Territories, Borders and Checkpoints
Various Artists
Riga Photomonth
Latvian, English
Directed by Arnis Balčus.
Co-curated by JH Engström.
Softcover
101 pages
177 x 250 mm
2016
ISBN Not Available
Riga Photomonth is a biannual international photography festival that takes place in the capital of Latvia. Riga Photomonth explores and shows photography from Northern and Eastern Europe. The festival’s public programme includes exhibitions, artist talks, workshops, lectures and film screenings. In addition Riga Photomonth hosts portfolio reviews and workshops for professionals.
The second edition of the Riga Photomonth took place in May and June 2016, offering 10 exhibitions and more than 20 events under the common theme ”Territories, Borders and Checkpoints”. The festival’s main exhibition will be co-curated by the internationally acclaimed photographer JH Engström.
(source: https://rigasfotomenesis.lv/about-contacts/)
About the Director
Arnis Balčus (born 1978) is a Latvian photography and video artist. Born in Riga, Latvia, Balcus lived and worked in his home town before moving to London in 2004. He took an MA course on photography at University of Westminster from 2004 to 2005. He is exhibiting his work since 1994, but emerged internationally in 2003 with the photographic series Myself, Friends, Lovers and Others. Using snapshot aesthetic the series were showing the everyday life of contemporary Latvian youth. Since 2008 most of his photographic work has been related to Latvian identity, historical taboos and social-political agendas. From January 2011 he is the chief editor of the main Latvian photography magazine – FK Magazine.
balcus.lv
(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnis_Bal%C4%8Dus)
About the Curator
JH Engström was born in Karlstad in 1969. He is a Swedish photographer and video artist, living and working between Paris and Smedsby (Värmland, Sweden). Engström first grew up in the remote province of Värmland in central Sweden until the family moved to Paris when he was 10 years old. An overwhelming change that prompted him early on to look at his own existence, forging a vision rooted in these contrasting living environments opposing the slow-time energy of the Swedish countryside to the exaltation of Parisian life. In 1993, he settled in Stockholm where he shared the lab with Anders Petersen, a leading figure with a determinant influence in the expressive dimension of his work. He applied these precepts at the Gothenburg University school of photography until 1997 before moving to New York between 1998 and 2000 where he spent time at Robert Frank’s studio.
jhengstrom.org
(source: https://jhengstrom.org/BIOGRAPHY)
