPG files with longest side not exceeding 1000 px and size under 1.5 MB. Image naming rules: curator's name_surname_number. For example: anna_straume_01.jpg.
3. If the total size of the materials to be submitted exceeds 20 MB, please send the works using wetransfer.com to the address - balva@rpbiennial.com.

Timeline of Submissions and Follow-up Process
20 October 2024 – application deadline day
19 November 2024 – announcement of the winner
May 2025 – opening of the exhibition at the Pilot Experimental Art Space of the Art Academy of Latvia (Vāgnera iela 3, Riga https://www.lma.lv/en/academy/pilot ) as part of Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT 2025.

The competition will be juried by curator, artist, critic and creative director of Publics curatorial platform Paul O'Neill (IE), curator, director of PhD Studies at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, Julija Fomina (LT), curator, lecturer and researcher at the Estonian Academy of Art, Triin Metsla (EE), art historian, curator, AAL vice-rector, Antra Priede (LV) and programme director at the Riga Photography Biennial, Inga Brūvere (LV).

Preparation of the Exhibition
The organisers of the competition will contact the winner to coordinate the preparation of the exhibition. The curator will receive a grant of 1500 EUR and expenses related to the preparation of the exhibition (artist fee, travel and accommodation expenses, transportation of works, publicity, expenses related to the installation of the exhibition and other expenses to be determined during preparation) will also be covered.

Copyright
By submitting their work to the competition the participant agrees that the Riga Photography Biennial, Art Academy of Latvia Experimental Art Space PILOT and third parties (mass media) may use these works without remuneration for the promotion of NEXT 2025 and the competition as well as in publicity materials related to NEXT 2025 and the competition. Copyright remains the property of the artists.

Image: View from the exhibition To Fall in Love, Click Here. Curator Tīna Pētersone. Riga Photography Biennial-NEXT 2021