Instead of simply cancelling or postponing their second edition, however, the Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art have announced that RIBOCA2: and suddenly it all blossoms will transform into a feature movie, directed by acclaimed Latvian film director Dāvis Sīmanis and chief curator Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, with Andrejs Rudzāts as director of photography. The biennial's new form will also involve the film set and an online series of talks.
If circumstances allow, the film set will be open to the public during filming from August 20 to September 13.
Originally due to open on May 16 with a five-month run, the biennial, curated by Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, would have featured 85% new commissions, which unfortunately can no longer be carried out as initially imagined under the current circumstances. Instead, the new form will centre around the unfinished exhibition, allowing RIBOCA to adapt to the great level of uncertainty in the coming months, as well as maintain its commitments to the artists involved.
Andrejsala. Courtesy of Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art
Presenting a dialogue between finished, unfinished, and absent works, the film will take place at Andrejsala, the former industrial port of Riga where the exhibition was meant to be held, and will follow the remnants of the original exhibition format. Andrejsala acts as a metaphor for the ruptures of modern utopias, Soviet ideals and capitalist hopes that form part of Latvia’s tumultuous story, anchoring the fair in its established framework of the Baltic states’ rich history and artistic landscape. If circumstances allow, the set will be open to the public for three months following filming.
The film will be introduced by a series of talks scheduled to start on May 21, in which theorists, researchers, poets and authors are invited to reflect on words such as Ends, Human, Love, Underworlds, Care, Magic, Voices, and Ghosts, as lenses through which to imagine alternative visions of our present and future. Contributors include, amongst others, Tim Ingold, Birgit Menzel, CAConrad and Marina Simakova.
