EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME PARTICIPANTS

Jan Babnik (1977) currently works as an editor, curator, lecturer, and writer. He is the Editor in Chief of Membrana and Fotografija (www.membrana.org), two Slovenian-based journals on photography, and the Director of Membrana Institute, which publishes the journals, runs a school on photography theory and criticism, and organises exhibitions. His theoretical preoccupations are photographic theory (specifically documentary photography), discourse on photography, and the philosophy of visual culture. Babnik has edited more than 30 editions of Fotografija and Membrana, and numerous translations of theoretical works on photography in Slovenian. He has collaborated with several publishing houses as a writer, curated and co-curated several exhibitions, participated in various international conferences on photography, and has been a guest lecturer at several universities in Slovenia and abroad. Babnik holds a MPhil in Phenomenology and the History of Philosophy from the University of Ljubljana and a PhD in the Philosophy of Visual Culture from the University of Primorska. His PhD research focused on the rise of participatory photography practices at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries and their relationship to documentary photography traditions and participatory documentary practices.

Pēteris Bankovskis (1952) graduated from the University of Latvia with a degree in English Philology and has amongst others worked for the newspapers Padomju jaunatne (Soviet Youth), Literatūra un māksla (Literature and Art). In the late Soviet era, he became active in the field of art criticism and journalism; he was a member of the Latvian Artists' Union at a time when it was still relevant and participated in the legendary Art Days events, as well as in several art actions together with artists. He has written numerous forewords for catalogues and hundreds of exhibition reviews and critical reflections continuing this practice to the present day. He is the author of the book Palimpsest about the history of art collection in Latvia.

Irēna Bužinska (1955) has received an MA from the Art Academy of Latvia. Since 1977, she has been working at the Latvian National Museum of Art, currently as exhibition curator. She has published more than 300 articles on Latvian art history and contemporary art exhibitions. Since 1989, she has focused on the research of Latvian art history, especially on the legacy of Voldemārs Matvejs, and the activities of artists-photographers, which resulted in the exhibition Hybrid Overflights. The Artist as Photographer. Mid 19th century – 2010, LNMM, Arsenāls Exhibition Hall (2011) and an exhibition of 19th century art photo reproductions at the Art Museum Riga Bourse (2019). Curator of several photography exhibitions by Voldemārs Matvejs, Inta Ruka, Andrejs Grants, Egons Spuris, Aivis Šmulders, Valdis Celms, Atis Ieviņš. Currently, her focus is on the use of photomontage in the 1920s-30s press in Latvia, as well as amateur photo postcards. The book Vladimir Markov and Russian Primitivism: A Charter for the Avant-Garde (in collaboration with Z. S. Strother and Jeremy Howard) has been published by Ashgate (USA, 2015, 2nd edition 2019).

Indrek Grigor (1981) works as a curator at the Tartu Art Museum. He is an art critic for several publications in the Baltic States, a host of the Ministry of Art radio programme on Estonian National Radio, and is occasionally a lecturer at universities in Estonia and Latvia. Grigor has studied semiotics and art history at the University of Tartu and has been a gallery manager at Tartu Art House. In 2020, he co-edited the book, Silver Girls. Retouched History of Photography with Šelda Puķīte, which is a collection of early female photographers from Estonia and Latvia. In 2021, Grigor was the Editor of Estonian photographer Alan Proosa’s book Stories of Love, Bloom, Lust and Loss.

Deniss Hanovs (1977), Dr.art., Professor at Rīga Stradiņš University until 2021, currently a Professor at the Art Academy of Latvia. Hanovs was born in Riga and studied at the Department of Cross-Cultural Communication at the Latvian Academy of Culture. In 2003, he successfully completed a viva voce examination of his dissertation Citizenship of the Nation: Baltic Gazette 1868-1906. His research interests include: globalisation processes in Europe and Latvia; intercultural dialogue; integration processes and civic participation; authoritarian culture and the 18th century opera and court culture. From 2019-2021, Hanovs was the Manager of the “Inclusive Political Education for Migrants AIPOL” project in Berlin that was supported by the German Chancellery. He is the author of several scientific articles, monographs, and teaching aids on integration issues. He hosts the programme Kuļtprosvet on integration policy on Radio Baltkom and produces programmes on the history of European opera for Latvian Radio 3 Classic.

Gábor Arion Kudász (1978) is a photographer and Associate Professor at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. Kudász’s work incorporates staged and fictional elements into documentary photography. He strongly believes that an artist's intention to tell the truth justifies their actions and that manipulation is necessary for a deeper understanding of truth within the image. Since 2000, Kudász has been interested in various topics related to human presence. His landscape-oriented works dealt with the urban development, environmental issues, and tourism until 2010 when, triggered by a family tragedy, he took a sharp turn and radicalised his approach to the image as a document by focusing on private histories and the workings of memory. The current focus of his work is the interplay of human ambition and technology. He investigates why and how an individual takes part in the larger actions of society. Kudász studied photography at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, where he was offered a position following his studies. His works have received several awards and scholarships, among them the Balogh Rudolf award of the Hungarian Republic in 2013, the Robert Capa Photography Grand Prize in 2015, and the scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of the Arts in 2018.

