Everything you need to know about Riga

This is everything you need to know about Riga.

With the proliferation of biennials, a state which has been termed as ‘biennialisation’, do we really need another one? ‘Why do you need another book, another film, another piece of music? Why do you need any more of anything?’ Katerina Gregos, curator of the inaugural RIBOCA, emphatically states. ‘For me it’s better to have a proliferation of cultural production than to have a proliferation of football or a stupid hollywood movie.’

At their best, a biennial can bring together disparate ideas and a wide variety of artistic disciplines from different regions around the world to make a cohesive statement. And the first RIBOCA, titled Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More, certainly lives up to this premise.

‘The more meaningful biennials are the ones that engage with the place, the space, the geopolitical dynamics of the city, the country, and the region,’ asserts Gregos.

Not wanting to ‘parachute in and out’ as Gregos puts it, RIBOCA is all about creating a sustainable biennial model that prioritises artists and artistic production. Set up by Russian-Lithuanian Agniya Mirgorodskaya as a global platform for Baltic and international artists, the intention is to take root in Riga and yet be globally reflective, increasing the dialogue between a long overlooked region with the rest of the world.