Baltic States Present Cohesive Cultural Identity at 61st Venice Biennale

At the 61st Venice Biennale, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia collectively present a reframed cultural identity through nuanced storytelling and interdisciplinary collaboration. Latvia's pavilion, 'Untamed Assembly: Backstage of Utopia,' curated by Inga Lāce and Adomas Narkevičius, features the duo MAREUNROL’S and designer Bruno Birmanis. It revisits the Untamed Fashion Assemblies of 1990s Riga as symbols of post-Soviet creative liberation. The Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art organizes the pavilion, with digital platform FOLLOW.ART as an official partner. Lithuania's pavilion, represented by artist Eglė Budvytytė with 'gyva gyva-ta (animism sings anarchy),' is a multi-screen film installation exploring collectivity and ecology, drawing on archaeologist Marija Gimbutas's research. Lithuania follows its 2019 Golden Lion win for 'Sun & Sea (Marina).' Estonia's pavilion, curated by Natalia Sielewicz, features Merike Estna's 'The House of the Leaking Sky' in a former Venetian church, combining over 25,000 ceramic tiles, monumental canvases, and Estonian folklore. The three Baltic pavilions jointly initiated a solidarity procession for Ukrainian artists. The region's cultural ecosystem extends beyond pavilions, with curators and artists working fluidly across Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius, Berlin, Amsterdam, and London.