PARTICIPANTS

Armands Andže (1988) has been working in analog photography since 2008. A great part of his work is related to researching historical photographic processes and trying to find a more modern and more ecological approach towards them. As part of his MA studies, Andže is researching historic photographic printmaking techniques. He mostly works with large-format glass plate cameras and uses various forms of light-sensitive materials – self-made glass plates, scientific materials, daguerreotypes, etc. His main interest lies in landscape photography, particularly its social and psychological aspects, as well as the way in which the presence of landscape influences us on a collective level. He has participated in several art residencies and led workshops on different disciplines of photography.

Ieva Baltaduonyte (1988) is an emerging lens based artist and graduate of the Photography BA programme at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Informed by her own personal experience of displacement, her work engages with topics and issues relating to migratory culture. Ieva is currently based in Lithuania, where she very recently returned after seventeen years of living in abroad in Dublin, Ireland. Transnational migration is perhaps the most highly contested issue across Europe. For new migrants spatial and temporal displacement is potentially traumatic, resulting in shifting identities where home can no longer be understood as a fixed knowable entity. Ieva is preoccupied with revealing personal and collective narratives where trauma, memory and identity encourage a deeper engagement with cross-cultural dialogue. By using photography for both personal expression and to foster a critical dialogue with contemporary society, she invites the viewer to participate in societal debates, foregrounding human experiences, and exposing what is otherwise obscured or ignored. Her carefully constructed projects combine politics and aesthetics inviting a dialogical relationship with the viewer.

Adele Bea Cipste (1998) is an UAE-based visual artist working primarily in drawing and photography. She holds a BA in Art Practice and Film Practice from NYU Abu Dhabi (2022). Her place-focused artworks explore intersections between the natural and the constructed, highlight the affective power of physical environments, and reflect on how spaces act as agents of memory. Currently, her core focus is on producing new works that would evolve from specific sites within the UAE and from the idiosyncrasies of the UAE’s physical environments, as well as works which reflect on her changing relationship to Latvia in the context of emigration. In 2023, she has participated in a series of workshops at Jameel Arts Centre with the Palestinian artist Jumana Emil Abboud, in the “Spectrum” photography residency at Manarat Al Saadiyat, and the exhibition “Getting Over the Color Green” with the art platform Engage101. She is currently working at Gulf Photo Plus, one of the leading photography centres in the Gulf region.

Laima Daberte (1991) is currently enrolled in the Curatorial Studies MA program at the Latvian Academy of Arts. She holds a BA in Sculpture from the Academy as well as a BA in Architecture from the Riga Technical University. She has participated in metal casting and stone sculpture symposiums held in Latvia and created objects exhibited in the urban environment.

Teresa Faleiro(1992) is a Lisbon-based artist working in installation and graphic art. She has studied Visual Art at the Faculdade de belas-artes da universidade de Lisboa and the ArCo - Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual. She has participated in a number of residencies and projects to date, and her works have been exhibited in Portugal and elsewhere in Europe, including La Casa de Velázquez in Madrid, Spain.

Kristaps Freimanis (1995) is a multimedia artist. His interdisciplinary activities feature an interplay of urban motifs, accidents and appearances. He studied at the Motion. Image. Sound Department of the Art Academy of Latvia. His soundscapes are created by processing and synthesizing audio fragments recorded in the environment.

Kaspars Groševs an artist and curator. In 2014, he co-founded 427 Gallery, an open and experimental art space interested in creative communities, twisted minds, confabulations, and exciting art practices. Groševs has exhibited at the Cēsis Center for Contemporary Art, the Latvian National Art Museum in Riga, Editorial in Vilnius, darkZone in New Jersey, No Moon and Art in General in New York, Futura in Prague, BOZAR in Brussels, Shanaynay in Paris, SIC in Helsinki, Kim? Contemporary Art Center in Riga, etc. Groševs has curated exhibitions at the Latvian National Art Museum in Riga (2023), Garage Gallery (2023) and City Surfer Office (2022) in Prague, Skulptur Institut in Vienna (2022), Kim? Contemporary Art Center in Riga (2020, 2019, 2015), P/////AKT in Amsterdam (2020), Polansky Gallery Brno (2019), as well as in various off-spaces in Riga. Groševs started experimenting with music inthe late 90s and he has been a program host at radio NABA since 2003. He started collaborating with the cassette label No Sex Just Talk in 2017.

Daniel Vincent Hansen (1991) lives and works in Trondheim, Norway. He finished his masters at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in 2017, and has since shown his works at Babel Visningsrom and Fotogalleriet in Norway, and Artothek & Bildersaal in Germany, among others. In his work he often plays with novel technology, such as infrared photography, to tell stories of different places or objects, both living and dead. The resulting artworks blend fibs with facts, in anachronistic texts and manipulated images, with the intention to unsettle the viewer's gaze. Through his practice he explores the origins, borders and shortcomings of established western narratives that aim to make the world a comprehensible place by writing its history. With a focus on places too immense for any stories to contain them, he wishes to open up for new ways of understanding these spaces and the vibrant things inhabiting them.

