During the “White Night” in Riga, on September 7th, Saturday, the International Contemporary Art Festival “Survival Kit 5” will open the doors to the metaphysical, the subtle world of art. In 12 hours – from 12.00 to 24.00 – the festival’s premises will transform into a portal to the hitherto disclosed horizons of creativity. Admission – free.
12.00 – installation “Dow Does the Right Thing” by the artist group “The Yes Men”
The Yes Men are a group who smuggle out the stories of the fortified compounds of commerce to provide a public glimpse at the behind-the-scenes world of big business. The stories are often both shocking and hilarious.
12.30 – educational lecture and stencil workshop “Graphic Code Field Research in Latvia´s Urban Environment, Using a Historical Perspective, Compositional Analysis and Gender Studies. Facts and Possible Solutions for Improving the Situation”
Project involves both studying the situation and offering a possibility of revolution – the choice is left up to each individual. The initiative of the revolution is aimed at weakening patriarchy by integrating images in the Latvian urban environment, that represent feminine attributes symbolically, thus, sustaining woman as a symbol of fertility and strength and creating balance in the patriarchally oriented society. Lecturer: Ingrīda Pičukāne, MFA
13.30 – film programme “Marginality and Reevolution in Short Format” by 2ANNAS
Programme, curated by the Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS, presents films that document events linked to the slow revolution or directly reflect changes in the thinking and interests of today’s society. Before each film Anna Veilande Kustikova, a moving image researcher, curator and lecturer, will give a brief commentary.
16.00 – performance and artist talk by FASTWURMS (Canada)
The practice of FASTWURMS looks closely at the things we cannot see — or refuse to see. FASTWURMS creates a panoply of camp performance, costumes, ceremony, Wiccan ritual, collage, installation, cats, dance music, and cheap video production to make visible commonly held taboos around sexuality, desire, cosmology, nature, power and the occult.
18.30 – “Absurd Episode from Reevolution”, game by Ramona Buša-Virtmane and Vladislavs Saveļjevs
“Absurd Episode from Reevolution” is a game exclusely created for the fifth Survival Kit with the aim of enabling any visitor to the festival to feel the exotic flavour of the revolution on their own skin by becoming a significant element in the creation of the revolution. To participate in the game, contact Ramona Buša-Virtmane (ramona.b.virtmane@gmail.com)
From 19.30 – continuous sound art improvisation by the vocal and instrumental, psychedelic music ensemble “The Smoking Caterpillars”
The Smoking Caterpillars create harmonious, uninterrupted and fluid musical drawings, the totality of which commingles today’s customary order of sounds and brings it closer to atonal music. The compositions are not created in advance – they arise from the emotional impressions of the moment. The music created by The Smoking Caterpillars draws in every like-minded soul. Participants: Organist Rudolf “Stoney Keys”, vocalist and bassist Gatis “Jesus”, electric guitar master Rihards “The Magic Riff”.
20.00 – artist talk “Leftovers of Endurance” by artist Nina Kurtela (DE/HR)
Artist Nina Kurtela will present her research project “Leftovers of Endurance” where together with other researchers from different fields she summarizes, archives and initiates discussions about various questions on the theme “durational performance”.
22.00 – concert and performance by “Dr. Klisicka Laboratorija”
In their laboratory-observatory at Pokaiņi Forest, the creative formation “Dr. Klisicka Laboratorija” are engaged in their studies of human existence, life and death. The members of the formation, laboratory assistants, before joining the group have taken part in other music collaborations such as “PK-25” and “Naked Truth”.
For more information on events during the festival see festival’s newspaper and brochure (click here).
Or see the program on festival’s webpage: http://www.survivalkit.lv/en/program/
More on participating artists: http://www.survivalkit.lv/en/artists/
And you can still participate in Omer Krieger workshop “Street Choreography for Beginners”.
During the International Contemporary Art Festival “Survival Kit 5” the Israeli artist Omer Krieger invites to participate in the workshop “Street Choreography for Beginners” on September 10th and 11th. The participants will consist of exercises in public space, testing different possibilities for a group of people to create political situations.
“A political presence is conflicting, beautiful, collective, and renegotiates shared time and space. A human chain, a circle of people, a conversation, a new kind of demonstration: dancing politically with the city,” Omer Krieger elaborates on the idea of “Street Choreography for Beginners”.
The participants will mainly create forms and formations with ones’ bodies, the public and the city architecture, and may also use special props and devices. Moreover, the participants will discuss and rehearse public choreographies, embodiment of politics, historical re-enactments, and the concept of pre-enactment.
There is no need for special skills or experience to participate in the workshop; however, while preparing Omer Krieger advises to ponder on these key words: the Latvian Body, Riga Dance, beautiful public action workshop, protest tactics, how to make a demonstration, performance of political presence, basic street choreographies, group formations in selected public sites.
The workshop will take place on Spetember 10th to 11th from 11.00 to 19.00. To participate in the workshop, contact Ramona Buša-Virtmane (ramona.b.virtmane@gmail.com) until September 6th!
Omer Krieger is an artist working with public experience, choreography and collective situations. Krieger is interested in the aesthetics of the state, the theatre of politics and the beauty of conflict. Cofounder and leader (2006-2011) of the performative research body “Public Movement”, he has served for the last three years as artistic director of the “New Public Art School” and festival “Under the Mountain” in Jerusalem.
