ALGAE UNVEILED. RIGA EU4ALGAE, ALGAEUROPE 2025

ALGAE UNVEILED

AN ARTISTIC JOURNEY THROUGH ALGAE, DESIGN AND SUSTAINABILITY

AT EU4ALGAE ANNUAL MEETING & ALGAEUROPE CONFERENCE

Following its debut during Fuorisalone 2025 in Milan, Algae Unveiled arrives in Riga as a special invited exhibition within the EU4Algae Annual Meeting and the AlgaEurope Conference — two of Europe’s leading platforms dedicated to algae research, innovation, and sustainable development.
Originally conceived for the Vetra Building during Milan Design Week, the exhibition moves from a design-focused context into a domain where scientific expertise, policy, and environmental strategy converge. Its presence in Riga invites deeper reflection on the evolving role of algae in shaping the future of European ecological innovation.

Curated by The Baltic Vibe, an initiative dedicated to promoting Baltic art and design through internationally oriented, research-driven projects, the Riga edition expands and enriches the original curatorial narrative. Here, Algae Unveiled becomes a meeting ground between creative experimentation and scientific inquiry.

At the heart of this presentation are a series of glass artworks by Latvian glass artists Ieva Birģele and Marta Ģibiete, crafted in shifting tones of green and blue and inspired by the organic forms, chromatic depths, and quiet movements of algae. The choice of glass — a material both fragile and enduring, fluid in its molten state yet crystalline in its final form — becomes a powerful metaphor for the paradoxical nature of algae itself.
These works embody a duality:
— the vitality of aquatic ecosystems, captured through transparent layers, biomorphic silhouettes, and fluid gradations that echo the living dynamics of algae;
— the precarity of our environment, expressed through the material’s inherent fragility, reminding viewers of the delicate balance sustaining our waters.
By transforming algae’s visual language into glass, Birģele and Ģibiete illuminate the tension between permanence and impermanence, growth and decay, purity and pollution. Their pieces invite visitors to consider algae not only as a biological organism or renewable resource, but as a symbol of the complex, interdependent systems that bind humanity to the natural world.

Algae Unveiled
Baltic art & design
December 8 - 12, 2025
Radissin Blu Latvija