Hedi Jaansoo (1989) is an artist and a photographer based in Tallinn, Estonia. She graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts in Contemporary Art (MA, 2018) and Photography (BA, 2014). She also studied at Bergen Academy of Art and Design (2012/13). Jaansoo works with fragilities, weaknesses, tensions and beauties, among other – mainly small – things. Her recent work combines photography, flowers, textiles and vases, non-functional jewellery, unfinished thoughts and uncertain decisions, (be)longing and acceptance. She is inspired by grandmothers. She tries not to harm the environment too much. Her most recent show was Kimbutab in collaboration with Marje Üksine and curated by Kaisa Maasik at Rüki gallery in Viljandi, Estonia.

Michalina Kacperak (1993) is Polish photographer whose artistic practice engages both documentary and fine arts. She holds a master's degree in philosophy. She's a student at Film School in Lodz in the field of photography. She applies many imaging techniques, from digital through analogue photography to collages and using archives. The most important part of her work is devoted to personal, complex stories which bring up the themes related to childhood, memory, so-cial exclusion and identity in the broad sense. Laureate of the 12th edition of Circulation(s) festival in Paris (2022). Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at venues such as: Bi-alystok Interphoto Festival (2021), the Fringe section of the Photomonth in Krakow (2022), Frames of Sopot Festival (2022) and Titanikas Exhibition Halls in Vilnius (2022). Her project Soft spot has been published in OVER Journal (2022) and awarded first prize in the Bartur PhotoAward in the Ann Lesley Bar-Tur Student category (2022).

Solvita Krese is a curator with extensive local and international experience. She lives and works in Riga and has been the director of the Latvian Center for Contemporary Art (LCCA) since 2000. She has curated and co-curated numerous large-scale international exhibitions, including Mobile Museum, at the former textile factory Bolševička (2021); James Gallery, CUNY, New York, (2019); Unexpected encounters, exhibition hall Arsenāls, Riga, (2019); Portable Landscapes, LNMM, Riga (2018); Den Frie Art Center, Copenhagen; Academy. Performing life, Villa Vassilieff; Paris (2018); Identity. Behind the curtain of uncertainty, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, (2016); Re: visited, Riga Art Space, Riga (2014); Telling tales, National Art Gallery, Vilnius; KUMU, Tallinn; CentrePasquArt, Biel (2014); Alternativa, Wyspa, Gdańsk (2013); Mobile Museum, Riga (2007); Trespassers. Contemporary art from the 80s, LNMM, Riga (2005); Body in the Baltic photography, Berlin (2005); Faster than history, Kiasma, Helsinki (2004), etc. In 2009, she started the contemporary art festival Survival Kit; and was its curator and co-curator until 2019. She curated the Latvian pavilion at the 59th Venice Art Biennale (2022) and was the commissioner of the Latvian pavilion at the 56th and 58th Venice Biennale (2015; 2019).

Sasha Kurmaz (1986) currently lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine. In 2008 graduated from the National Academy of Culture and Arts Management in Kyiv. Kurmaz is an interdisciplinary artist, in his artistic practice, he studies various models of interaction with public space, social groups and communities as well as explores the changing relationship between human beings and the modern world. He uses different media to work with these issues, such as photography, video, public intervention, and performative situations. In most of his works, he plays a game of de-powering power structures as well as examines the tension between the citizen and the State. Kurmaz has participated in many international group exhibitions and festivals. Sasha Kurmaz is the winner of Kasimir Malevich Award 2020.

Ieva Maslinskaitė (1999) is an interdisciplinary artist fro Lithuania with a strong base in photography making work surrounding ecology. She lives and works between Vilnius, Lithuania, and the Netherlands. Driven by the belief that moving towards being ecological requires destabilizing our binary thinking towards the environment, Maslinskaitė's interest lies in co-creating with other species, such as microorganisms or fungi as well as organic and artificial processes to make temporary and mutating installations, sculptures, and other image-based works. Her approach to photography is one that aims to dismantle the medium from an anthropocentric perspective and put it back together again through an ecocentric perspective, which often requires counteracting contemporary image culture's aims of being fixed, reproducible, and permanent. Currently, Maslinskaitė is in the graduating year of her Bachelor of Photography studies at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague.

