SURVIVAL KIT NEWSPAPER by Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art

SURVIVAL KIT 4 Exhibition. Discussions. Performances. Lectures. Participating artists: Agency (Int.), Tayfun Akdemir (TR), Kristīne Alksne & Margo (LV/DE), Arnis Balčus (LV), Kaya Behkalam (IT), Camilla Berner (DK), Arturs Bērziņš (LV), Aija Bley (LV), Ēriks Božis (LV), Inga Brūvere (LV), Kristīne Briede (LV), Elīne Buka (LV), Fanny Carinasdotter (SE), Elīza Ceske-Feldmane (LV), Izolde Cēsniece (LV), Margrieta Dreiblate (LV), Dace Džeriņa (LV), Andris Eglītis (LV), Elīna Eihmane (LV), Futurefarmers (US), John Griznich (EE) un bērnu rīts (LV), Gints Grīvans (LV), Kristaps Gulbis (LV), Ida Hansson (SE), Joakim Hansson (SE), Johanna Hästö (SE), Zümra Hecan (TR), Mihai Iepure Gorski (RO), Rasa Jansone (LV), Vladimirs Jakushonoks & Kristīne Liniņa (LV), Søssa Jørgensen & Geir Tore Holm (NO) , Mārtiņš Jurjāns (LV), Ahmet Karabulak (TR), Jussi Kivi (FI), KODEK (LV), Şükrü Köroğlu (TR), Elif Köse (TR), Kate Krolle & Atis Jākobsons (LV), Daiga Krūze (LV), Laura Ķeniņš (LV), Madara Lesīte (LV), Liene Mackus (LV), Maija Mackus (LV), Maya Mikelsone (LV/FR) & Ivaras Grāvlejs (LV/CZ); Mickael Marchand (FR), Bengisu Muazzez Kurtuluş (TR), Sebastian Muegge (SE), Nira Pereg (IL), Jaime Pitarch (ES), Ingrīda Pičukāne (LV), Laura Prikule (LV), Krists Pudzens (LV), Artūrs Punte (LV), Yakın Refleksler Collective (TR), Reloading Images (Kaya Behkalam (DE), Roberto Cavallini (IT), Azin Feizabadi (IR), Carla Esperanza Tommasini (IT)), Krišs Salmanis (LV), Alnis Stakle (LV), Özge Su Çalasın (TR), Alexander Svartvatten (SE), Ausma Šmite (LV), Irīna Špičaka (LV), Pilvi Takala (FI), Ginta Tinte Vasermane (NL) , Toms Treibergs (LV), Trulā grupa (LV), Justin Tyler Tate (SE), Klāvs Upaciers (LV), Ilze Vanaga (LV), Iliana Veinberga (LV) un Ainārs Kamoliņš (LV), Zane Veldre (LV), Eva Vēvere (LV), Gitte Villesen (DK), Kārlis Vītols (LV), Ylva Westerhult (SE), Julita Wojcik (PL), Wooloo (DK), Sibel Yavuz (TR), Krišjānis Zeļģis (LV), Alma Ziemele (LV), David Zink Yi (DE), Mārtiņs Zutis (LV), Kristīne Želve (LV) Newspaper of the festival ILZE VANAGA. KATRIN _______ 2 CURATOR’S COLUMN _______ 4 GLOSSARY OF DOWNSHIFTING _______ 5 ARTISTS _______ 10 SURVIVAL KIT SATELLITES _______ 34 EVENTS ________ 39 MAP _______ 40 Publisher: Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art Editor: Zane Zajančkauska Design: Irīna Špičaka and Krišjānis Rijnieks Texts: participating artists, Ieva Astahovska, Ieva Lejasmeijere, Solvita Krese, Anete Vaska, Zane Zajančkauska Translations and corrections: Līva Ozola, Elīna Cire, Ieva Cire, Ņina Kuzmina, Anna Celmiņa, Stella Pelše, Marianna Auliciema, Anete Vaska, Zane Zajančkauska Translations and corrections: Marianna Auliciema, Anna Celmiņa, Elīna Cire, Ieva Cire, Ņina Kuzmina, Inga Lāce, Māra Mortuzāne-Muravska, Līva Ozola, Stella Pelše, Anete Vaska, Zane Zajančkauska Festival team: curator Solvita Krese, Zane Dātava, Inga Lāce, Ieva Saulīte, Elza Zīda, Anete Vaska, Diāna Popova, Jānis Zvirgzds and Egons Barānovs with their team, Pēteris Brīniņš with his team, Jānis Milzarājs, Gundega Evelone Thanks to all voluntary helpers! Printing house: Adverts. Paper: Munken Pure 80g/m3, 170g/m3, provided by Arctic Paper This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Organized by: Riga, 2012

CURATOR’S COLUMN

The Unhurried Life For many years now I have done my best to spend a week of each short and inconstant Latvian summer by the sea. Over the past few years this has usually been my one and only week of vacation, snatched from the pileup of unending work assignments and obligations. This life is my own choice, of course, but the vague feeling that just maybe it would be nice to do things differently still creeps around my preoccupied mind, blowing up some bastion of densely planned daily agenda every now and then. The vacation week of this summer is spent in Mazirbe, an ancient Liv village on the sea coast. There is no TV, no computer, just walks along the seaside, and family board games and visiting with the neighbours at night. One of them, film director Juris Poškus, shows me around the local ‘supermarket’. We get on our bicycles and set out in the Dundaga direction; we visit a homestead, where the lady of the house ushers us into the cowshed to pour fresh milk into the glass jars we have brought with us. From there, we go to the ‘egg department’. The farmer shoos away some chickens and ducks and gathers up a couple dozen eggs for us. In the drinking water department we are greeted by a forest stream, and right next to that there is a ‘display’ of mushrooms. I feel excited and happy, and I suspect this tickly feeling of happiness is caused by the exclusive nature of this privilege and by holidaymaker’s euphoria. Or has the desire to slow down our daily life grown into a full-blown, acute necessity? Perhaps downshifting has now become an essential component of the contemporary human’s survival kit? Downshifting is a difficult-to-translate concept which denotes slowing down in order to critically evaluate the commonly accepted consumerist standards and notions of success, emphasize the need for balance between work and leisure, and focus on personal development and ‘leaving the rat race’ imposed by modern society. Downshifting has become a widespread global movement and code of social behaviour, and as such has now become the inspiration for the creators and artists of this year’s SURVIVAL KIT festival. By reorienting the usual hierarchy of values, refusing to accept the continuous demand for ever-increasing productivity or profit generation, reducing personal daily consumption, respecting natural resources and setting aside more time to listen to ourselves and those around us, we can create a survival kit that is highly suited for individual use. Perhaps there is a lot to gain from challenging the capitalist system’s control of our time and dismantling the regulated ratio of working hours and leisure, or free time we may spend on creative fulfilment or simple enjoyment of life. ‘Escaping the rat race’ can sometimes be a strong incentive to change circumstances that have become cumbersome or unbearable. Over the past ten years, ‘withdrawal’ has also become a popular practice in art, which calls for avoidance of mainstream processes and places the emphasis on the autonomy of the artist. We may also view the manifestations of downshifting as just another whim of the Western world, ‘the new simplicity’, another lifestyle trend that can be developed and perfected on the back of a well-established system of social guarantees and various support mechanisms. It is most likely that in ‘New Europe’ downshifting is more often a reality imposed by external circumstances; an unwanted situation that has to be accepted. It could even be said that many people in Latvia find themselves in endless downshifting mode… socially unprotected, unsure of their future, armed with a number of newly acquired skills – capable of growing their own food in their garden allotments,

Solvita Krese pickling and preserving the harvested fruit and vegetables to survive the long winter, transforming second-hand clothing into innovative designer outfits, endlessly recycling and reusing everyday consumer goods to extend their lifespan and give them new function. A highly romanticized view of this alternative life strategy is presented by Henry David Thoreau’s Walden; or, Life in the Woods, a book that could be considered the holy writ of downshifting. On 4 July 1845, the 27-year-old Thoreau left for the woods. He settled near Walden Pond and built a cabin in which he spent two years, two months and two days, living a simple and unhurried life and working on his book. ‘I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary,’ Thoreau writes in his book. To avoid resignation and not settle for living what is not life… How do you answer such an all-encompassing question: What is life? Hasn’t work taken up the main space in the life of the contemporary human being? Work has changed from necessary means of earning daily bread into occupation, identity shaper and measure of success, as well as pastime. The traditional perception of work has significantly changed in the post-Fordian era; the daily allocation of work and leisure hours has become more flexible, merging the boundaries between the various spaces and roles of our lives. Profit, growth or development is one of the most important concepts in economic terminology, and is used as the equivalent of success. The vision of future as a continuous upward curve of economic growth is not only inspiring to economists and politicians; it also motivates many individual consumers. Tied to GDP numbers, this growth is essentially a monetary value, the cash flow that circulates in the economy, and has no direct impact on the growth of an individual’s personal sense of wellbeing or some general social happiness. Perhaps by living more simply and unhurriedly, by replacing profit with sustainability, creativity with creating, consuming with thinking, economic boom with high quality cultural space we will become happier, wiser and more self-sufficient. Having compared the artists of Western and Eastern Europe, Serbian artist Mladen Stilinović observes that westerners lack laziness, the free thinking space in which to create. Here, it seems, it would be quite appropriate to reference one of the most influential and radical artists of the 20th Century, Marcel Duchamp, who says in an interview: ‘I would have wanted to work, but deep down I’m enormously lazy. I like living, breathing, better than working. [..] Therefore, if you wish, my art would be that of living: each second, each breath is a work which is inscribed nowhere, which is neither visual nor cerebral. It’s a sort of constant euphoria.’ Perhaps art helps us reach this euphoria and develop the capability of rejoicing in a simple and unhurried life. ‘The purpose of music is to sober and quiet the mind,’ advises John Cage, who himself lived a surprisingly modest and richly saturated life. It is important not to miss the moment when a sober mind offers up the right solution – and it may happen you don’t even need to move to a cabin in the woods to hear this call.

GLOSSARY OF DOWNSHIFTING

Glossary of Downshifting For the fourth year in a row, SURVIVAL KIT is trying to capture the right words, feelings and images which would allow to behold, assess and possibly change the things taking place in the here and now. The feeling of this year has crystallized into the word downshifting, which has no compatible equivalent in Latvian. Downshifting means to shift an automotive vehicle into a lower gear; to move or shift to a lower level – of speed, activity, or intensity. (Merriam - Webster English Dictionary, 2004). The scope of ideas of this year’s SURVIVAL KIT festival marks the Glossary of Downshifting. The Estonian curator Rael Artel writes about escaping the city, having indicated Estonian forests as the place she is based in, within the increasingly mobile international art environment. What used to be work has now become a vocation, and art, once separated from the everyday routine, has now occupied life – this is revealed in the commentary of the German artist and essayist Hito Steyerl. The text by the Italian theorist and activist Franco Berardi Bifo reminds us that the understanding of growth within the language of economics dominant today has nothing in common with the actual wellbeing of people and their sense of happiness. The cultural theorist Nick Papastergiadis writes about the artists’ focus on the autopsy of the everyday, while the 1993 text The Praise of Laziness by Serbian artist Mladen Stilinovic is devoted to laziness. Glossary of Downshifting has been compiled by Zane Zajančkauska.

