5 September – 31 October 2025
Transit (Lat. transitus – a passing over) as an intermediate state of change and movement is the key word of the forthcoming biennial. In the exhibition the theme of transit is unfolded through a range of sub-themes.
First (1), the biennial itself, as an event taking place every two years, is a passing, recurring, transitory phenomenon. In astronomy, a transit means the movement of one celestial body across another. The title of the biennial, “Sunset Every Two Years”, poetically points to a state of extended, arrested, desynchronised time. It relates both to the contemporary moment as a contradictory period joining together different worldviews and times, and to the phenomenon of Klaipėda as a city of sunsets. As a transitory phenomenon, the biennial offers a chance to experience the intersections of planetary and personal time and of the field of art.
Second (2), the figure of transit here refers to the space of the exceptional and dramatic history of the wider Klaipėda region, which over the past century underwent political, urban and other transformations that changed it beyond recognition. The biennial’s attention to the past and to historical and other kinds of photography is bound up with this.
Third (3), Klaipėda is a port city, a centre of logistics, transit and crossing – cargo, passengers and ferries move through it. In ancient Greek the word “metaphor” (Gr. μεταφορά) means a carrying over, a crossing – and this meaning becomes both a poetic and a curatorial strategy. Integrating poetic language into the processes of curating and architecture is one of the intentions of this biennial. The exhibition includes a good number of works made earlier and perhaps already seen – their “crossings”, their transit and the creation of new links of meaning are an important part of the biennial.
Fourth (4), the eco-space of this region is closely bound up with ecological and political activism and, more broadly, with the beginnings of contemporary art in Lithuania. Examples include the “Green Leaf” action-performance against the construction of oil rigs in the Baltic Sea (Nida, 1990), “The Return of the Angakok” (Nida, 1990), the action “National Park Status for Neringa” (Nida, 1989) and others. Given the danger of the chemical weapons dumped in the Baltic Sea, the cases of various pollutant spills, the radical historical and contemporary political and other movements, and the condition of the Baltic as one of the most polluted seas in the world, the biennial seeks to draw attention to various conceptions of ecological and other kinds of toxicity.
And fifth (5), this exceptional ecosystem of the land of sunsets is also an actively regenerating space of rest, wellbeing, sexuality, and bodily and spiritual rebirth – a resort zone of the beach or of a magical “edge of the world”, where time slows down, political and sexual bodies are set free, and new worlds and experiences are perhaps opened up or created.
In sum, the biennial examines transit as a historical, logistical, socio-economic, ecological, extractivist, aesthetic, magical, poetic theme and as a theme of speculative futures.
The need to establish the 1st Klaipėda Biennial (KB1) arose from the lack of regular, large-scale, discursive contemporary art events in western Lithuania. The international KB1 takes place on the premises of the Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre (KCCC) and in the city’s public spaces, with particular attention to the maritime Klaipėda region, its history and the countries washed by the Baltic.
The first KB1 is curated by Valentinas Klimašauskas, who has wide-ranging experience of curating major international events, including the national pavilions of Latvia (2019) and Lithuania (2024) at the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art, the Coast Contemporary art festival in the Lofoten Islands in Norway (2023), the 14th Baltic Triennial at the CAC (2021) and other projects. He is currently the director of the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius.
The long-term aim of the project is to create a sustainable large-scale international event in western Lithuania, with artists and partners from Northern Europe, the Baltic States and other regions.
Biennial venues: the Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre (KCCC) and the public spaces of the city of Klaipėda.
Biennial team:
Commissioner: Liudas Andrikis
Curator: Valentinas Klimašauskas
Curator’s assistant: Viktorija Misiulė
Architect: Gabrielė Černiavskaja
Producer: Žana Jegorova
Coordinators: Justina Trapokaitė, Gabija Savickaitė
Graphic design: Vytautas Volbekas
Communication: Dora Žibaitė
Curator of the education programme: Daura Polonskytė
Educators: Aurelija Šiuškaitė, Jolanta Uktverytė
Texts by: Banga Elena Kniukštaitė
Lithuanian language editor: Dangė Vitkienė
Translators: Alexandra Bondarev, Paulius Balčytis
English language editor: Gemma Lloyd
Technical implementation: Robertas Laugalys, Tomas Tarvydas, Vaclovas Leikus, Audronius Žemgulys, Rimantas Zaleckas
Lighting: Justas Bø
List of artists: Gabrielė Adomaitytė, Matti Aikio, Bernardas Aleknavičius, Madeleine Andersson, Tekla Aslanishvili, Arūnė Baronaitė, Nina Beier, Vitalijus Butyrinas, Adam Christensen, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Dovilė Dagienė, Vytautas Daraškevičius, „Doooooris“, Milda Drazdauskaitė, Irena Giedraitienė, Henrikas Gulbinas, Karla Gruodis, Vidmantas Ilčiukas, Agnė Jokšė, Edith Karlson, Joachim Koester, Algimantas Kunčius, Česlovas Lukenskas, Paulius Makauskas, Simon Dybbroe Møller, Paulina Mongirdaitė, Katja Novitskova, Vitalija Petraitytė, Rodion Petroff, Emilija Povilanskaitė ir Clara Schweers, Romualdas Požerskis, Liudvikas Ruikas, Janina Sabaliauskaitė, Julija Skudutytė, P. Staff, Marija Sučilaitė, Malka Sultan, Veronika Šleivytė, Virgilijus Šonta, Aske Tiberg, Viktor Timofeev, Remigijus Treigys, Gintautas Trimakas, Raimundas Urbonas, Lesia Vasylchenko and others.
Thanks to: the participating artists, the media education and research centre Meno avilys, Sinematika, the Meno niša gallery, the History Museum of Lithuania Minor, the MO Museum, the Lithuanian Sea Museum, the Kupiškis Ethnography Museum, the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, the Lithuanian Union of Art Photographers, the Marine Research Institute of Klaipėda University, the Klaipėda Culture Factory (KUFA), as well as Skirmantei Kvietkauskienei, Dainiui Raupeliui, Mikalojui Urbonui, Vasilijui Safronovui, Arūnui Balčiūnui, Mindaugui Žiliui, Vsevolod Kovalevskij, Laimai Andriekienei, Editai Arlauskei, Forum Cinemas, the Šeiko Dance Theatre and the Pranas Domšaitis Gallery.
The biennial is funded by: Klaipėda City Municipality, the Lithuanian Council for Culture and the Danish Arts Foundation.
Main partner: the Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius.
Partners: „Stemma Group“, „VMG group“, Vakarų laivų gamykla, „Arlekinas“, the Baroti Gallery, „Forum Cinemas“, the Šeiko Dance Theatre, the Pranas Domšaitis Gallery, the Klaipėda Faculty of the Vilnius Academy of Arts, the Klaipėda State Seaport Authority, „LTG Infra“, Akropolis Klaipėda, the Rėja Hotel, „Meno avilys“„Sinematika“.
Media partners: „Jūra / Meer / Sea“ , „Kultūros uostas“, „Kultūrpolis“.