Riga Art Space opened in 2008 and was planned as a municipally-run public institution (similar to the “Kunsthalle” model), focusing on the mediation between international and local contemporary art. Unfortunately, as the first curator and initiator of the Riga Art Space left shortly after the opening, the exhibition space has remained with a scattered programme without specific focus, showing some contemporary Latvian artists and retrospectives, as well as some borrowed, guest-curated exhibitions from Helsinki or Tallinn. The spectrum of the exhibitions has been extended to include design, fashion and architecture - not for the reasons of stimulating a broader discourse but rather for the sake of filling the house.

Still, the space is important for Riga, even if only as a symbolic gesture towards cultural understanding. The future activities of the space are unclear due to the city’s financial situation, and as of now no further exhibitions are scheduled beyond February 2010. EI, 2009