The Riga Photography Biennial NEXT 2023 publication

The Riga Photography Biennial NEXT 2023 publication explores “awkward topics” people often avoid talking about as they spark negative emotions and bitter conflicts with its main focus on the ongoing war in Ukraine. Ukrainian visual culture researcher, writer, and curator Kateryna Iakovlenko in her essay Exactly That Body: Images Against Oppression reflects on “sensitive” images and how they can unite and empower those who experience violence directly. The catalogue exhibition Safe Light curated by Evita Goze and Yulia Krivich features nine young Ukrainian artists, acknowledging photography as a tool which constructs and shapes national identities, nurtures resistance, documents war crimes and can also be used as a coping mechanism during wartime in order to hold on to one's sanity. Art historian and art critic Ugnė Marija Makauskaitė introduces the winner of the Seeking the Latest in Photography! Award 2023 Lithuanian photographer Ieva Baltaduonytė. Curator Tīna Pētersone interviews the winner of the Emerging Curator! prize Laima Daberte. The generously illustrated publication also provides more information on the Biennial’s exhibitions, events and artists.

Title:  Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT 2023 publication
Publisher: Riga Photography Biennial, www.rpbiennial.com
Language: English and Latvian
Cover image: Ieva Baltaduonytė, from the series Uprooted, 2022- Riga, 2023
Release date: 2023