Escaping City Real Artel In recent years there has been a tendency to romanticize certain type of life styles practiced in rural areas. I say “certain” because not all ways of living in the country-side are considered fanciful, remarkable and cool. Mainstream media likes to represent a happy heterosexual family eating pancakes around big kitchen table in nicely renovated log-house or sitting next to barbeque pan with some hayfield and pushes in the background. At the same time it is not so idyllic at all to survive as a former collective farm tractor driver with ridiculous unemployment benefit and spend days drinking strong beer from plastic bottle in front of the village shop while being unable to find a respectful place in transformed society. I’m aware that these are stereotyping views to the people living outside cities in former Eastern Europe, but they still clearly demonstrate the contradictory understanding on the life in the countryside based on class differences and unequal chances for social mobility. The reasons behind living in the countryside has two extremes – one option would be to have (economic) opportunity to escape the city and secure children peaceful and green childhood, another is having no (educational and/or economic) possibility to break the relicts of social order established in Socialist times. While the first sounds progressive and eco-chic, the second is just miserable and embarrassing… There is also an option to see moving from the city to the rural areas as a forced urgency. In some circles it might sound romantic again, but the urgency gives rise to particular utopian lifestyles. If there is no way out, the way has to be invented. Urban life is very pleasurable with sufficient and steady cash flow, which often is not any more the case in the several sectors where labour has turned into precarity. Therefore living in the city turns into disagreeable vicious circle: To look for jobs – to pay the rent – to be in the city – to looks for jobs – to pay the rent – etc, etc. I guess my own story follows that logic. After years of sharing a flat with many wonderful art and film students in the centre of Tallinn, Estonia, in spring 2008, I decided to move to the countryside and start living in my grandfather’s old house, about an hour and half away from the capital city. Already some time before I realized that as a freelance curator and art historian in a situation of economic boom, the real estate bubble, fast growing rents and the impossibility of finding a steady professional job, it is not possible to continue living in the capital city and enjoy all the privileges that urban living environment offers. So I exchanged my 8m2 room and daily loud, cheerful and beerful parties in the kitchen, for an oldschool farmhouse in the middle of a post-collective-farm landscape and absolute silence. These changes, made mostly for economic reasons, also changed my way of working as a curator of contemporary art enormously, as well as my perception of the local and international art world, the privileges of urban life got replaced another type of advantages. So I became a partisan curator living in the forest, in inner exile from a small national community, observing the movements of the art scene from a safe distance but with the possibility of interfering at any time. Suddenly I found myself in the rural landscape away from the city but much more closer to the international (art) world. As the timeframe is different in the countryside, I discovered a possibility to follow the developments in the world, while in the city my consciousness was mostly involved with happening in local scale. Living outside the cities has been possible for centuries, why it should be nowadays so eccentric to imagine? Was this move escape or entering? If returning to rather primitive downscaled-comfort life can be seen as giving up in the struggle is professional and social networks, or it is a contribution to emerging counterculture seeking for alternatives? If making a village one’s home is a status symbol or sign of unsuccessful functioning in the labor market? I guess these questions might be quite a productive starting point for wider discussion about alternatives and utopias in the contemporaneity of 21st century.

GLOSSARY OF DOWNSHIFTING

We are living in the times of rapid changes. The benefits and infrastructures that used to be guaranteed in the society are slowly disappearing. It would be seriously naïve to think that there is a place for escape in contemporary globalized (art) world. That there is a geographical location, either urban or rural not affected by the oil prices of world market, from neoliberal policies and mentalities as well as social networks. Let’s not romanticize life-styles, let’s just try to create zones where the effects of mentioned influences are weaker and society-generated pseudo-pressures lower. Let’s find reasonable solutions and invent sustainable opportunities to continue! There is always a way to continue!

Everyday Nikos Papastergiadis (..) Bringing art and life as close together as possible can be a healthy antidote to some of the academicist approaches emerging in late 1980s. However, it can also lead to the idiocies and banalities of life being reproduced under the name of art. The relationship between art and life is never straightforward or transparent. What cannot be denied, however, is the need for the artist to start from the materiality of both art practice and experience. This appreciation of materiality does not preclude language, nor does it imply that the limitations of our specific starting points, by their mere display, should be elevated to marvelous achievements. (..) In the new art there is both sensuous absorption with the present, a shameless fascination with the abject, and a candid representation of the banalities of everyday life. Neither the pleasures nor the vices expressive of this voluptuous self-presence are embedded within a social history of political solidarity or aesthetic investigation. This practice of acknowledgement is disavowed as being part of the boring politics of correctness. Yet paradoxically, in the assertion of newness there is both rejection of lineage and claim of assimilation. (..) Can we assume that the history of resistance is already incorporated in popular consciousness, and that, by virtue of its own sensual and material practice, the production of art traces the contours of this silent knowledge and bears witness to all that is knowable and real? To attempt to forget the past is to be condemned to repeat it by other means. (..)

Despite repeated efforts to break the divide between popular culture and high art, the concept of the everyday has remained relatively untheorized within the contemporary discourse of art. As theoretical concept, it is clearly opposed to transcendental or ahistorical forces. It does not seek to confine the significance of art within the a priori categories of a given political ideology. It does not place its development within the stages of certain psychic states, or seek to elaborate its meaning purely within the terms of pre-existing philosophical models. To consider art form the perspective of the everyday is to stress that the measure of art is not found by borrowing the yardsticks of other discourses, but rather from this articulation and practices within everyday life. Yet this aim, which seeks to take us directly into the lifeworld without the mediation of other discourses, cannot be conducted in pure form. There is never a direct Access to life – language, culture and the psyche are always inextricably interwoven in our every effort. (..)

Making art by taking what is close at hand. Thinking about the biggest philosophical abstractions from the position of our most intimate experiences. Seeing change as being part of our choices and responses to the inventory of demands and obligations in daily life. From this perspective, where the everyday and the dominant structures are perceived as interconnected, we can also see the art, theory and politics are in a constant dialogue. One cannot proceed without the other. It would be absurd to believe that one discourse has already answered the questions of another. Sociologists such as Fiona Mackie have noted the processes of bracketing and foreclosure that limits comprehension of the legitimate sphere of knowledge and curtails those experiences which are translated back into everyday language.1 Mackie recognized this blindness, not only in the dominant rationality of the social but also within the mainstream traditions of social theory. The relationship between art, politics and theory can never be of value if the integrity of each position is not acknowledged. Perhaps the concept of the everyday will be seen not as the rejection of earlier debates on the context of art and the responsibility of the artists, but as the grounding of meanings in art. Lyotard, in a rare moment of rapture, caught this beautifully: “art is the flash that rises from the embers of the everyday”. Art may be a precursor of changes not yet fully felt, or witness to states either excluded from the frame of hegemonic discourse or still a faint murmur in the heart of everyday life. An art which seeks to heighten our senses to the proximity of the marvelous, to find significance in commonplace signs, to connect one lever of subjectivity with another, is a practice which inevitably fans the embers of theory and politics.

Extracts from “Everything that Surrounds: Art, Politics and Theories of Everyday” in every Day. 11th Biennale of Sydney (Sydney: Biennale of Sydney, 1998)

1 Fiona Mackie, The Status of Everyday Life (Londin: Routledge, 1985)

GLOSSARY OF DOWNSHIFTING

Growth

Franco Berardi Bifo

The notion of growth is crucial in the conceptual framework of economic technology. If social production does not comply with the economic expectations of growth, economists decree that society is sick. Trembling, they name the disease: recession. This diagnosis has nothing to do with the needs of the population because it does not refer to the use value of things and semiotic goods, but to abstract capitalist accumulation—accumulation of exchange value. Growth, in the economic sense, is not about increasing social happiness and satisfying people’s basic needs. It is about expanding the global volume of exchange value for the sake of profit. Gross national product, the main indicator of growth, is not a measure of social welfare and pleasure, but a monetary measure, while social happiness or unhappiness is generally not dependent on the amount of money circulating in the economy. It is dependent, rather, on the distribution of wealth and the balance between cultural expectations and the availability of physical and semiotic goods. Growth is a cultural concept more than an economic criterion for the evaluation of social health and well-being. It is linked to the modern conception of the future as infinite expansion. For many reasons, infinite expansion has become an impossible task for the social body. Since the Club of Rome published the book The Limits to Growth in 1972, we have understood that Earth’s natural resources are limited and that social production has to be redefined according to this knowledge.2 But the cognitive transformation of production and the creation of a semiocapitalist sphere opened up new possibilities for expansion. In the 1990s the overall economy expanded euphorically while the net economy was expected to usher in the prospect of infinite growth. This was a deception. Even if the general intellect is infinitely productive, the limits to growth are inscribed in the affective body of cognitive work: limits of attention, of psychic energy, of sensibility. (..) Only if we are able to disentangle the future (the perception of the future, the concept of the future, and the very production of the future) from the traps of growth and investment will we find a way out of the vicious subjugation of life, wealth, and pleasure to the financial abstraction of semiocapital. The key to this disentanglement can be found in a new form of wisdom: harmonizing with exhaustion. Exhaustion is a cursed word in the frame of modern culture, which is based on the cult of energy and the cult of male aggressiveness. But energy is fading in the postmodern world for many reasons that are easy to detect. Demographic trends reveal that, as life expectancy increases and birth rate decreases, mankind as a whole is growing old. This process of general aging produces a sense of exhaustion, and what was once considered a blessing—increased life expectancy—may become a misfortune if the myth of energy is not restrained and replaced with a myth of solidarity and compassion. Energy is fading also because basic physical resources such as oil are doomed to extinction or dramatic depletion. And energy is fading because competition is stupid in the age of the general intellect. The general intellect is not based on juvenile impulse and male aggressiveness, on fighting, winning, and appropriation. It is based on cooperation and sharing. This is why the future is over. We are living in a space that is beyond the future. If we come to terms with this post-futuristic condition, we can renounce accumulation and growth and be happy sharing the wealth that comes from past industrial labor and present collective intelligence.

Excerpts from Franco Berardi Bifo „The Future after the end of the economy” published in e-flux journal 12/2011. Full text available in e-flux.com

Laziness

Mladen Stilinovič As an artist, I learned from both East (socialism) and West (capitalism). Of course, now when the borders and political systems have changed, such an experience will be no longer possible. But what I have learned from that dialogue, stays with me. My observation and knowledge of Western art has lately led me to a conclusion that art cannot exist... any more in the West. This is not to say that there isn’t any. Why cannot art exist any more in the West? The answer is simple. Artists in the West are not lazy. Artists from the East are lazy; whether they will stay lazy now when they are no longer Eastern artists, remains to be seen. Laziness is the absence of movement and thought, dumb time - total amnesia. It is also indifference, staring at nothing, nonactivity, impotence. It is sheer stupidity, a time of pain, futile concentration. Those virtues of laziness are important factors in art. Knowing about laziness is not enough, it must be practised and perfected. Artists in the West are not lazy and therefore not artists but rather producers of something... Their involvement with matters of no importance, such as production, promotion, gallery system, museum system, competition system (who is first), their preoccupation with objects, all that drives them away form laziness, from art. Just as money is paper, so a gallery is a room. Artists from the East were lazy and poor because the entire system of insignificant factors did not exist. Therefore they had time enough to concentrate on art and laziness. Even when they did produce art, they knew it was in vain, it was nothing.

