To Be We Need to Know the River

About

To Be We Need to Know the River is the first solo exhibition in the UK of Latvian artist Sabīne Šnē, who explores the intersections between culture and nature, informed by historical and current ideas. Her broad interdisciplinary practice combines video, 3D animation, sound, sculpture, and drawing. 

Merging scientific facts, science fiction and 3D worldbuilding, To Be We Need to Know the River speculates different possibilities for re-worlding, centred around new symbiotic relationships between humans, non-humans, and nature. 

As the threat of climate change intensifies, it forces us to confront difficult questions about the future of our planet. What might Earth look like? Can it continue to support both human and non-human life? How will ecological, existential, legal, and political frameworks shape our world?

And what can we learn from our non-human neighbours - from blue mussels and dung beetles to lichens and mycelium?

The public program features a multimedia performance by Bestiary (23/08), Circle of Listening by Hayley Harrison (26/08) and Attendant Writing by Fiona Glen (28/08). These workshops invite participants to explore their own relationship with nature and other beings.

The exhibition also includes a publication titled Beyond Human Horizons with contributions from Micol Curatolo, Martina Francone, Fiona Glen, Hayley Harrison, Chantelle Mitchell, Sabīne Šnē, and Jaxon
Waterhouse.  

Additionally, one of the artworks is augmented by audio and text descriptions created by writer Joe Rizzo Naudi. Drawing from conversations in front of the artwork with the artist and curator, they translate the artwork into language, providing visitors with a parallel experience in a non-visual form. 

Curated by Nastia Svarevska

*To Be We Need to Know the River takes its title from a poem by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Sabīne Šnē graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (2020) and Master of Fine Arts (2022) from the department of Visual Communication of the Art Academy of Latvia. She has participated in various group exhibitions and art projects in Latvia and abroad, including If Disrupted, It Becomes Tangible. Infrastructures and Solidarities beyond the post-Soviet Condition (2023, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius), Valmiera's International Multimedia Festival (2023, Hanza square, Valmiera), GeneralSharing: 27 m above the Sea,  (2022, Vent Space, Tallinn) and GeneralSharing: 19m above the Sea (2022, Köysiratagalleria, Turku), The Litlle Bird Must Be Caught, Survival Kit 13 (2022, Latvian Center for Contemporary Art, Riga), Splintered Realities, RIXC Art and Science Festival (2022, KIM? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga), Augmented Experiences (2021, RIXC, Riga), Hidden Treasures (2021, Rucka, Cēsis), Hard Drive of Lost Expressions in collaboration with Linda Vilka (2020, Pilot, Rīga), Unseen Projects (2020, Vilnius Art Academy, online), Pavedieni, cultural forum Baltā nakts (2020, National Library of Latvia, Rīga), Točka (former factory Provodnik, Rīga), Cosmo (2019, SILOS Centre of Art and Culture, Portugal). In winter of 2022, she had her first solo show Partner, Parasite (KIM? Contemporary Art Centre, Rīga). Šnē has won the Helen Scott-Lidgett Award 2022/2023 and is part of ACME Studios Early Career Award Program. 

Supported by VKKF and the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia to the United Kingdom

Lot Projects is a wheelchair accessible venue. For any additional accessibility requirements or questions, please get in touch.