Sergey Melnitchenko (1991) started photography in 2009. In 2018 – founder of school of conceptual and art pho-tography MYPH. In recent years, took part in more than 150 solo and group exhibitions, fairs and festivals around the world. Winner of Ukrainian and international awards including “Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer” in 2017 (Berlin), “Photographer of the Year” in 2012, 2013 and 2016 (Kyiv, Ukraine), “Golden Camera” in 2012 (Kyiv, Ukraine). Shortlisted for Krakow Photomonth in 2013 and Pinchuk Art Center Prize in 2015, among others. Partic-ipant of “Paris Photo”, “Volta Art Fair”, “Photo L.A.”, Photo Basel, Unseen fair etc. Nominat-ed for the “Foam Paul Huf Award” in 2020. From 2022 part of the “Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung” foundation (Münich, Germany). Part of “FUTURES PHOTOGRAPHY” platform in 2022. Works are in private and public collections in USA, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, Belgium, Russia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Japan, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland etc.

Visvaldas Morkevičus (1990) is working between photography, installation and audiovisual mediums. Photography seems to be one of the most accurate mediums for reproducing reality. But even if a picture looks accurate or realistic, it can as easily manipulate the sense of reality and image per-ception. Images can be visual, acoustic, motoric, sensoric and many more things and forms. An image of objects, phenomena, events, that arise in one’s memory or imagination is a res-toration of a previous perception or experience mixed with the context of the moment it's seen. In my work, these ideas are explored in practice through the subjects-objects relation, subconsciousness, self-intangibility, dreams and fiction. My works are self-analytic and inti-mate. I use anthropological photographs, ordinary snapshots, constructed images, objects or different contexts. By using a variety of Low-Fi and Hi-Fi aesthetics I’m working with materi-als ranging from classical analog to modern digital tools. In this way, I manipulate the sense of time in my works and their perception. Collaborated with: L'UOMO Vogue, Dazed digital, i-D online, Zeit Campus, NEON magazin, Nido, "Let it Go", secretthirteen.org, Granvat, Stroom records and others.

Zuzana Pustaiová (1990) started her interest in visual arts with painting but soon switched to photography, which she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia, and University of Ap-plied Sciences in Bielefeld, Germany. She completed her doctoral degree in arts in January 2022 and become the Doctor of Arts. In her artworks, Pustaiová explores role-playing in con-temporary society as a principal element that forms the relationships between family mem-bers, relatives, friends, or other diverse social groups. With a sense of wit, humor and irony, she uncovers the cultural stereotypes related to gender, age, tradition, and social inclusion. She has received numerous awards in contemporary photography (Grand Prix at the Rovinj Photodays 2021, finalist at the Images Vevey, finalist at the Grand Prix Bialystok Interphoto 2021, 1st Prize at the Rovinj Photodays 2018, finalist for the Lucie Foundation Scholarship in Los Angeles 2017, etc.), and in 2018 she was named Slovak Photographer of the Year. Pusta-iová lives and works in Levice and in Bratislava.

Maija Rudovska is an independent curator, researcher, and art critic. She has more than 10 years of experience working with projects both abroad and in Latvia. Rudovska obtained a BA as a visual arts teacher at the University of Latvia (2006) and a master's degree in art history at the Art Academy of Latvia (2009). She has built upon her knowledge through postgraduate curatorial studies in the Curatorlab program, Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm (2009/2010). Rudovska has curated exhibitions and projects as part of the Manifesta Biennale (Marseille), Futura Gallery (Prague), Foundation Ricard (Paris), Bozar Center for Fine Arts (Brussels), Kim? Contemporary Art Center (Riga), Moderna Museet (Malmo) and elsewhere. Since 2011, she has been running the platform Blind Carbon Copy, which creates sustainable collaborations between curators, artists, and other creatives. Rudovska’s publications have appeared in such magazines and online platforms as ArtForum, FlashArt, SelectionArts, Calvert, Guardian, Echo Gone Wrong, etc. In recent years, she has been involved in training and mentoring the new generation of artists and curators in Latvian art institutions.

Agnieszka Sejud (1991) is a visual artist, activist and member of the artistic duo KWAS. She graduated from the Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics of the University of Wrocław and from the Institute of Creative Photography at the Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic. Sejud uses various media to explore different aspects of human identity, the idea of individual freedom, and systems of oppression constraining people’s independence. The artist’s prac-tice includes photography, digital and analogue collage, books and zines, videoart and instal-lations. Her vision of the world is vivid, kaleidoscopic and psychedelic. Sejud often employs deformations and deconstruction of imagery to illustrate her purposes and ideas. Her works have been exhibited internationally.

