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NOBA Nordic Baltic contemporary art platform

For the twelfth year in a row, the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art are happy to present the international art festival Survival Kit. This year instead of visiting empty and abandoned buildings, visitors will be invited to Riga’s apartment memorial museums. The selection of the festival venues is drawing attention to individual stories in the context of collective memory and questions about the ageing of society and the infrastructures of care. The festival, lasting until 31 October 2021, is curated by Övül Ö. Durmușoğlu and Joanna Warsza from Berlin.

“Life has never been totally integrated into the techniques that govern and administer it. It constantly escapes them. Now, more than ever, we are confronted with the overarching topic of survival and the conditions of old age. Many questions arise from the metaphor of a ‘survival kit’: How to live in a maturing society, which is at the same time shaped by discrimination based on age, the structural changes in labour and care conditions, and now the virus?” asks the curatorial statement 

According to the curators the memorial, apartment museums, common to Eastern Europe, seemed like appropriate places to ask questions about memory and memorials, but also life, ageing, ageism, survival, community and immunity. “We invite artists to respond with both context-specific and existing works hosted in the rooms of late poets, painters, writers, activists” – say the curators.

The festival exhibits the works of 25 artists including Oreet Ashery, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Pauline Curnier-Jardin, Oskar Dawicki, Vika Eksta, Ieva Epnere, Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze, Kaspars Groševs, Johanna Hedva, Gözde İlkin, Dagna Jakubowska & Joanna Gawrońska – Kula, Gülsün Karamustafa, Flo Kasearu & Elīna Vītola, Eva Koťátková, Ieva Kraule-Kūna, Anda Lāce, Warren Niesłuchowski & Simon Leung, Felicita Pauļuka, Ingrīda Pičukāne, Mia Raadik, Anna Salmane and Jenna Sutela.

The festival’s exhibition will be opened to visitors at the Jānis Akuraters MuseumKrišjānis Barons MuseumRainis and Aspazija HouseJanis Rozentāls and Rūdolfs Blaumanis MuseumAndrejs Upītis Memorial MuseumOjārs Vācietis MuseumRomans Suta and Aleksandra Beļcova MuseumEduards Smiļģis Theatre Museum and Hotel Neiburgs.

Check out the programme