GLOSSARY OF DOWNSHIFTING

Artists from the West could learn about laziness, but they didn’t. Two major 20th century artists treated the question of laziness, in both practical and theoretical terms: Duchamp and Malevich. Duchamp never really discussed laziness, but rather indifference and non-work. When asked by Pierre Cabanne what had brought him most pleasure in life, Duchamp said: “First, having been lucky. Because basically I’ve never worked for a living. I consider working for a living slightly imbecilic from an economic point of view. I hope that some day we’ll be able to live without being obliged to work. Thanks to my luck, I was able to manage without getting wet”. Malevich wrote a text entitled “Laziness - the real truth of mankind” (1921). In it he criticized capitalism because it enabled only a small number of capitalists to be lazy, but also socialism because the entire movement was based on work instead of laziness. To quote: “People are scared of laziness and persecute those who accept it, and it always happens because no one realizes laziness is the truth; it has been branded as the mother of all vices, but it is in fact the mother of life. Socialism brings liberation in the unconscious, it scorns laziness without realizing it was laziness that gave birth to it; in his folly, the son scorns his mother as a mother of all vices and would not remove the brand; in this brief note I want to remove the brand of shame from laziness and to pronounce it not the mother of all vices, but the mother of perfection”. Finally, to be lazy and conclude: there is no art without laziness. Finally, to be lazy and conclude: there is no art without laziness.

WORK IS A DISEASE - KARL MARX Mladen Stilinović WORK IS A SHAME Vlado Martek

Mladen Stilinovič „The Praise of Laziness”, 1993

Occupation Hito Steyerl

Lets start with a simple proposition: what used to be work has increasingly been turned into occupation.1 This change in terminology may look trivial. In fact, almost everything changes on the way from work to occupation. The economic framework, but also its implications for space and temporality. (..) The shift from work to occupation applies in the most different areas of contemporary daily activity. It marks a transition far greater than the often-described shift from a Fordist to post-Fordist economy. Instead of being seen as a means of earning, it is seen as a way of spending time and resources. It clearly accents the passage from an economy based on production to an economy fueled by waste, from time progressing to time spent or even idled away, from a space defined by clear divisions to an entangled and complex territory. Perhaps most importantly: occupation is not a means to an end, as traditional labor is. Occupation is in many cases an end in itself. Occupation is connected to activity, service, distraction, therapy, and engagement. But also to conquest, invasion, and seizure. In the military, occupation refers to extreme power relations, spatial complication, and 3D sovereignty. It is imposed by the occupier on the occupied, who may or may not resist it. The objective is often expansion, but also neutralization, stranglehold, and the quelling of autonomy. Occupation often implies endless mediation, eternal process, indeterminate negotiation, and the blurring of spatial divisions. It has no inbuilt outcome or resolution. It also refers to appropriation, colonization, and extraction. In its processual aspect occupation is both permanent and uneven—and its connotations are completely different for the occupied and the occupier. Of course occupations—in all the different senses of the word—are not the same. But the mimetic force of the term operates in each of the different meanings and draws them toward each other. There is a magic affinity within the word itself: if it sounds the same, the force of similarity works from within it.2 The force of naming reaches across difference to uncomfortably approximate situations that are otherwise segregated and hierarchized by tradition, interest, and privilege. In the context of art, the transition from work to occupation has additional implications. What happens to the work of art in this process? Does it too transform into an occupation? In part, it does. What used to materialize exclusively as object or product—as (art) work—now tends to appear as activity or performance. These can be as endless as strained budgets and attention spans will allow. Today the traditional work of art has 1 I am ripping these ideas from a brilliant observation by the Carrot Workers Collective. 2 Walter Benjamin, “Doctrine of the Similar,” in Selected Writings, Vol. 2, part 2, 1931-1934, ed. Michael Jennings, Howard Eiland, Gary Smith. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999), 694-711, esp. 696.

GLOSSARY OF DOWNSHIFTING

been largely supplemented by art as a process—as an occupation.3 Art is an occupation in that it keeps people busy—spectators and many others. In many rich countries art denotes a quite popular occupational scheme. The idea that it contains its own gratification and needs no remuneration is quite accepted in the cultural workplace. The paradigm of the culture industry provided an example of an economy that functioned by producing an increasing number of occupations (and distractions) for people who were in many cases working for free. Additionally, there are now occupational schemes in the guise of art education. More and more post- and post-post-graduate programs shield prospective artists from the pressure of (public or private) art markets. Art education now takes longer—it creates zones of occupation, which yield fewer “works” but more processes, forms of knowledge, fields of engagement, and planes of relationality. It also produces ever-more educators, mediators, guides, and even guards—all of whose conditions of occupation are again processual (and ill- or unpaid). (..)Generally speaking, art is part of an uneven global system, one that underdevelops some parts of the world, while overdeveloping others—and the boundaries between both areas interlock and overlap. But beyond all this, art doesn’t stop at occupying people, space, or time. It also occupies life as such. Why should that be the case? Let’s start with a small detour on artistic autonomy. Artistic autonomy was traditionally predicated not on occupation, but on separation—more precisely, on art’s separation from life.4 As artistic production became more specialized in an industrial world marked by an increasing division of labor, it also grew increasingly divorced from direct functionality.5 While it apparently evaded instrumentalization, it simultaneously lost social relevance. As a reaction, different avant-gardes set out to break the barriers of art and to recreate its relation to life. (..)Artistic autonomy was meant to separate art from the zone of daily routine—from mundane life, intentionality, utility, production, and instrumental reason—in order to distance it from rules of efficiency and social coercion. But this incompletely segregated area then incorporated all that it broke from in the first place, recasting the old order within its own aesthetic paradigms. The incorporation of art within life was once a political project (both for the left and right), but the incorporation of life within art is now an aesthetic project, and it coincides with an overall aestheticization of politics. On all levels of everyday activity art not only invades life, but occupies it. This doesn’t mean that it’s omnipresent. It just means that it has established a complex topology of both overbearing presence and gaping absence—both of which impact daily life. (..)

Excerpts from Hito Steyerl „Art as Occupation: Claims for an Autonomy of Life” published in e-flux 12/2011. Full text available at e-flux.com

3 One could even say: the work of art is tied to the idea of a product (bound up in a complex system of valorization). Art-as-occupation bypasses the end result of production by immediately turning the making-of into commodity. 4 These paragraphs are entirely due to the pervasive influence of Sven Lütticken’s excellent text “Acting on the Onmipresent Frontiers of Autonomy” in To The Arts, Citizens! (Porto: Serralves, 2010), 146–167. Lütticken also commissioned the initial version of this text, to be published soon as a “Black Box” version in a special edition of OPEN magazine. 5 The emphasis here is on the word obvious, since art evidently retained a major function in developing a particular division of senses, class distinction and bourgeois subjectivity even as it became more divorced from religious or overt representational function. Its autonomy presented itself as disinterested and dispassionate, while at the same time mimetically adapting the form and structure of capitalist commodities.

ARTISTS

Assembly (SURVIVAL KIT 4)

Forest Measure

Agency (Int.)

Kristīne Alksne and Margo (LV/DE)

For Assembly (SURVIVAL KIT 4), Agency calls forth Thing 000885 (Daley Bicentennial Plaza) from its list, speculating on the question: “How can processes become included within art practices?”. Some artists tried to protect gardens with intellectual property (copyright). In order to qualify for copyright protection, a garden must be an original work of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression.

The living installation by Kristīne Alksne and Margo deals with painful selfpurification and adaptation, and the interaction of these processes. These are the utopian efforts of self-examination and the tempting false measurements in the epoch-of-constant-self-comforting.

Plural media and various dimensions, 1992 -

Thing 000885 (Daley Bicentennial Plaza) concerns a conflict between the painter Chapman Kelley and Chicago Park District about the gardens at Daley Bicentennial Plaza inside Grant Park in Chicago. Despite Chapman Kelley’s disapproval, the Park District altered Kelley’s existing garden entitled Wildflower Works I in oder to make it fit inside the new plan of Daley Bicentennial Plaza. During the case Kelley v. Chicago Park District the judge had to decide if the garden Wildflower Works I was a fixed work and protected by the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). On September 9, 11 a.m. Thing 000885 (Daley Bicentennial Plaza) will convene an assembly during SURVIVAL KIT in order to bear witness.

Agency is the generic name of a Brussels-based initiative that was founded in 1992 by Kobe Matthys. Agency constitutes a growing list of things that resist the split between the ontological classifications of nature and culture. This list of things is mostly derived from juridical processes, lawsuits, cases, controversies, affairs and so forth involving intellectual property issues (copyrights, patents, trade marks, etc.). The concept of intellectual property relies upon the fundamental assumption of the division between nature and culture and consequently between expressions and ideas, creations and facts, subjects and objects, humans and non-humans, originality and tradition, individuals and collectives, mind and body, fixations and processes, etc.... Each thing on the list invokes the moment of hesitation in terms of those divisions. Agency calls things forth from it’s list via varying assemblies inside exhibitions, performances, publications, etc... Each assembly speculates on a different question. Every question explores in a topological way the operative consequences of the apparatus of intellectual property for an ecology of art practices.

Performance, installation, 2012

Excerpts from e-mail correspondence: M.: Downshifting is a meditation on the aging post-postmodernism – celebrating emptiness with even greater emptiness. You put yourself into a sort of neosilent movie to avoid the self-disciplined hysteria of markets. K.: This new ritual is a creation of western men who recognise values through productivity and consumption. The western man is overwhelmed by the wish to come first. Thus he ends up having a heart attack at an early age and, understandably, downshifting follows. In these moments this bestseller works as good medicine. Maybe the westerner has been stuck in a self-created mechanism and destroyed his natural instinct? Does he find a solution in a supposed 180 degree turn? What comes afterwards? Is it a truly natural process? Or just a new version of a mask, allowing one to spot changes for a moment when it is put on? M.Z.: Possibly. Surely. I often see downshifting as a toothless occlusion. Predators that have pulled their teeth out to lose their lust for meat. Predators in a vegetarian restaurant. Wolves in grandmas’ bonnets. But do you often hear about or talk about downshifting? I don’t deal with this theme on an everyday basis. Except that every other Berliner has already taken up yoga and other methods to slow their heart rate. K.A. Downshifting. I often hear this in the small talk of elegant gentlemen at fine dinners; they have calculated their daily budgets and the price of wines they could afford until the end of their days! Downshifting is a word rubbing shoulders with consumerism. It is what happens when an exhausted westerner digs for prosperity 16 hours a day for many years, and then discovers he had reached middle age and the limits of his health. Resisting this, he establishes a chicken farm which he observes for hours and builds his vision of the new world according to the hierarchy of his winged companions. And a Mediterranean view just happens to be the backdrop for all of this. Isn’t downshifting proof that humans have weakened themselves, by blindly participating in the mainstream? M.Z.: But possibly (and surely) lucky middle aged men have always covered those who slowed down. But the present metamorphosis of democracy to anarchy allows for the slackening of praise. So, “less is more”, and diligence has become a swearword. If both your muscles and mind are ok, your brains send them a signal to act. These are biological processes. It is impossible to stop them at will. Thus in my worldview, downshifting is a flirtation with necrophilia. I’m alive but dead at the same time. You can do nothing to me. Kristīne Alksne is based in Berlin. She has graduated from Brera di Bella Arti Academy, Milan, Italy. Alksne has had seven solo exhibitions in Italy and one in Latvia, has taken part in more than 60 group exhibitions in Europe and the USA, including the Moscow Biennale for Young Art 2012, MMOMA (Moscow), Modern Tape (Berlin), South London Gallery (London), SURVIVAL KIT 3, etc. Margo is based in Berlin. She Studies anthropology and opera direction. She is author of texts, performances and shows.