Vita Liberte (1975) is a graduate of New York University and an Attorney at Law with more than 20 years of experience in the field of professional consulting services. She is also an art patron and a collector. In 2020, she founded the BDO Young Artists Award with the aim of supporting young artists after they complete their postgraduate studies in visual arts, audio-visual media, or design. In 2018, Liberte founded VV Foundation, a private non-profit organisation rooted in its three founders' interest in the art world. The Foundation’s mission is to promote contemporary art and art education in Latvia by supporting artists, cooperating with other institutions, as well as by purchasing works of art by contemporary artists. In 2021, VV Foundation launched an interdisciplinary artist residency in Pāvilosta.
Liberte supports cinema (she was one of the Producers of the film Mona, 2012), the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO), the Youth Choir Balsis, and Kim? Contemporary Art Centre.

Agra Lieģe-Doležko (1988) is a publicist, journalist, and feminist with professional experience in marketing, public relations, and content development. Lieģe-Doležko has a 1-year-old son and has focused on the topic of motherhood in her texts and publications since becoming a mother. She writes the column 9 mēneši (9 Months) for the online magazine Satori where she reflects on motherhood, what it means in today's world and in the lives of contemporary women. Lieģe-Doležko regularly writes for Punctum, Mans mazais, and publishes elsewhere, focusing mainly on issues of gender equality. Together with another new mother, illustrator Elīna Brasliņa, and her friend Elīna Bērziņa, Lieģe-Doležko hosts the Instagram account @my_first_year_too where they post stories about mothers and their experiences in the first year of motherhood. This project is rooted in the belief that the experience of motherhood deserves to be heard and receive a more direct and fair representation.

Artūrs Miksons (1988) is a psychotherapist and provides clinical work with patients. He is a lecturer and a dissertation supervisor at Rīga Stradiņš University. Miksons actively works on communicating with society, companies, organisations about and around mental health, highlights socially relevant issues, helps explain human behaviour and emotional reactions and their relationship to physical health.

Moritz Neumüller, Ph.D. (1972) is a curator, educator, and writer in the field of photography and new media. He has worked in research and management positions for international institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York), La Fábrica (Madrid), and PhotoIreland (Dublin). He is currently the Chief Curator of Photobook Week Aarhus in Denmark. Neumüller has run The Curator Ship since 2010 – a platform that provides useful information for visual artists. At the same time, he started the ArteConTacto project to improve access to arts and culture. From 2016-2019, Neumüller was the Communication Manager of the award-winning EU-project ARCHES.

Kateryna Radchenko (1984) works as a curator, photographer, and photography researcher. She is a Founder and Director of the international festival Odesa Photo Days since 2015 and has studied photography in fellowship and residence programs at Villa Arson (Nice), Gaude Polonia (Warsaw), and the Museum of Photographic Arts (San Diego). Radchenko has curated exhibitions in Ukraine, South Korea, Sweden, Georgia, France, and Latvia. She is the author of articles published in several international magazines and on online platforms, such as Fotograf, Magenta, EIKON and FOAM Magazine. She has participated in different photo festivals as a portfolio reviewer – Riga Photo Month, Lodz Photo Festival, Suwon Photo Festival, and Photo Wien.

Astrida Rogule (1960) holds a master's degree in art and museology from the Art Academy of Latvia and the University of Leicester. She is an Assistant Professor at the Latvian Academy of Culture where she creates and teaches courses about the contemporary art market, museology, museum marketing, public relations, cultural management, etc.

Rogule has worked with museums since 1981. She has created and participated in many art and culture exhibitions and catalogues as a curator both in Latvia and abroad (in Italy, Belgium, France, Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Poland, Estonia, and Lithuania), including in the Latvian exposition at the 54th International Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia. She has worked with celebrated artists like Antony Gormley (UK), Braco Dimitrijević (Croatia / France) and Christian Boltanski (France), curating their solo exhibitions in Latvia. Rogule is the Manager of the National Library of Latvia’s first international book exhibition 1514.Book.2014 and the Academic Reading Project.

She has published more than 300 articles and studies on the history of art, criticism, and exhibition management in both Latvian and foreign publications. She is a member of the International Council of Museums and the Artists' Union of Latvia.

Vilma Samulionytė (1978) graduated from Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania in 2002 and from FAMU film and TV school in the Czech Republic in 2009. After finishing an internship in Turkey, she worked as a photographer in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia for two years. Upon her return to Vilnius, she started to work for the Lithuanian Photographers’ Association as a curator and as the programmer for the international photography symposium “NIDA. Meeting Photography”.

Together with artist Gytis Skudzinskas, Samulionytė created the self-publishing initiative NoRoutine Books in 2014, which has become successful in publishing limited edition books on Lithuanian and international artists. As an artist, Samulionytė is actively engaged in the field of conceptual photography, questioning the rituals of society, inheritance, memory, and habit.

Raivis Sīmansons (1978), PhD, is one of the Co-Founders of the Creative Museum think tank. The think tank provides research on the history of Latvian museums and current processes with a focus on innovations and how museums cooperate with the creative industries.