Inuuteq Storch (1989) lives and works in Greenland. He is a graduate of the International Center of Photog-raphy in New York and of Fatamorgana school of photography in Copenhagen. Inuuteqs work is wide in genres, but the content has common in being about the identity of coming from Greenland. He has exhibited in Greenland, Denmark, The United States, Norway, Swe-den, Finland, Iceland, Canada and Colombia. Inuuteq published the photobooks Porcelain Souls (2018, Konnotation), Flesh (2019, Disko Bay) and (2021, Roulette Russe), Keepers of the Ocean (2022, Disko Bay)

Elena Subach (1980) is a Ukrainian visual artist and photographer. Born in Chervonohrad, Ukraine. Currently based in Lviv, Ukraine. Elena studied economics and received her master`s degree in Volyn State University in Ukraine before she turned to photography. In an auto-didactic way, she developed her own unique vision on Ukrainian visual culture. In her artistic practice, Elena is concerned with questioning religion, tradition, the construction of history and the consequences of soviet colonial pasts. Since 2018, Elena has developed these ideas in her project on Grandmothers on the Edge of Heaven, for which she is researching and photographing crowded religious celebrations and ceremonies in Ukraine. The urge to show this rich Ukrainian heritage through an artistic eye is present in everything she captures and the inspiration she gets from her motherland is endless. She has received awards such as the New East Photo Prize (2016) and the Gaude Polonia Scholarship (2019) while her photographs have been published in numerous magazines including British Journal of Photography, Weltkunst, Vogue Poland, the Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung and many others. Her work has been shown at international exhibitions, most recently at the Willy Brandt House in Berlin, the World Bank in Washington DC, the Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation in Warsaw, Tycho Brahe Museum in Ven, Sweden (2022), Kunstforum Wien, Austria (2022) and MUZA- Eretz Israel Museum in Tel-Aviv (2022). She participated in Odesa Photo Days Festival 2021 (UA), Circulations Festival 2018 (FR), Fotofestival Lodz 2019 (PL), Landscrona Fotofestival 2022(SW) and Noorderlicht International Photo Festival 2022. Her project Hidden, which raises the theme of protecting cultural heritage in a war-torn country, was published by Besides Press in 2022.

Diāna Tamane (1986) works between Tartu and Riga. Her works are based on personal stories that mostly take shape by collecting and assembling her own daily experiences, impressions, habits and memories, as well as those of her relatives. To carry out this anthropological activity, the artist mostly uses stills and video, documenting the protagonists of her stories as well as their living spaces. In several of her projects, she has also used vernacular photography, memorabilia or keepsakes as source material. The artists’ works transform family albums, documents and private correspondence into catalysts, making it possible to reveal not only touching autobiographical stories but also apt portrayals of society and recent history. Tamane graduated from the Tartu Art College (BA), the LUCA School of Arts in Brussels (MA) and HISK post-academic residency programme in Ghent. In 2018 she received the Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT 2021 Award Seeking the Latest in Photography! Her works have been exhibited at Kyiv Biennial, the first Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Kim? Contemporary Art Centre (Latvia), Tartu Art Museum, Estonian Contemporary Art Museum (Estonia), S.M.A.K Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Belgium), Fotomuseum Winterthur (Switzerland), Kathmandu Triennale (Nepal), Surplus Space (China) and elsewhere. In 2020, APE published Tamane’s first book, Flower Smuggler, which received the Recontres d’Arles Book Award and was shortlisted for the Paris-Photo Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Award.

Agate Tūna (1996) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Riga. Tūna’s main choice of medium is analogue and experimental photography (film soups, chemigrams, photograms), but she also works in painting and sound art. Most of her work reflects upon the artist’s personal experiences. By combining documentary and fiction, photography, installation, and oral history, Tūna’s works focus on the popularity of esoteric practices following the fall of the Soviet Union. In 2020, she gained a BA degree in Arts from the Painting Department at the Art Academy of Latvia and in 2022 graduated from her studies in the two-year programme at ISSP School. Currently, Agate continues her studies in POST, an interdisciplinary MA programme at the Art Academy of Latvia (2021-2023). Solo show: The Order of Invisible things (DOM Gallery, Riga, 2022). Group shows: Metahorror meets Metahumour (2023, Lethaby Gallery, London, 2023) EiTiET, (gallery 5 MALŪNAI, Vilnius, 2023), Flora Fantastic: Eco-Critical Contemporary Botanical Art (Apexart gallery, New York, 2022), Točka (former rubber factory Provodņik, Riga, 2020) Academia (Arsenāls, Riga, 2019) No one asked for this (Boļševička, Riga, 2019) ArtVilnius’19 (Litexpo, Vilnius, 2019).

Karolina Wojtas (1996) is a photographer, she studies in Film School Lodz and Institute of Creative Photog-raphy in the Czech Republic. She lives in a colorful world of experiment and endless fun. She draws from children’s fantasies and memories. Inspiration may become for her a mess in the garden of her grandfather or a huge slide. Through her exhibition, it is impossible to slip, sometimes covered with brocade or balloons. But you can feel like a child – play, aban-don and scrounge.

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.