Themed Dark Side of the Moon, the 9^th Baltic Contemporary Art Biennale completes a triptych of exhibitions which have explored the ways in which identity is created, captured and conveyed in visual art and through a widening gaze.

The first in this series, called Poisoned Source and presented in Riga in 2007, viewed the foundations of  ​nationhood through the lens of contemporary Polish art. Restaging the Past, exhibited in Szczecin in 2009, compared regional experiences of the communist era echoing through in the art produced in the Baltic Sea and the Balkan Peninsula.

Pan-European in scope, Dark Side of the Moon completes the landscape by offering a critique of  the complex, multi-layered modes of expression of collective identity that have arisen in the post-colonial period both East and West. By examining artistic trends at work in imperial powers and in the countries they subjugated, the exhibition illustrates more fully dynamics and depth of the relations among colonizers and their colonies.

Approximately ten artists will be invited to participate in the Biennial. Thanks to an increase in gallery space, each will be presented in a quasi-individual show, with the thematic focus giving natural rise to an artistic dialogue and relationship between the collected works and opportunities for feedback among the presentations. A bilingual (Polish/English) publication featuring visual and critical presentations of works by participating artists and thematic essays by cultural theorists, historians and critics will accompany the exhibition.

9. Baltic Contemporary Art Biennale - Dark Side of the Moon

October 2012 - January 2013

curators: Magdalena Lewoc, Marlena Chybowska-Butler

Artists, venues, partners and co-organizers will be announced soon.