Līga Spunde (1990) was born in Riga, Latvia. Her works are often created as multimedia installations in which personal stories are closely intertwined with deliberately construed fictions. By casting a wide and yet, at the same time, fine thematic network, Spunde’s works contain references to different periods and symbols. The precision of interpretation together with newly acquired contexts become an extension of personal experience touching on well-known truths. Her works are executed using a variety of materials and media. Spunde has participated in several exhibitions and art projects in Latvia and abroad: No Blessing for Evil Will Come (Being Safe is Scary, Survival Kit 11, 2020, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga); When Hell Is Full, the Dead Will Walk the Earth (Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, 2019); Champs-Élysées (427 Gallery, Riga, 2019); Interlude, in collaboration with Alvis Misjuns (Riga Circus Elephant Stables, KVADRIFRONS, Riga), 2018; Screen Age I: Self-Portrait (Riga Art Space, Riga, 2018); Free French Fries (Komplot, Belgium, 2017); NNN (LNMA, Riga), 2017, etc.

Antonina Stebur (1984) works as a curator, researcher, and art historian. She holds an MA in Visual and Cultural Studies from the European Humanities University. Stebur is a Co-Founder of #damaudobnayavbytu (“lady, comfortable in everyday life”), a project on gender discrimination in Belarus and other post-Soviet countries, and a Co-Founder of Spaika.media, a research platform about activist political art and performance. Stebur is one of the co-authors of The History of Belarusian Photography together with Hanna Samarskaya. She curated the exhibition Every Day. Art. Solidarity. Resistance (Ukraine) in 2021, The Month of Photography in Minsk in 2019 (Belarus), the exhibition Independence Day (China) in 2018 among others.

Andrejs Strokins (1984) is a Latvian photographer living and working in Riga. He works in various fields of documentary photography and utilises vernacular photography and found image archives. He holds a bachelor's degree from the Graphics Department of the Art Academy of Latvia and has participated in several ISSP Summer School masterclasses, the Sputnik Mentorship Programme, and the Joop Swart Masterclass. He has participated in group exhibitions and solo exhibitions in Latvia and abroad: the Latvian Museum of Photography, 2015; the Baltic Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, 2016; Riga Photography Biennial, 2016; Unseen Amsterdam Festival, 2016; Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, 2017 (Riga); the Latvian National Museum of Art, 2017; Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, 2018; the Contemporary Art Festival SURVIVAL KIT, 2109. Strokins has received several awards, including Foam Talent in 2016. In 2017, the association Orbīta published Strokins' first book Palladium that features a photo archive of a Soviet-era cinema in Latvia of the same name.

Pavel Vančát (1976) is a curator and writer based in Prague. He is a member of the editorial board of Fotograf Magazine, and is the Project Curator of the StartPoint Prize for European Art Graduates since 2008. He has published several monographs on Jan Svoboda, Miroslav Tichý, and other artists, and curated dozens of contemporary art, photography, and visual culture exhibitions, like Mutating Medium: Photography in Czech Art 1990-2010, Rudolfinum Gallery (Prague) 2011, Photography, Reconstructed, PragueBiennale (Prague), 2013, Images of the Ends of History: Czech visual culture 1985-1995, UPM (Prague) 2019, and Jan Svoboda: Against the Light, Photographers’ Gallery (London), 2020. He was the Head Curator of the Fotograf Festival in Prague in 2019 and a Co-Curator of m3 Sculpture Festival in 2020.

Māris Vītols (1972) lives in Riga. He is an entrepreneur and a contemporary art collector who manages international cultural projects and curates exhibitions. He is the Director of the Association of Latvian Culture Centres since 2015. Vītols and his wife Irina Vītola have collected contemporary art since the turn of the millennium. The core of their art collection is comprised of contemporary art from Central and Eastern Europe post 1989. Exploring social and political change and cultural diversity in the region, the collection covers a variety of visual arts media and spans the period from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the present day.

Vītols has curated the following exhibitions, among others: Dance at the Lonely Hearts Club by Kaido Ole at the Latvian National Museum of Art (Riga), 2019; Švente by Jānis Avotiņš at Galerija Vartai, (Vilnius), 2018; Blindspots by Artur Żmijewski at Pauls Stradiņš Museum of the History of Medicine (Riga), 2017; Paraphrases at Galerija Vartai (Vilnius), 2015; Archaeology of Memories by Deimantas Narkevičius at The Corner House (Riga) 2015; White Lines – on the Earth, Dark Lines – in the Sky by Olga Chernysheva at Riga Art Space (Riga), 2014. Vītols has collaborated with several magazines and publications including magazinszum.pl, echogonewrong.com, Arterritory.com, sirp.ee, Acta medico-historica Rigensia (AMHR).

Anna Žabicka (1988) is a social anthropologist. She holds a master’s degree in anthropology from Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) and Wayne State University (Detroit) and is currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of Vienna where she is researching ageing, care, and fictional futures of the Latvian countryside. She teaches postgraduate students in anthropology at RSU.