Opening of Baltic Triennial 13 - GIVE UP THE GHOST in Riga, Friday September 21, 6pm

As commissioner of Baltic Triennial 13, CCA, Estonia is delighted to invite you to join us for the opening of Baltic Triennial 13 – GIVE UP THE GHOST at Kim? Contemporary Art Centre (Sporta street 2 k-1, Riga).

The opening celebration will include a weekend of performances featuring Adam Christensenand Keira Fox, Eglė Budvytytė, Sandra Jõgeva and Caroline Achaintre.

BT13 in Riga centres on questions of social norms, relations and structures, while also considering the notion of ghosting and fading away in relation to the large-scale exhibition format itself. Its epicentre is a major new commission by Ben Burgis and Ksenia Pedan: an immersive, psychologically off-kilter environment that engulfs the majority of Kim?.

On Friday, September 21, Adam Christensen and Keira Fox will inhabit and respond to the space in a durational three hour-long performance that will include live music and sound by Vindicatrix.

The exhibition includes new commissions by Eglė Budvytytė, who will deliver Incantantion Karaoke, an awkward and fragile one-person karaoke channeling multiple non-human voices and perspectives; Mare Tralla’ humorous, performative video vignettes thatsee the artist grapple with their personal relationship to activism; and a public talk show-performance about breasts by Sandra Jõgeva and guests that considers social norms and the notion of the (gendered) body as a symbolically-loaded space.

Responding to the haunted scenario presented by Ben Burgis’ and Ksenia Pedan’s installation, and referring back to the title of BT13, Kim? will dedicate a space to be populated by ghosts and memories that make up the entirety of the Triennial. Over the course of the exhibition’s eight weeks, this gallery will see a gradual and momentary (re)appearance of all the artists and poets that have appeared in BT13 since its beginning, each one offering an ephemeral gesture – be it a video, song, poem or text – in lieu of their physical presence. Its first indication will be the ritualistic burning of a set of large-scale wicker screens by Caroline Achaintre, which were first made for and presented as part of BT13’s Vilnius chapter. Meanwhile, the closing of the Triennial will see off-site film screenings of Pierre Huyghe’s The Host and the Cloud (2011) and Derek Jarman’s Blue (1993), a swansong to mortality and physical being.

As such, the Riga chapter turns into a natural coda for the Triennial, less a retrospective rather than a natural inclination to consider what is given up and what is left behind. A ghost of a ghost.

For the first time since its foundation in 1979, Baltic Triennial 13 is being organised by and taking place in all three Baltic countries: Lithuania (May 11 – August 12), Estonia (June 29 – September 2) and Latvia (September 21 – November 18). The three distinct exhibitions act as different chapters to form the Triennial.

Organisers:
Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, Lithuania 
Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, Latvia 
Centre for Contemporary Art Estonia (CCAE), Tallinn, Estonia 

Curatorial Team:
Dina Akhmadeeva, Canan Batur, Neringa Bumbliene, Cédric Fauq, Anya Harrison 

The Triennial celebrates the Centennial of the restored Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. 

About Kim? Contemporary Art Centre
Kim? was established in 2009 and is the leading contemporary art centre in Latvia. It has co-curated and organised more than 150 international and local artists’ exhibitions. In addition, Kim? has presented more than 20 exhibitions outside Latvia including the 55th Venice Biennale that was co-curated with long-time collaborator Art in General – a New York-based art space. 

More information: https://www.baltictriennial13.org