Downshifting? K.A. The tempo can be reduced only by those who can afford it. M.Z. All of this tempo reducing, when thematized, is just public pretence. From the moment you start breathing, your only choice is “a life without choice” – to do only the things you cannot live without. Full stop. No need to contaminate yourself by imagining that you have a million opportunities. If you have an overwhelming desire to bite into a fresh cucumber, then why run around the market archiving all the different kinds of flora and fauna available. And fashioning a mask is possibly one of the most established traditions of self-forgetting. Urban carnivalism. Me? I’m - bunny!

ARTISTS

The Riga Garden Camilla Berner (DK) Garden, 2012

There is a little abandoned garden in the courtyard of the old industrial Tobacco Factory. During the days of Camilla Berner’s stay in Riga the garden will change day by day. Each day Berner will communicate with the locals with the intent to involve them in making the garden. They will be encouraged to donate a plant, a stone, a pot of grass or anything thought to be related to a garden. The garden will grow out of existing plants and local materials. In exchange for their kind donation, people will be given seeds from Berner’s former project, “Black Box Garden”.. The project becomes about cultural exchange with gardening and plants as a mutual interest, a meeting between strangers who share a reason to talk. Every donation becomes part of The Riga Garden yet each donor also has a share of ownership in this collective intervention. (C.B.)

untitled (no significance) Arturs Bērziņš (LV) Paintings, 2012

The idea for the series was conceived during previous expeditions to explore the Latvian landscape. It turned out there were some interesting places. They had no significance. Or at least their significance could not be clearly defined. These locations could not be inspected up close. Then they changed. They disappeared. They were accessible only from a great distance. Viewable only from one hill to another. You would need an aircraft to closely examine the location that interested you. There was something impossible, unreachable about these places. They also could not be heard. (A.B.) Arturs Bērziņš lives and works in Olaine. In an essay about his work he says: „What you see in your closest surroundings is what you should depict. Your own taste influences the selection of pictures. Likewise, the meaning of an object or place influences the way it is depicted. The aspects of the visible world with which I have the most affinity are tonality, geometry (space), reality (..) In my case, the main emotional stimulus comes from nature – the environment I live in. In turn, the main intellectual stimulus comes from human actions toward nature.” Arturs Bērziņš’ landscapes, natural ‘moments’, studies of culture (of the individual, of technology and of organization) are characteristically modest in size – both because they ‘offer a greater distance’ and because ‘we live at a time when natural resources are dwindling while the demand for them keeps growing. Under these circumstances there is no justification for expensive art. This is one of the reasons why my works are small and their costs are kept as low as possible. Many completed works are erased and their bases re-used. Works that have remained uncompleted for a long time are sawed up, and their surfaces are scraped and reused.’ Arturs Bērziņš has graduated from the Art Academy of Latvia. Solo exhibitions: “works of minds” at Tukums Art Museum and Olaine Museum of History and Art (2012); “works of sounds’ at Nabaklab exhibition hall (2011); ‘untitled (folk romanticism)’ at Riga Art Space, in Liepāja, Līvāni, Aizpute (2009); ‘outskirtism’ on the premises of SIA Ekodienests (2008) and others.Group exhibitions: ‘Is it that he does not seek the truth, but wants to influence?” (2012); ‘Itch’ (2007); ‘Candy Bomber’ (2008); ‘SURVIVAL KIT 3” (2011) and others. The artist received the Diena Annual Culture Award and was nominated for the Purvītis Prize for his exhibition „outskirtism”.

Camilla Berner is an artists who works both in the context of both art and landscaping. Her projects explore cultural attitudes to nature, the use of city space and the perception of urban and rural. One of her recent projects, entitled “Black Box Garden”, cultivated a garden in a wasteland in central Copenhagen. The garden was made out of existing vegetation and materials found on the site. The project not only mapped out the diversity of the plant species growing on the most expensive and contentious wasteland sites in Copenhagen, but also made note of the many interests involved in this particular place. Camilla Berner’s work has been shown in solo shows, exhibitions and public art projects in Denmark, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia, France, and elsewhere.

Downshifting? What has always been and still is a priority – it is sensible time management – factoring in a buffer time of 40%, avoiding any and all addictions, ignoring lean operation strategies, not using power tools in my work, doing everything myself as much as possible in my work.

Pool Aija Bley (LV) Video, 2012

Downshifting? One can question the idea of downshifting in the sense of “quitting” and “moving away”. It is romantic and based on an escapist idea where one thinks life is better lived disconnected from the rest of the world - it could be seen as a rather selfish and egoistic thought. I think we all like to slow down now and again but what I find interesting is rather to question what influences that which keeps us busy. Reducing expenses is related to the fact that money rules in many aspects of our life, our mentality, values and priorities - and keeps us busy, on a personal level as well as in society. It is not so much as where we live as whom we are relating to and how we relate.

On her way to work on 21 August 1991, Valeria experienced strange anxiety, and upon leaving her house could do no more than sit down on the nearby bench. She sat and watched the pool, which had no water in it any more. For as long as she could remember there had always been water in the pool. But on this day it had suddenly disappeared. She sat and thought of the 54 years of her life, and of the fact that in a year’s time she would retire and then be able to sit and stare like this all day. The only thing to trouble her was the missing water of the pool. In the evening her husband came home from work. He sat down next to his wife and told her that the Soviet Union had collapsed, and that the factory would be closed. I knew something was wrong, said Valeria; I had a bad feeling all day. And then there was all that water missing from that pool… And so they sat and sat, and are still sitting to this day.

ARTISTS

Theatre Art Space on Brīvības Street 75. The idea of the work was derived from the main protagonist’s monologue of William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet”: …The pangs of despised love… “The idyllic scene of a daisy field, created by the artist, makes one yield to romance with a disarming smile. Meanwhile, the lovely flowers, which petals we pluck one by one in order to anxiously guess “loves me / loves me not” and which culturally and historically associate with an innocent indulgence of faith, hope and love, turn out to be given as an assignment to warn. The delicate, dear flowers as if by accident are arranged in a ruthless, Hamlet-like message – a signal: “Illusion”” (commentary by art historian Aiga Dzalbe). (I.B.)

Aija Bley is a photographer, video artist and film director. Graduated from the Latvian Academy of Culture in film direction, studied art history at the Art Academy of Latvia. Bley is author of numerous video and animation films and documentaries; she has also taken part in filming in exotic locations in extreme conditions. Her works have been shown in numerous video and film festivals abroad. Time, life and reality per se are in centre of Aija Bley’s works. She succeeds in capturing the colouring of a particular subject of interest rather than projecting her own artistic view. One of her long-term interests is documenting the footprints of Soviet culture in contemporary society – this has been the theme of her personal work as well as in „15 Mad Sheep” – a collaborative project with documentary director Elvita Ruka. „15 Mad Sheep” is a travelogue about contemporary life and people met while travelling in countries that were formerly part of USSR. (I.A.)

A Rose Inga Brūvere (LV) Installation, 2012

The true essence and value of things resides in us. But what are we? This is a question to which everyone has to find an answer. Knowing yourself, recognising your own identity and developing your own personality is the basis of understanding true values, one precondition of the survival and development of humankind. The idea for the installation “A Rose” (320 x 309 cm), created from artificial roses, comes from the popular poem by Gertrude Stein which asserts “Rose is a rose is a…”, invoking a poetic and emotional association between things. The message – things are what they are: A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSE At the same time, the flower symbolises the value of nature – fragile and true, “A rose is a rose”. The work “A Rose” is similar to the artist’s previous work “Loves me, loves me not” (2012) that was displayed as part of the project “TO BE OR NOT” at Daile

Mīl, nemīl. 2012. Mākslīgie ziedi, 165 x 368 cm. Foto: Imants Gross

Inga Brūvere is a painter as curator. She graduated from the Janis Rozentals Riga Art High school and the Department of Painting of the Art Academy of Latvia. In the 1990s Brūvere’s painting had a characteristically minimalistic, elastic form, which was replaced by an analytical and conceptual approach in the 2000s. By varying the basic elements of painting such as colour, relationships within the colour spectrum, line and space, which align in new combinations, Inga Brūvere creates abstract, ornamental compositions, which can simultaneously be “read” as a conceptual message. Visual information creates an interplay or a confrontation with verbal or conceptual meaning, for example, a kaleidoscope, game cubes or a word that turns into a certain image is like an illustration of the reality metaphor: forms created by geometric constructions are simultaneously elusive illusions or models, which at the very next moment may fall apart and arrange themselves in new combinations. (I.A.)

Downshifting? For me, any of the strategies of “slowing down” (reducing workload, expenses or consumption, moving out of the city, “opting out of the game”, etc.) are not urgent, as I have always tried to maintain the balance between spiritual and material worlds. I do like comfort and beautiful things but cannot stand ostentation and decorativeness – a form without content; I dislike hoarding things which you don’t really need. I like work that gives satisfaction and a chance to know more and perfect myself. I think problems arise from the fact that many people don’t even try to understand what they really need and what is excessive. The world develops and changes rapidly, and it is important to get a picture of yourself in this context, so as not to fall into one extreme or another. This is a way to recognize the true values of life.

ARTISTS

Hobby Elīne Buka (LV) Photography, 2012

I started my photography project last autumn, while studying architecture at the Politecnico di Milano in Italy. I was looking for a way to take my mind off my intense studies, and wanted to learn how my coursemates were dealing with the problem – if they had any time for themselves. After long classes that end late at night, after doing home assignments till 3 a.m. almost every night, after giving up sleep to make deadlines. These days the expectations for quality of life are high, and many young people do almost the impossible to reach them, forgetting about rest, relaxation and breaks from the routine. An excerpt from a project conversation with a subject: ‘Do you have a hobby?’ ‘I don’t know…’ ‘Some passion, something you do regularly, or almost every day, just to relax or to improve yourself outside of your everyday occupation?’ ‘Yes, I do have a hobby. I couldn’t live without swimming. For me it is like eating every day. I go to the pool after work three times a week. Water sports energize me.’ Hobby tells of those who are not able to fully commit to downshifting. Ten young people from different countries, photographed in Latvia, Milan and New York, tell of their ten different hobbies – swimming, sketching, playing the guitar, collecting small natural objects. (E.B.)

Elīne Buka has graduated from Riga Design and Art College, she studied interior design at the University of Latvia, spending one semester at the Politecnico di Milano in Milan. Buka has been a member of the Ogre photography club since 2010. In photography she looks for the boundary between excess and minimalism, urban and regional, light and shadow, linear and square, socially developed and its opposite. Buka’s works have been exhibited in a solo show ”Colour” in the restaurant KID in Riga, as well as in group shows in Ikšķile, Ogre and Laubere. (E.B.)

Downshifting? I often fly with just a single carryon. I’m tired of packing heaps of clothes, of figuring out what to wear every day while travelling – it is a nuisance. There’s more freedom in leaving with just the clothes you’re wearing.

