Selection of architects has begun for the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art’s conceptual design competition

December 8, 2015

Five architecture firms of international standing will be chosen to take part in the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art’s architectural competition. These finalists will collaborate with Latvian architects to create a proposal for the architectural form of the new museum. In February 2016, from the applications received, the finalists will choose partners from Latvia with the most compatible knowledge and experience, in order to jointly create conceptual designs for the new museum.

The vision outlined in the museum’s concept envisages that the museum building should become a stellar example of outstanding architecture and one of Riga’s premiere points of interest for visitors to the city. The building must be built using environmentally sustainable solutions that attract international interest and acclaim. In order to achieve these goals, the competition will be organised by Malcolm Reading Consultants (MRC), which this summer successfully organised the challenging Guggenheim Helsinki Museum architectural competition in Finland.

It is planned that the competition will take about six months. At its conclusion, the winner will be chosen, while the other competition participants will receive gratuities.

The electronic application form can be found here.

Additional information is available here.

The Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art

The Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art’s vision is to become the most visited art museum in the Baltics, whose exhibitions are much in demand by other museums. Its unique collection of works celebrating arts and visual culture in Latvia and the Baltic Sea region from the 1960s onwards and ability to arrange loans of works from prestigious private collections make the LMCA an arts centre of regional significance.

The Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art’s mission is as follows: by making attractive and alluring use of the myriad interactions between art and visual culture in everyday life, to make the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art a popular public meeting place, where people gravitate to be inspired and provoked; to pause for thought or to share ideas and experiences. The museum’s goal is to be a place where people genuinely feel at home, welcomed by its open-mindedness, creative vibe and love of intellectual play ignited by contemporary art.

The goal chosen as the most appropriate focus of the museum’s creative operations is the reflection of the interactions of contemporary art and visual culture in Latvia and, more broadly, the Baltic Sea region. The geographical boundaries of this playground have been chosen in accordance with the museum’s long-term operating strategy, in order to ensure its international renown and active place within regional collaboration networks, and that its operating programme receives widespread support among its local audience.

It is envisaged that the museum will be devised as a “distributed museum” or “new genre museum”, which presents itself not only as an archive, but also as a generator of knowledge, whose visitors are not merely passive consumers, but active content-providers within this incubator of knowledge. Its main operating directions will be comprised of its exhibition programme, the formation and exhibiting of its collection, research, and implementation of its education and social condenser programmes and activities.

The Foundation of the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art

With the objective of building the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art, the ABLV Charitable Foundation and the Boris and Inara Teterev Foundation have founded the Foundation of the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art. Drawing on the founders’ funds and other financing from private individuals and in partnership with the Republic of Latvia’s Government and the Ministry of Culture, the Foundation’s goal is to build the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art, ensure the museum’s operation and governance, including the formation, maintenance and researching of the museum’s collection of contemporary art. Private initiative is of great importance to the development of society. Therefore, the founders of the new foundation hope that this step will provide a powerful boost to the development of contemporary arts processes in Latvia, encouraging the formation of an integrated cultural space and making Riga a well-known and special tourism destination.

On 30 October 2014, the Latvian Ministry of Culture and the Foundation of the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art signed a memorandum of intent regarding the building and development of the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art. It was signed on the basis of the successful long-term collaboration between the Ministry of Culture, the ABLV Charitable Foundation and the Boris and Inara Teterev Foundation, as notable benefactors in the realm of Latvian contemporary art, and ABLV Bank as the principal supporter of the formation of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s collection.

The memorandum of intent envisages that the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art will be located within the territory of the business and leisure centre New Hanza City (NHC). NHC is being developed across an area of 24.5 hectares in the location of the former Riga railway goods stations, in the quarter between Hanzas iela, Pulkveža Brieža iela, Skanstes iela and Sporta iela. It is planned that the Foundation’s founders will provide financing in the amount of at least EUR 30 million for the construction of the museum.

The Foundation of the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art plans to open the museum building on 18 November 2021. After it enters service, the museum’s operations will be organised in accordance with the Republic of Latvia’s Museums Law, so that the museum will be accessible to the general public and its collection will be included in the National Museum Collection Catalogue.

Malcom Reading Consultants (MRC)

MRC specialises in organising high-level international architectural competitions for the construction of new buildings of national importance all over the world and has clients in Finland, the Czech Republic, Russia, India, Qatar, Taiwan and elsewhere. In London, MRC clients in the field of culture include the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum and White Cube, etc. The UK Pavilion at the universal exposition Milan Expo 2015, whose architectonic solution was chosen in a competition run by MRC, has just won the exhibition’s “Best in Show” prize, as well as nine other awards, including the Italian Association of Architects award for “Best Pavilion Architecture”.

Līva Jēgere
MRS grupa
+371 26151344
liva.jegere@mrsgrupa.lv