Maria Hassabi, Malvina Panagiotidi, Panos Profitis, Georgia Sagri, Socratis Socratous, Jannis Varelas, Kostis Velonis
ALWAYS THE SUN

Opening: October 1, 2026, 18:00

What does it mean to live under a particular light?

RIGA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE presents Always the Sun, an exhibition curated by Marina Fokidis. On view from October 2, 2026, to January 10, 2027, it brings together a constellation of 27 Greek artists whose practices are shaped by the interplay of geography, light, climate, and cultural legacy. It is the first large-scale presentation of contemporary Greek art in the Baltic region. Drawing inspiration from the song by The Stranglers, the exhibition approaches the sun not as a motif, but as a medium of thought, perception, and lived experience. It explores how the brightness, heat, and exposure of the Mediterranean have influenced aesthetic languages and fostered strategies of survival, intimacy, and adaptation.

The curator Marina Fokidis emphasizes: “The sun. Not the picturesque Mediterranean sun of tourist brochures, nor the luminous ideal inherited from modernist painting, but the sun as both a metaphor and a lived reality: a force that regulates daily rhythms, shapes public space, and influences the ways people meet, rest, work, and inhabit their cities. What does it mean to live under a particular light? How might weather influence artistic production as profoundly as history, politics, or language?”

For Riga, a northern city where sunlight is often fleeting, this exhibition offers an encounter with a southern sensibility: not exotic, but grounded, material, and spiritual. It imagines a solar dialogue between North and South, Baltic and Mediterranean, as a conversation rather than an opposition. It proposes light not only as a symbol, but also as a form of knowledge. In ancient Greek thought, light illuminated truth, but the southern sun, unlike the colder light of the Northern Enlightenment, is contradictory. It dazzles, reveals, and blinds. It asks us not to observe from a distance, but to feel, inhabit, and listen.

Curated by: Marina Fokidis

The exhibition features works by Andreas Angelidakis, Bill Balaskas, Panos Charalambous, Dimitra Charamandas, Christina Dimitriadis, Anastasia Douka, Apostolos Georgiou, Marina Gioti, Maria Hassabi, Menelaos Karamaghiolis, Panos Koutrouboussis, Aliki Paliou, Malvina Panagiotidi, Nefeli Papadimouli, Eftihis Patsourakis, Angelo Plessas, Theo Prodromidis, Panos Profitis, Georgia Sagri, Serapis Maritime, Socratis Socratous, Stefania Strouza, Iris Touliatou, Panos Tsagaris, Jannis Varelas, Kostis Velonis, Paky Vlassopoulou.