Snakes and Ladders is an interactive online exhibition based on moving photographs that Latvian visual artist Vika Eksta creates by employing the format of animated GIF. The exhibition is interactive and takes place on asa nisi masa, an online gallery dedicated to contemporary and new media art. 

Vika Eksta extensively adopts the GIF format in her practice to explore the implications of conveying movement to the apparently still photographic image. Her GIFs are actually based on staged photo-shootings, where she is often the subject of a simple everyday action: drinking a cup of coffee, smoking a cigarette, picking a phone call and so on.

In Snakes and Ladders, the GIFs become the single scenes of a larger narrative, that is in the hands of the viewers to create. In certain joints of the plot, the viewers are required to choose between two options that lead the story to different results. In this way, they discover the various possible developments of the initial story, experiencing the exhibition in a very personal and always different way. The ultimate aim of the show is to dig into the concept of narration through photography and to question its meaning by playing with it.

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Artist: Vika Eksta (Latvia)

Curator: Paola Paleari (Italy)

Sound artist: Jena Zoldaka (Latvia)
Web developer: Alessandro Buoscio (Italy)
Graphic designer: Bruno Bonamore (Italy)
Gallery coordinator: Greta Boldorini (Italy)

Organisers: Riga Photography Biennale in collaboration with asa nisi masa online gallery