Bear Slayer. Reread a Good Book! Izolde Cēsniece (LV) Installation, 2012

Audio recording of an excerpt from the epic poem: Dramatic adaptation: Tengyo Kura (Riga Secondary School of Cultures), Sound: Jēkabs Volatovskis (PB.lv), Cast: Tengyo Kura, Aleksandra Bačurina, Sīmanis Jēkabsons (Riga Secondary School of Cultures). The project is based of the Japanese translation (1954) of Andrejs Pumpurs’ epic poem Lāčplēsis (Bear Slayer, 1888). The version was translated by Ippei Fukuro and published by Kodansha in a publishing run of 400 copies. The book was acquired by Uģis Nastevičs several years ago, on a Japanese online auction site. The epic poem Bear Slayer (2012) was illustrated by the students of Riga Secondary School of Cultures. As we step as far away as possible from the familiar character of Bear Slayer, the chrestomathic illustrations by Ģirts Vilks and the classic stanzas, we discover both a 21st Century comic book superhero and a universal fairy tale character who can speak any language – even Japanese. And why not? “Lāčplēsis” is a universal story – we all have common mythical roots, narratives of fighters characterized by superpowers, fateful passions and decisive battles. When I asked Tengyo why the voices of “Lāčplēsis” characters sound like they do, he answered that he has been brought up with Japanese animation films and therefore therecording of the epic poem has kept with the best traditions of anime. He tells that Japanese appreciate “voice actors” – a tradition that is known both in Noh theatre where the actors on the stage and the actors telling the story are different persons, and in silent film which used to be shown with narrators acting “live”; as well as animation today, where the voices of characters are important and the best voice actors become extremely popular. (I.C.)

Izolde Cēsniece s an artist and educator. She graduated from the Riga College of Applied Arts and the Department of Scenography at the Art Academy of Latvia. Since the 1990s Cēsniece has created stage design for plays as well as the design for the international theatre festival “Homo Novus”, she has also taken part in the “LN Women’s league” introducing a feminist perspective to the arts. In the last decade Cēsniece has worked with socially and politically engaged art, written for the cultural press and now teaches arts at the Riga High School of Cultures. Izolde Cēsniece’s performances, installations and site-specific objects are often devoted to recent socio-political issues or the clash between deep-rooted traditions and contemporary changes. Her strategy is to bring up conflict in a humorous or playful way, thus suggesting a solution of “the one who changes will persist”. (I.A.)

ARTISTS

La Cumbia

The Land of Happiness

David Zink Yi (DE)

Dace Džeriņa (LV)

La Cumbia is a music genre, popular in Latin America. La Cumbia combines several musical influences; there are tunes of native Indians in the instrumentation (the gaitas), African rhythms in the percussion instruments (the maracas) and Spanish language in the lyrics. Meanwhile, accordion sounds act as a reminder that Latin American musical culture even contains Central European influences - the accordion was introduced to Columbia by German sailors. David Zink Yi’s “La Cumbia” shows dance that is performed by two fingers using the artist’s own body as a stage. The body is painted an alien green colour; only the fingers are left unpainted. The dance of fingers is interrupted several times when the hand is acting like a hand should – clapping in the rhythm to the music.

Since moving to Riga, my home has been in eight different places. It begins with finding the place. This is followed by reclamation of the space – dusting and sweeping up the waste of previous owners, introducing my own order and belongings. And then it is my home until I pack my things and leave it for a new one. The land of happiness is the place we are looking for until we find it/ don’t find it - or maybe we create it ourselves. (D.Dž.)

Video, 3’20’’, 1999-2000

Video, 12’24”, 2008

David Zink Yi was born in Lima, Peru, and studied at Kunst Akademie Munich, Universitat der Kunste Berlin, in the master class of Lothar Baumgarten. Zink Yi lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Zink Yi emigrated to Germany as a teenager and has what he calls a “layered notion of identity” which often plays a crucial role in his works. The music is often present in his works is usually more than just a soundtrack – through salsa Zink Yi talks about slavery, colonization and Cuban isolation. Zink Yi’s works have been exhibited in NBK Berlin, Kunstverein Hamburg, Kunst Halle SanktGallen, Johann Koening Berlin and elsewhere. (Z.Z.)

Dace Džeriņa is an artist and theatrical set designer, and she has been participating in exhibitions since 1998. Džeriņa graduated from the Liepaja Applied Art School and the Department of Visual Communications of the Art Academy of Latvia. Her work may be characterized as feminine (yet not feministic) observations of things and processes with an integrated fragile emotionality and a distanced reflection. One of the themes of her work invites the viewer to enjoy and consume art: the processuality, engagement of the viewer, social quality and joy of life in these works activate elements of play and interactivity, which allow the viewer not only to observe the art, but also to use it. Another characteristic motif of Džeriņa’s works is focusing on an introverted perception through concrete physical states in the bodily reactions of the artist herself. Džeriņa’s most recent works depict the orientation of perception towards observation and the formation of order, structure and sequence, including an indefinable, yet all-encompassing balance of fragility and imperturbability. (I.A.)

Selected works from series Almost Perfect Andris Eglītis (LV) Paintings, 2012

I can’t really tell why I started to think about railway sleepers. At one point I thought I just need to have them. There was something about them that struck me as right and necessary (well, actually, I could speak about materiality, footprints of time, social significance etc., but that kind of thing would be neither exhaustive nor precise). I decided to just get them, bring them to my place in Drusti and then I would see what to do with them. I began to ask around about where I could get them. But it all turned out differently – I often travelled to Ghent in Belgium and spent a longer period of time there. One morning I arrived at a hardware store 15 minutes early. Waiting for it to open, I walked around the nearby train station and suddenly ran into a perfect stack of railway sleepers, even better than the ones I had imagined. (A.E.) Andris Eglītis is a painter, whose works have recently been expanding into three-

ARTISTS

dimensional art objects. He graduated from the Janis Rozentals Riga Art High school and the Department of Painting of the Art Academy of Latvia, where he currently works as a lecturer. Eglītis has studied in a post-academic programme at HISK in Ghent, Belgium. Since 2005 Eglītis has taken part in numerous group exhibitions, and has organized eight solo exhibitions, nearly each of which has been acknowledged as a meaningful event in the art world. The starting point of the works of Eglītis has always been reality transferred into art via classical genres – portraits, still life and landscapes. Yet in almost every series of work the artist makes use of a different method or technique. Beginning with photorealistic and neo-academic forms, in recent years Eglītis has begun to use natural materials to depict not just an illusory, but also a physical, three-dimensional ‘life of things”, through which, in his own words, he “tries to understand the ungraspable – to reconcile the self, the little man with the rest of the world –society, history and the universe”.

Foot size - 43 Body type - slender Zodiac sign - Gemini Profession - researcher Animals - none Children - none Piercing / tattoo - none Criminal record – none Favourite landscape – anything but more or less untouched by humans (forest, swamp, sea, etc.) 3. My favourite Latvian proverb:Time is not money! 4. My favourite object: Water pump 5. My favourite form of refusal: No 6. Do I like long walks? NO Man gets tired by walking (of course, it depends with whom and where you walk) 7. Have you killed any animal with your own hands? How? What animal? YES No details ... 8. During what film or theatrical performance have you fallen asleep? I napped a bit during the opera “Tosca” 9. Do you ever smash dishes or break furniture? Why? NO Why would you smash or break if it is possible not to? 10. Are you able to do several things at once? What things? YES Drive a car, smoke and talk 11. My most interesting yesterday’s event: I couldn’t finish my double salad portion 12. My most manly event: Planting an oak tree 13. My most womanly feature: Cooking meat ball soup in five minutes 14. My phobias: Panic reaction to public transport 15. I would like to became: wiser with each passing day Please, attach a photo.

Downshifting? I have always had the feeling that one has to hurry to find time for peace, since one needs to be at peace to be able to work (with that I mean creating art work or – even more importantly – preparing for creating an artwork). Lately the feral laboratory in Drusti has served as a suitable place for work. It is place without electricity - there is no real shelter, only leftovers of buildings that used to exist there. It is a place that stimulates consideration of appropriate models of functioning: does the reduction of consumption mean turning away from technology, or the contrary? To what extent should we be self-sufficient in the sense of being able to do everything by ourselves, or should we focus on being good at one thing? Does slowing down mean isolation?

Elīna Eihmane has studied film directing at Baltic Media School and the Latvian Academy of Culture. She has been a participant of Andrejs Grants’ (2Annas) photo studio. Elīna Eihmane’ s photography could be characterized by “soapbox camera aesthetics”, the documentation of everyday events, playfulness, deliberate naïveté. Eihmane’s works have been shown in the solo shows ”Siltā āda” (together with Laila Halilova) (2007, LCCA cafeteria), ”Kristians” (2005, gallery Ag7), group exhibitions SURVIVAL KIT 2, SURVIVAL KIT1, „Is the Medium a Message?” (LCCA, 2008), and others. Eihmane has directed several short films: ”Gutenmorgen and the third eye”, ”Gutenmorgen and the time machine”, „Jellycake” etc.

Downshifting? Last year I started to experience downshifting as a burden and it was not enjoyable any more. Then I had the luck to move to Taiwan for ten months – to see colours and experience a radical change of environment and relationships with people. I periodically need to re-examine where I live, who I talk to, what I eat, breathe, and wear and how natural or necessary it is.

Man in the Forest Elīna Eihmane (LV) Video, 2012

1. 2.

Name: I would like to stay anonymous Facts: Age - 23 Married / single Weight - ~70 kg

ARTISTS

Trajectories of tactilit

Zipper Suit

John Grzinich (EE), bērnu rīts (LV) and friends

Johanna Hästö (SE)

Sound and space interactions during White Night on September 8th

Performance, presentation, 2012

The skin: a protection as well as a surface for exposure. It is meant to keep us tight, but still it needs to be permeable and elastic with lots of doors, gates, passages, in different directions, constantly moving. All that passes in and out creates the stream of ones life. Who rules these gates? A wish for total control. A longing to let go of it all. The body proceeds. It’s a huge responsibility to act in ones own skin while also interacting with the skins of others. In an effort to try to understand the construction I start to sew a new, extra skin for myself. In this one all gates are distinctly manifested. I stitch hundreds of zippers together. They form a solid armour but the tacking-stitches could easily be ripped off again. Each zipper has a history. I visit lots of older ladies. They give me all kinds of zippers. They have collected, ripped them out of worn out clothes or saved them when shops have closed. It is a time-consuming business to construct and sew this armour. During the process I ´ve had time to consider my gates, to become more aware and relient in my skin. For SURVIVAL KIT 4 I will try to reach from Sweden to Riga wearing only this skin/armour, a passport and a flight-ticket. Lets hope I will get there! (J.H.)

Johanna Hästö grew up in Säter, a small town with a large mental hospital. Hästö worked as a guide in the hospital museum in Säter which greatly influenced her artistic practice. She is currently studying a Masters of Fine Art at Umeå Art Academy and is part of the artist-run gallery ”Verkligheten” in Umeå, Sweden.

bērnu rīts (children’s morning) is a sound makers’ group created by like-minded architects in Riga in 2007. “bērnu rīts” unites prejudice-free people open to collaboration and experiments in the fields of sound, space and communication. BR performances are like rituals with space and movement as the main participants, but the most important method is a careful listening. Instruments and sound recordings are either home-made or found. The structure and content of performances change with the surroundings, context and participants of the event. Everyone who is able to overcome established ideas and dares to reconsider their essence can take part in performances. John Grzinich is an artist and cultural coordinator working with various events combining sound, image, sites and collaborative social structures since the early 1990s.

Downshifting? John Grzinich: Generating integrated cultures of language, food and art is so inherent to human life that only empires built from violence and systems of mass repression are powerful enough to create beliefs for mass deception to overshadow these aspects. Maksims Šenteļevs (bērnu rīts): What will come after downshifting? A little bit more insight and a little bit less chaos in life.

