Nikita Kadan and Natalia Sielewicz Named Curators of the 16th Baltic Triennial

The Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) in Vilnius has announced the appointment of Kyiv-based artist Nikita Kadan and Warsaw-based art historian and writer Natalia Sielewicz as curators of the 16th Baltic Triennial.

The selection was made by a seven-member international committee chaired by Valentinas Klimašauskas, Director of the CAC, and included curators and institution leaders from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, and Germany. The committee chose Kadan and Sielewicz for what Klimašauskas described as "their ability to create a sensitive, open, and critical conversation with art, history and the public."

In their joint statement, the curators outline a vision rooted in themes of grief, loss, and the possibility of renewal — reflecting on what it means to exist after a rupture that fundamentally alters experience, language, and the world itself. They propose an exhibition that treats despair and mourning not as pathologies, but as spaces of attentive listening and latent hope.

Nikita Kadan is known for his practice addressing collective memory, historical trauma, and everyday life in Ukraine, with his work since 2022 directly engaging with the ongoing war. Natalia Sielewicz serves as Chief Curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, with a curatorial and writing practice focused on feminism, affective politics, and contemporary subjectivity. In 2026, she will also curate the Estonian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale.

A prologue event is scheduled for mid-2026, offering an early look at the thematic and conceptual direction of the upcoming triennial.