Walking & Talking with Tīna Pētersone

Bige Örer, Tīna Pētersone • 11/17/25

• Video Summary

  Walking & Talking, hosted by Istanbul- and London-based curator and researcher Bige Örer, is a series of video-recorded conversational experiences based on walking with each guest curator in the same location or in two different places in the world. Some of these conversations address broad societal, cultural, or philosophical questions, while others may unfold more intimate concerns and flow with inner journeys. The walks are imagined as poems- collaborative verses composed along a shared path.

  In this episode, Örer walks and talks with Latvian curator Tīna Pētersone through the streets of Riga, Latvia. Their focus: the challenges of curatorial practice amid the political and social dynamics in the Baltic countries today, especially in Latvia, emphasizing the need to internationalize curatorial collaborations with other art ecosystems.

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• About Tīna Pētersone

  Tīna Pētersone is a Latvian independent curator with an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London.
  
  In 2025, she co-founded the inaugural Riga Art Week and she serves as Creative Producer for Liepāja 2027, European Capital of Culture, where she is developing international contemporary art commissions.
  
  Her practice is shaped by residencies and fellowships across Europe, Africa, and the US: at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris; Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago (CEC ArtsLink, 2022); the Baltic Fellowship at Performa Biennial in New York (2023); the Who Is Being Heard? curatorial program for research across the Nordic region; and the Sisters Hope residency in Copenhagen (2024). She is currently in an academic program, Reframing Colonial Legacies, at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and the University of Cape Coast in Cape Coast, Ghana.
  
  Her current work focuses on developing art infrastructures and creating opportunities for artists and art professionals, with particular emphasis on cultural exchanges that connect the Baltics with global artistic communities.

• About Bige Örer

  Bige Örer is an Istanbul- and London-based independent curator and writer dedicated to amplifying the voices and visions of artists. Her curatorial practice is rooted in centering creativity and artistic perspectives, ensuring that artists remain at the heart of every exhibition and project she oversees. From 2008 to 2024, Örer served as the director of the Istanbul Biennial, where she transformed the biennial into a dynamic platform for artistic collaboration and intellectual exchange. She was instrumental in developing programs that broadened the biennial’s reach, particularly focusing on children and youth, while fostering artistic engagement throughout Turkey and internationally. In 2022, Örer curated Once upon a time…, the Füsun Onur exhibition at the Pavilion of Turkey for the 59th Venice Biennale. Her curatorial projects also include Flâneuses (Institut français Istanbul, 2017), an ongoing series involving walks with artists. Örer played a key role in establishing the Istanbul Biennial Production and Research Program, the SaDe Artist Support Fund, and coordinated initiatives such as the Cité des Arts Turkey Workshop Artist Residency Program and the Turkish Pavilion at the International Art and Architecture Exhibitions of the Venice Biennale. Örer has contributed articles to numerous publications and taught at Istanbul Bilgi University. She has also served as a consultant and jury member for various international art institutions, and from 2013 to 2024, she was the vice president of the International Biennial Association. During this time, she also contributed to the editorial and programming board of the association’s journal, PASS. She is a member of the Curatorial Studies Workshop, part of the Expanded Artistic Research Network (EARN).