RPB—NEXT 2025: ‘Neurons Desperately Seek Each Other’

Group exhibition Neurons Desperately Seek Each Other in the Riga Photography Biennial—NEXT 2025 program

Invisible yet present. Accompanying. Consequential. Where do thoughts arise, and how are the threads that permeate the mind formed?

Regarding how they arise, I can only make assumptions. An immense number of neurons form links with each other. To understand the functioning of a separate unit, it must be seen in a broader context — research often maps neural connections to make sense of the whole. Similarly, a human being must be understood within their environment, prompting interest in studying both living and artificial systems that act as platforms for motivation, ideas, and action.

Sometimes it seems that thoughts have their own life — or that we observe our own life from the outside. The thought process may form a closed loop: the way we interpret past experiences shapes the next ones. Thoughts and emotions are in constant search of connection, giving rise to both harmonising and conflict-generating internal narratives. Feelings are real. But how do we access reality? Does our tendency to imagine either positive or negative outcomes — replaying extreme scenarios in our minds and anticipating reactions — contribute to manifesting them? Thoughts can be reliable — or simply seem that way — even if the formation of systems and their influence appears logical from a distance.

The artists' explorations of this theme offer distinct perspectives and focal points. In Agate Tūna’s chemigrams, the capture of contrast and movement reveals an analogy between light, photochemical reaction, and the process of perception. These works are author-guided yet unpredictable — much like our own transformation. How conscious or controlled is that change?

Accidentally found or borrowed details appear as personal signposts in Luīze Nežberte’s playful collages, using shifts in scale, image, text, and object collections. In Kristaps Freimanis’s works, unexpected relationships emerge through abstractions of overlooked materials and natural phenomena. Collaborating with these symbols to construct subconscious compositions — and organising thoughts through associated rituals — allows for a study of human place and role in society. This process helps to systematise lived experience and may serve as both a vessel of hope and a source of new ideas.

Heikki Leis’s work The first three days after breaking the second controller were the hardest, from the series Life Before Us (2019–2023), reflects on relationships, generational tasks, and challenges. By documenting the simulation of a staged, altered reality at the edge of credibility, the work reveals the furthest reaches of the perceptual spectrum — the connection between inner and outer life struggles, and the coexistence of different emotional states and value systems.

Participants: Agate Tūna (LV), Luīze Nežberte (LV), Heikki Leis (EE), Kristaps Freimanis (LV)
Curator and scenographer: Laima Daberte (LV)

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About the Riga Photography Biennial (RPB)
The Riga Photography Biennial (RPB) is an international contemporary art event focusing on the analysis of visual culture and artistic representation. The term "photography" in the title is used as an all-embracing concept that includes a wide range of image-making practices, continually transforming the language of contemporary art in the 21st century.

The Riga Photography Biennial—NEXT offers visibility and a platform for emerging artists, helping them present their work to wider audiences and in broader contexts. RPB—NEXT 2025 runs from 24 April to 6 July with a wide-ranging program of exhibitions and educational events. More info: www.rpbiennial.com

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