Downshifting? I think that downshifting is maybe not always a goal itself, but sometimes reducing impressions or slowing down etc. means that we construct delimitations and frames wich makes it possible to actually put focus on what is left after the reduction. I think it is a human need to sometimes be really focused on something, to deaply experience and get to know ourselves and our relation to the surroundings. This is intresting when it comes to the making of art. There is so much to react on and process in this world, but as Arvo Pärt said, no great music has been composed without someone being silent listening for a sufficient amount of time. What do I hear if I am silent and listen? What does silent mean? Maybe my hands, my body or brain needs to keep moving to be able to listen in a good way?

ARTISTS

Beggar Vladimirs Jakušonoks, Kristīne Liniņa in collaboration with Viktorija Eksta and Genādijs Filipenko (LV) Video, 20’, 2012

Charcoal – feet – raft – ashes – smoked – towers or an insight into Edmunds’ personality: whose most long-standing achievement is to be free to do pleasing things. If freedom is the ability to orient one’s self in the given circumstances, then a conclusion follows that quick-witted individuals are most able to adapt to certain conditions and use them to their favour. Disregarding the means of self-actualisation typical of consumer society, Edmunds brings a contemplative tone to such categories as rich and poor. Daily provocations are attempts to revise entrenched ideas and look for like-minded individuals.

Vladimirs Jakušonoks is more widely known as the initiator and member of the Bolderāja group. The Bolderāja group is actively shaping and protecting the environment of Bolderāja – both by organizing art projects, exhibitions, excursions and protesting against environmental pollution and questionable city development plans. Kristīne Liniņa works as a curator in the exhibition department of the Latvian National Library.

Something Does Remain Rasa Jansone (LV) Installation, 2012

The ultimate ‘escape from the rat race’ is, presumably, death. But the thought of dying resists being thought, doesn’t it? Something is always getting in the way, or getting into your eye… and any thinking of dying is a no-go. This is approximately where I have got to: sometimes the thought of dying is horrifying. Sometimes it serves as a reason for a joke. Dying, however, is just half the problem. There is a much more disturbing question, posed by Italian Maurizio Cattelan: ‘is there life before death?’ Is it even possible to live it in some manner, despite the ashes and dust? My work is a naïve and optimistic salute to the human longing for a meaningful life (whatever that means) and the traces left behind by this meaningful life. One would, after all, like to think that even if everything has gone horribly wrong, somewhere and somehow ‘something does remain’. Traces, traces… Wheels leave traces! It is so obvious. A car drives away; the traces left by its wheels remain. What is left when a person goes away? Surely something has to remain? Bones. Clothing. Various objects in the tip behind the outdoor loo and up in the loft. Letters (hard to believe, but they are still being left behind…). Books! Phew, that’s a relief. Books do remain!

In general, however, it is all quite grim. If you start inspecting the tip behind the outdoor loo too closely, it isn’t too good at all… My work consists of objects found, discarded, thrown away, abandoned, hoarded, hidden, dug up or encountered by the side of the road and in the cupboards around our house in the country. (I found the wasp nest in an old wardrobe. The little blue mug rose out of the dead leaves when I was cutting back the lilac bushes. The bones were found while digging in the garden. The German soldier’s helmet was – of course – In the loft.) I put all of it on wheels. And now it drives around and leaves traces. As simple as that. (R.J.) Rasa Jansone’s paintings are mostly conceptual. Her sequential, slightly robust and original painted environment, featuring a range of ready-made artefacts and found objects, depicts anthropomorphic beings with large eyes and lacking mouths. Themes for the works spring from a reflection on personal experience combined with that of social and historical context. Literature plays a major role in the work of the artist. For instance, the exhibition “Rear-View Mirror” (2011, Nabaklab) was a direct distillation of the novel “Peeling the Onion” by Gunther Grass. Rasa’s work is characterized by a refined aesthetic of thinking. She expresses the subject of her work in a written or spoken manner that is both cultivated and literarily self-contained. Most of her work and exhibitions, however, remain without written descriptions. As a result, while engagement with her work requires time and concentration, it brings forth unexpected surprises, sorrows and reflections. Her installations and spatial objects are fashioned along the same line. The artist once said: “I think a lot about what it is that am I entitled to exhibit, these doubts are ever present with me. I don’t think that it should go without saying – hi, my name is so and so, now, please pay attention to me”. Rasa Jansone has a Master’s degree from the Art Academy of Latvia (2002) and has graduated from the Faculty of Textiles at the Riga Design and Arts School (1996). Rasa has exhibited her work and participated in group exhibitions and projects since 2005. The titles of Jansone’s exhibitions give an indication of her life and artistic practice: “The Secret Life of Snow-White” (Sniegbaltītes slepenā dzīve, 2005), “Little People” (Cilvēciņi, 2006), “The Hopes of a Mother” (Mammas cerības, 2007), “Rear-View Mirror” (Atpakaļskata spogulis, 2011). (I.L.) Downshifting? It is already fourth summer (since the birth of my daughter) that I am spending in the countryside, some 180 km from Riga. In early May we are both brought here, and in September we are taken home. Summer life in the country goes like this: I get water from the little stream by the house, and milk and eggs from the neighbour; bread is either baked by me, or bought on Thursdays, from Pretty Inesīte at the mobile shop van. I sow lettuce in the garden (miraculously, it does grow, all by itself). An internet connection is available 2 kilometres away at the village library. Newspapers and magazines are also the same distance away, at the village post office. Company - mostly consists of my young daughter and the 85-year-old neighbour lady. The world is like a giant pair of lungs – it inhales and exhales. I don’t think we have pneumonia or anything like that. It’s more like some slight shortness of breath, or perhaps the lowest point of an exhalation. And of course I do not think that escaping to the country can fundamentally change something, or save you from anything. Of course it can’t. It’s just that this summer life in the country suddenly adds an incredibly soft and warm texture to the usual roughness of days.

ARTISTS

Truth is simple Atis Jākobsons and Kate Krolle Video installation, 2012

To dig out the secrets you have buried, it is necessary to return to nature: this is the most intimate and direct form of our experience. All processes going on inside us are part of nature, inescapable in their determinacy, thus they are not to be ashamed of or avoided. The video installation “Truth is simple” shows the experience of our thoughts on the stage provided by nature, where all actions are beautiful and necessary. (A.J., K.K.) Kate Krolle currently lives and works in Paris. She has a Master’s degree from the Graphic Art Department of the Art Academy of Latvia. Kate Krolle’s artworks often remind visual poems that reflect the unaccepted, incomprehensible and lonely side of human nature. Kate Krolle works in various media: graphic art, objects, installations, and video and takes part in exhibitions since 2004. Atis Jākobsons has obtained a Master’s degree in Painting from the Arts Academy of Latvis a Latvian-born artist working in painting, photography, and mixed media. His work explores the relationship between the human figure and dream-like environments, which are both immediately haunting and attempts to think visually in the language of abstraction, in terms of line, mass, and color. Throughout, he seeks to register the subtle interplay of conscious inwardness and kinesthetic being in the world, where the somatic blurs into the affective. He presents the viewer with a borderland where bodies confront the radically impersonal sites of nature, space, and form. Before finishing his MFA at the Academy of Painting in Latvia in 2010, Jakobsons held several solo shows in Latvia, and participated in numerous group exhibitions in Latvia, Germany, and France. He currently lives and works in Berlin.

Photo:Miklós_Surányi

Mihai Ieapure Gorski. was born in Alba Iulia. His family moved to Cluj-Napoca right after the fall of Ceausescu, in 1990. He still resides there. And although Gorski’s works have been exhibited internationally, he says that as far as time is concerned, making works of art is a secondary occupation for him. „I enjoy the thought of having my life organized in this way, although art is a priority in my life as a whole.” Downshifting? I have a personal experience with what I think could be considered downshifting. As far as time is concerned art or making works of art is a secondary occupation for me. Although I somewhat enjoy having it that way, it has as a result a lower rate of production of artworks; the time preceding production is extended. Putting out fewer works has its benefits. Every single work gains in importance and is more thoroughly thought of. Some of the “weaker” works are never produced.

Sørfinnset skole/the nord land Søssa Jørgensen (NO) & Geir Tore Holm (NO)

Absence from the art scene doesn’t mean I’m not here. Exercise. Mihai Ieapure Gorski (RO) Photography, 2009. Text, 2010

Work „Absence from the art scene doesn’t mean I’m not here” started from my desire to picket an art show/fair. I was initially planning on setting up and documenting a performance: standing outside a respected art entity during an event with a picketing banner. Uncomfortable and unmotivated with performing an actual picketing action I decided to place the banner in the surrounding parks of the Frieze Fair venue and take a photograph to document its presence. With that impossible due to police restrictions, the photograph was taken instead inside during fair wrap-up. (Thanks to Mihai Pop, Mihnea Mircan si Mihaela Lutea for making that possible.) „Exercise”. While wondering if work would be possible without some of the things we frequently use as artists in our processes, I started an exercise which consists of enumerating them in denial.

Presentations, discussions and research on artists in rural work, 2003-2012

ARTISTS

Geir Tore Holm and Søssa Jørgensen parallel to individual work that includes video, photography, sculpture, sound art, performance and installations, have mediated, written on and been teaching in contemporary art. By initiating Balkong in 1993, using their apartment as exhibition space, they brought up questions about what art can be. The contexts of artistic practice and work with art as dialogue in practice has been central issues. The homebased experiences led to many other activities. In 2003 they initiated Sørfinnset School/ the nord land in Gildeskål, Nordland. This ongoing project includes focus on exploitation of nature, exchanging of knowledge and small-scale architecture. They continue to work in the field of broad aesthetical understanding of realities of society, man and nature. Geir Tore Holm (b. Tromsø, 1966) is currently a research fellow at Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Søssa Jørgensen (b. Oslo, 1968) holds an MA in Landscape Architecture from Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), Ås. The artists are living at the farm Ringstad in Skiptvet, Østfold.

Downshifting? We moved to the farm Ringstad in march 2010, and started up our life there, being looser connected to the city and the artists community. We are experiencing a change of workloads, not a reduction, taking care of the land, growing vegetables, grass and fruit, berries and our animals demands a change in daily rutines, working dynamically with the changing seaons.This change of living involves new discussions, including hands on experience. Looking for new ways, within ecological thinking, in contemporary art and society. Shifting down is probably more of neccecity in our individual lifes, but in societies there are cycles of changes based on resources, ideas and politics.

Romantic Geographic Society R.G.S. Jussi Kivi (FI) Documentation. 2012

PRINCIPLES The Romantic Geographic Society shares knowledge and strives to unite the activities of otherwise isolated workers in the field of exploration and of Romantic geography, and to amplify their voices. HISTORY RGS was founded in 1994 after long lasting romantic and geographic activity & field work. It is a hypothetical – poetic construction, a conceptual frame and somehow a working organization. RGS has organized expeditions, picnics and adventurous explorations. MEMBERSHIP RGS has only hang around members and members of honor. In practice activities are not based on fixed membership, but on the co-operation with independent operators and other organizations. ORGANIZATION RGS is divided at least to the following departments: Department of landscape studies; Bunker dept. (sub dept. of cave department); Camp engineering department/ sub department of camp fire dept.; Catering (picnic) department; Cave research department & department of subterranean landscapes; Department of ancient relics; Department of political geography; Drawing office; Exploration department, sub-department of the executive department of scientific expeditions; Film and documentary propaganda film department; Hiking and wandering dept.; Joke department; Mapping department; Orienteering dept.; Outdoor investigation department; Propaganda department;

RGS collection of romantic objects; Self-congratulation dept.; Supplies department; Urban exploration department and department of wastelands; Wilderness and backwoods department; Conference office FUTURE Despite the fact that romanticism is less interested in the future than in timelessness, i.e. here and now – RGS is working for a better world.

ARTISTS

Jussi Kivi lives and works in Finland. He studied at the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 1976–1978 and at the Finnish Art Academy School in 1978–1982. He walks in the footsteps of old landscape painters. He makes outdoor expeditions on foot and skis and records what he sees and experiences by drawing, photographing, writing and videotaping. His notes record the times, places, weather conditions and maps. They tell of both the ruggedness of nature and traces left by humans. Kivi’s conception of nature is not the opposite of civilization. Instead, it is somewhere between wild nature and human civilization. He has also written a trekking guide for art lovers (Kaunotaiteellinen eräretkeilyopas, 2004). Jussi Kivi’s work has been exhibitedin KIASMA (Helsinki), Veniece Biennalle Pori Art Museum, Kunstverrein Haburg, etc.

Downshifting? The concept is not too familiar as a concept, but there is something familiar which touches me as an artist and human being: There is a supposition that good artist should successfully take part to international art world. The best which could happen to the artist is that one became an internationally known name, part of The Art Jet Set. That needs many things, like lot of traveling by air. So, success means flying, but if I fly, I feel looser, because flying all the time around the world is ecologically and socially irresponsible. As an example: I cannot imagine the situation that all poor 19eing19po and 19eing19 would fly as much as 19eing19pon and north 19eing19pon (and artists) do. I think it’s not possible: cheap oil means wars and we don’t have enough air & sky too. There is no more space for all pollution…etc.

Mountaingorsk Laura Ķeniņš (CA) Drawings, 2012

Mountaingorsk is a drawing installation exploring the idea of escape to the mountains. Though the rural lifestyle and landscape are often romanticized by city dwellers, the realities of life in the mountains can be less idyllic. In Canadian director Guy Maddin’s 1992 film Careful, the inhabitants of a remote alpine village live carefully trying not to make too much noise, in case their voices trigger an avalanche; in more realistic situations, mountain dwellers and climbers are constrained by snow, wind and other natural phenomena. Soviet officials romanticized the idea of the ‘magnetic mountains’ in building the steel city of Magnitogorsk in the 1930s, built quickly with little attention to safety, now one of the world’s most polluted cities. In eastern Europe, many people live in poverty in mountain villages, cut off from modern society; however, in the current economic climate, this could also be seen as protection against the crisis. mountainogorsk explores the tensions between the escapist and the less romantic perceptions of mountains. (L.K.)

So, I rather try to be part of the solution than a problem. Stay calm, stay down!

KODEK (LV) Performs at the opening of festival on September 6th KODEK or Raivo Vainovskis is a nugget of gold in Latvia’s underground electronic music. Creating sounds that do not fit in any of the known genres, KODEK brings in music his own urgencies, surprising with his attitude towards accepted norms – during his performances he usually provokes listeners to re-examine their ideas of what is “normal”. Equipped with the typical punk attitude and extravagant musical instruments (including the one-time popular pocket game consoles Game Boy), Kodek destroys the harmony of melody and rhythm.

Laura Ķeniņš was born in Toronto, has lived and worked in Halifax, Canada, and Budapest, Hungary, and currently lives in Riga. She studied printmaking and photography at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax and has worked primarily with comics and drawing, exhibiting work across Canada and publishing comics in Kuš magazine (Latvia), Don’t Touch Me Comics (Toronto), Matrix Magazine (Montreal), and other Canadian publications. She has worked as an art critic for publications across Canada and curated an exhibition of Baltic comics in Halifax and Vancouver in 2010. (L.K.)

Downshifting? Downshifting can be seen as a need to take control over your own life and maintain a safe distance from the pressures of big cities, big business, big agriculture, big government, and so on. This could mean anything from being selfemployed to buying your food at the market to moving to the country. Growing up in a giant city and living primarily in a smaller, more isolated city since 2003 has helped me maintain perspective on the important things, like living somewhere where you can bike to a lake in the countryside in fifteen minutes.

Urban Oasis Madara Lesīte (LV) Installation, 2012

Living in Riga’s urban space, I feel the city has subjected me to its hasty and incessant rhythm. Sometimes it seems that the city’s rhythm materialises and pours down on me like a downpour. It can make me weak and exhausted. In such moments I would like to find a place to hide.

ARTISTS

I have created my oasis under an umbrella attached to a wall. This place has gathered moss over time, obviously marking its territory. The function and symbols of rain are changed – urban space has replaced raindrops. Each viewer will have a chance to stay in my secret place and feel the magic of the urban oasis. Inspecting the surroundings, it will be possible to notice another object. It looks like a man who had literally become part of urban life. Moss has already covered his legs and is spreading over the walls. Moss is the messenger of forgotten nature. The leg motif is a reference to “Leg”, the work of American artist Robert Gober. With these activities, I invite people to consider how to make their environment more harmonious and balanced.

Jump into the cold water Liene Mackus (LV) Objects, animation, 2012

To strip naked and step into a meadow. An one hour drive outside Riga it is already possible to experience solitude, the power of nature and spatial depth. It is a dream of a balanced and organised life – paradise now. Liene Mackus obtained an MA in sculpture at the Art Academy of Latvia, studying for one term at the Accademia di Belle Arte di Palermo in Italy. Mackus works with plasticine animation which she calls “the moving sculpture”. Mackus has participated in projects “The Lion of Kabul”, “Basic Element” (group “Anna Varna”) and “HUGO” (together with Maija Mackus and “Very Cool People”), and festivals and exhibitions: 2 ANNAS, Autumn 2008, Autumn 2009, “Gāzīte”, “Survival Kit 3” and others.

Downshifting? It is important to recognize the right moment to fill up the tank.

Madara Lesīte continues her studies in the Department of Visual Communication at the Art Academy of Latvia. Lesīte spent one semester at Berlin’s Hochschule fur Technik und Wirtschaft. Lesīte has taken part in exhibitions since 2006. Her works have been shown in ”TIKKO BŪS” (2011), ”LAIKA NAV” (2011), “Rudens, Recycle Process” (Laimīgās mākslas muzejs) , ”Pārmija” (Riga Art Space) and others.

Downshifting? It is not easy for me to slow down, as I am very impulsive. There are moments when everything is boiling around me, while some days and weeks are totally idle. Probably everything has to continue with its ups and downs. It is much more attractive to observe yourself as you attempt to achieve your goals, despite various obstacles.

ARTISTS

Household Mary Maija Mackus (LV) Photography, installation, 2012

“Household Mary” is a contemporary transformation of the sacred image, both a small altar and simply a splendid picture, reminding one of unworldly things, either intentionally or accidentally. Although the main protagonists are taken from the Bible, the story is neither about religion nor about any other cultural or political construction. I have put a man on a pedestal: someone who has created a friend, protector and household superhero for himself, according to his own taste and understanding. The context surrounding Mary is often conflicting to the point of absurdity, although sincerity and humanity reigns above all. (M.M.)

Excerpt from Skype conversation. Paris – Istanbul – Shöppingen. Mickaël: First, we were talking about faxes. I said that we want to activate the fax system with one friend, also an artist who lives in the North of Berlin. Maya: Right, I was telling about the huge Unité project that took place in early nineties and that I was working with it’s archive. I was amazed when I saw all these typewritten letters, faxes, huge amounts of diverse papers and my dream would be to organize an exhibition using only phone, fax, letters. Mickaël: And the faxes overlapsed with Georgia. We understood that we shouldn’t go to Riga but to downshift to Georgia and send faxes to the festival. It was our long joke that we developed. Maya: At the end it became realistic, we even started to plan the trip and were thinking that we could send the faxes from post offices as they normally should have a fax machine. Ivars: We didn’t decide how should it be presented at the end, we were just thinking to send it with: hello, we are having a nice time here... Or to have one person in Riga who would I the faxes, stand in the exhibition and to communicate Maya Miķelsone is a Latvian curator based in Paris. She has studied Philosophy of Art at University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne followed by curatorial training program at École du Magasin. Lately she has been involved mainly in video projects. Ivars Grāvlejs had studied photography at Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). His latest exhibition «Riga» (in collaboration with eing artist Petra Petileta) was shown at Karlin Studios, Prague and at Riga Art Space. Mickaėl Marchand is a French artist based in Berlin where has completed his studies at Universität Der Kunste Berlin. Since then he had several exhibitions in Berlin and other European cities. His work was recently shown in «PPP» at Krome Gallery, Berlin.

Maija Mackus obtained an MA in graphic art at the Art Academy of Latvia, studying for one term at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain. Her earlier education includes environmental design studies at Riga Art and Design Secondary School. Mackus created the HUGO bear design, a plasticine animation (together with Liene Mackus) in collaboration with the musicians “Very Cool People”, Elīna Seile andS&T Syndicate. She also teaches drawing and art history at Mālpils Music and Art School.

Downshifting? What follows after slowing down? Speeding up. No doubt about that.

Superstructure Maya Mikelsone (LV/FR), Ivars Grāvlejs (LV/CZ), Mickaėl Marchand (FR) SUPER structure is a SURVIVAL KIT subproject, an intervention that comments the festival itself and selected artworks. It could also be defined as a parasite project as it is developed on already existing idea or concept. Ivars Gravlejs will intervene in a form of an audio guide. He will make spontaneous short description and critique about works exhibited at the festival. Mickaël Marchand often constructs ephemeral installations with different obsolete objects he founds in the streets, making them inseparable from the urban environement and the situation. For SURVIVA LKIT Mickaël will create an installation that will have a dialogue with the venue.

Downshifting? Maya Miķelsone: There was this exhibition «Unité» in the I of 90’s curated by Yves Aupetitalot. It was a two year project organized in Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation (social housing in South of France) which was partly empty. The curator invited many artists, designers and eingpond for a residency in one of the flats to work and at the end to present something. Of course, there were no emails, no mobile phones at that time. It happened to me to make a research about the project and to see it’s archive which is an enormous amount of eingpondence between Yves Aupetitalot and the participants, faxes and various papers. My dream is to make an exhibition using only these tools of communication, without Internet (no Google!) and mobile phone, just home phone, fax and letters. Ivars Grāvlejs: Last year I was in artist residency in Corsica, residency was titled “Do nothing”. For ten days I was playing “PlayStation” and only one afternoon for few hours went to take a look at marvellous Sari-Solenzara. What comes after downshifting? “Downshifting 2”, Downshifting 3” and then “Shutdowning 1”… Mickaël Marchand: I consider downshifting as a diet for addicted-consumers (that I’m not). Therefore, the only way I can relate to it is not as a temporary state but as a way of life. I’m not looking for pleasure. I’m keeping or trying to keep eing happy with a few things. I’m not on Facebook because I prefer to really meet people. Until not so long ago I just had 2 blue jeans and 4 T-shirts.

ARTISTS

Untitled

Sabbath 2008

Jaime Pitarch (ES)

Nira Pereg (IL)

In its broadest sense my work deals with the human inability to identify themselves within structures, which these human beings have themselves created in the course of time. The sense of loss and failure to comply with these structures upon encountering them (marriage, culture, work environment, society, etc.) encourage humans to constantly, intuitively interpret the world and themselves, attempting to fit into these structures. This seemingly unnecessary action changes the fate of people. I consider it to be an exceptionally beautiful fact.

The work Sabbath 2008 documents the closing down of the ultra-orthodox neighborhoods in and around Jerusalem on the eve of the Sabbath. In most cases, public access to these neighborhoods is blocked by means of temporary barriers, which stay put for 24 hours – thus creating an artificial border between these areas and the rest of the city. The barriers are put in place by neighborhood residents, with the approval and support of the Jerusalem municipality and the police. Once the barriers are erected, no cars are allowed into Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox neighborhoods. The city is thus topologically transformed into two cities – with and without cars. Building on this ritual, Sabbath 2008 is a photographic ritual that can only be performed at a designated time and in designated places. Although the value of these somewhat rickety barriers may appear above all symbolic, their presence is a source of friction and conflict; they delineate a clear-cut boundary between the sacred and the mundane. (N.P.)

Objects, 2011-2012

In my work I make use of elements produced or inhabited by people, as well as those that have helped people formulate an idea about what the world is and what they are. I often disassemble these objects and assemble them anew. Distance from the initial object to a new (often non-functional) object works as a material reflection of the distance between the initial being and the person within collective structures, showing how limited our adaptation and identification skills are when they come in contact with structures.

Video, 7’12’’, 2008

It often seems that a new, shifted object finds itself vertically, in an unstable balance, thus reflecting the blunder of humans and the need to remain on their feet, if only to maintain what is given and to confirm that they still EXIST. This order making process helps to avoid aesthetic and functional criteria in creating a new object and compels to observing the question of order (ordering is a precondition of interpreting), for all ingredients of the element X are reviewed and rearranged based on unusual criteria, by performing seemingly unnecessary actions, which lead used elements to an unclassified form of self-loosing and self-assertion. (H.P.)

Jaime Pitarch’s work includes sculpture, drawing, video and performance. Often using humble everyday objects such as a guitar, a chair, and household and consumer products, the artist employs inventive and witty strategies of displacement, recontextualization, and visual punning to peel away at their routine uses and meanings, posing what The Village Voice (writing about his 2006 solo show at the gallery) has called a series of “exquisite conundrums”.

Nira Pereg’s work deals with ways that social structures intersect with the authority of the individual. Typically, her projects are documentary based, but transform reality into an quasi-theatrical events. Using complex editing techniques and various-scaled multimedia installations, Pereg’s interest in socials schemes draws on a unique and personal perspective. “Re-looking” is a primary concern in her work practice and her everyday life, and often builds on periods of intense travel and close observations. Pereg, born in in Israel, spent the 90s in New-York, where she received a B.F.A from Cooper Union at New York USA. On her return to Israel, she graduated from the Bezalel M.F.A studio program in Jerusalem, and has been teaching internationally ever since. Pereg’s works have been exhibited at PS 1 New York, Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution, DC, USA, HDK Berlin, KW Berlin, ZKM Karlsruhe, the Israeli Museum of Art in Jerusalem, House Der Kunst Munchen, EdithRuß-Haus für Medienkunst, Kusntahlle Dusseldorf, The Israeli Museum and the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art, and at various festival and galleries, recently a receiver of the Nathan Gottesdiener Foundation Israeli Art Prize for young artist.

Photo: Marc Ballo and Monica Cortés

ARTISTS

Internal Combustion Engine Krists Pudzens (LV)

Electro-mechanical sculpture, 2012 “Internal Combustion Engine” is an electro-mechanical sculpture formally based on the process during which fossil fuel is converted, via explosion, into a mechanical action. Thus the message is about a mechanism with a sporadically reactionary function based on internal processes, but directed outwards. The sculpture tells a poetic tale about the inner explosion, a push resulting from the explosive mixture causing changes – summing up successive explosions, a certain result is achieved. This is a sort of magic circle in which successive events are intensified through feedback related to other events, thus creating (or not creating) balance in the system. Each iteration of the object heightens the present condition and this action is tended to run its course until some outer factor interrupts this cycle. Such a system always tends towards destabilisation, so all attempts to subject and control explosive processes degrade the system’s output, reducing its specific power. Thus the internal combustion system, from one point of view, is a story about searching for balance between the desired pragmatic result and nature’s unpredictable behaviour. From the historical aspect, fuel and internal combustion engines have been key factors in the rapid industrialisation of the human life, providing chances to move quicker, farther and reach places otherwise inaccessible for human beings. This technology has opened enormous prospects for humankind, carrying equally destructive consequences. This is the human wish to hold sway over nature’s physical processes, restrain the fire and control explosions. Controlling and manipulating natural resources has never been unequivocal, as all natural processes are interrelated and balanced. Disharmony and misbalance are created to realise short-term goals, forgetting about the wider context. Humans are prone to wishful thinking and ignoring dissenting opinions. This human choice reminds one of Aesop’s fables in Ancient Greece featuring a hungry fox that could not reach grapes and who went away saying: “Oh, you aren’t even ripe yet. I don’t need any sour grapes.” In social psychology this phenomenon is known as cognitive dissonance. This is a motivation to reduce inner conflict, changing existing ideas or creating new ones, thus arriving at consistent judgements. (K.P.)

Krists Pudzens has graduated from the Art Academy of Latvia Sculpture Department, and is based in Riga. For the past six years he has explored the field of interactive and electronic art. His study is directed towards sculpture and the conceptual language of three dimensional forms, using a mix of many artistic and industrial techniques. He has participated in the arts and technology festivals Amber (2008 + 2009, Turkey) and PixelACHE2010, Helsinki (Finland). (ISEA2010)

Downshifting? To my mind, these are all specific questions that become pertinent for most people from time to time, regardless of definition, a crisis or any other external factors. This is a question of balancing one’s inner world and the optimal use of one’s resources. Would opting out of the game be a reaction? Or discontent with the model we ourselves have created? Should we get angry like kids who don’t like the rules of the game or have lost at times? The greatest threat is to sink into carelessness and remain on the same level of existence without attempting any progress.

Birthday Greetings from the Bank. Artūrs Punte (LV) Screenshot, 2012

A real screenshot of the author’s internet banking page boasts birthday wishes of success and fulfilment of all plans. The text of the greeting is placed next to a considerable shortfall in the bank account, created by unpaid loans and tax debts. The screenshot is a real-life document, captured on the artist’s birthday at the deepest point of the recession. This gesture of corporate courtesy is in direct contradiction of the true essence of the client/bank relationship, as the only ‘plans’ in this situation would have to concern debt repayment; fulfilment of any other dreams would most certainly have to be postponed until a more prosperous time. This ‘cordial’ automatic greeting represents the limited ability of large corporations to address the client as an individual; an inability to recognize a particular client’s situation and problems.

Arturs Punte is a poet, editor, and curator, one of the founders and participants of the text group “Orbīta”. He writes and translates poetry in Russian and Latvian. Punte has graduated from the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. He has presented his poetry performances at literature and art projects in Riga, Vilnius, Berlin, Madrid, Dortmund, St. Petersburg and elsewhere. Punte is one of the curators of poetic video festival “Word in Motion”, has edited the collection of verse “Par mums”, almanac “Orbīta”, anthology of Dmitri Rantsev’s articles “Kinotācijas”, anthology “Laikmetīgā krievu dzeja Latvijā 1985-2005” and others. His work has been published in the periodicals “Karogs”, “Satori”, “Daugava”, “World Literature Today” and others. Punte’s works, including those created together with the text group “Orbīta”, fit equally well in the contexts of literature, visual and audio-visual arts and living arts (performances).

ARTISTS

Staging Dissensus Reloading Images (Kaya Behkalam (DE), Roberto Cavallini (IT), Azin Feizabadi (IR), Carla Esperanza Tommasini (IT))

Performative lecture on September 8

Reloading images intervention for SURVIVAL KIT 4 will focus on the intersections between artistic agency and dissensus. By employing historical and fictional elements, documents and research materials produced during the project ‘On Dissent – A collective narrative”, we will use different methods and approaches to explore downshifiting as a dissensual practice. “Staging dissensus” is a lecture performance that will depart from a series of conversations held in post-revolutionary Cairo with a range of different people such as an historian, an anthropologist, a lawyer. With the aim of casting an indirect glance on the relationship between images and history, representation and dissent, our work will explore the notion of archive as a dispositif that frames the ways in which we create and convey our stories and sense of belonging. ‘Staging dissensus’ will function as a fragmentary archive in progress, whereby the concept of memory as historical witness will be put into play and challenge through ideas of fabrication and deception. The aim is to plunge the viewer into a narrative that oscillates between the real and the virtual, documents and desires, the possible and the unknown, where the limits of a fictional representation meets the tones of a dramatic realism. This work has been developed in collaboration with Tuna Yilmaz (IKSTD, Izmir in the framework of EU-Turkey Tandem, a cultural programme supported and organized by the European Cultural Foundation and Stiftung Mercator, in collaboration with MitOst, Anadolu Kultur and Bilgi University. With the support of the project DE.MO./MOVIN’UP 2012 A CURA DI / BY Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali Direzione Generale per il Paesaggio, le belle arti, l’architettura e l’arte contemporanee con la partecipazione di Direzione Generale per lo Spettacolo dal Vivo E/AND GAI – Associazione per il Circuito dei Giovani Artisti Italiani This presentation in Riga has been supported with a mobility grant from the Italian programme ‘Movin’ up 2012’:

Reloading Images signifies an approach rather than a fixed agenda of theoretical questions or issues. The focal questions of each Reloading Images project differ and are based on the specific circumstances in which they are placed. Our previous projects have explored the complex web of unconscious influences, cultural phenomena, migratory forms, and subjective constructions of narratives that contemporary society is based on. Since its inception, Reloading Images has been committed to foster mutual capacity between international artists to develop a reciprocal network of collaborative practices and artists’ initiatives focused on exchange, collaboration and interdisciplinary research. Our strategy is delineated firstly through research and workshops; we seek to find ways of combining academic and artistic, experimental and applied, intuitive and research-based forms of discourse and display. We create temporary structures in which experiments can be undertaken, formats explored, forms of language and (visual) communication re-appropriated. In the past we have organized exhibitions, conceived performative interventions, published books and implemented workshops. Among our recent collaboration partners have been the House of World Cultures Berlin, the European Cultural Foundation, the Prince Claus Fund Amsterdam and the European Delegation in Damascus, Maraa Media Collective (Bangalore), ASEF Foundation (Singapore) and ArtsNetworkAsia (Singapore).

Downshifting? After, or along with, downshifting perhaps one should identify a moment of invention that, as Derrida would say, it doesn’t mean to create ex-nihilo but to find for the first time: ‘to find is to invent, when the experience of finding takes place for the first time’. It is first of all a question of how to invent and not of what: if inventing is finding something that is already there, something that has always being there but now it is given, or invented, into a new configuration.

Long day Krišs Salmanis (LV)

Animation, 4’, 2012 Work was created in collaboration with HIAP “Paths Crossing” project In what appears to be a single shot of a rural landscape scene, one observes a sped-up day from dawn till sunset. In the morning, a shed is being built in the middle distance. The acceleration is such that no people can be seen, only the building process. Come noon, the structure is complete and a moment later the forces of nature start taking their toll. Rain, sun and winds gradually ruin the structure. Eventually it collapses and the sun sets.

ARTISTS

Krišs Salmanis uses animation, video, photography, objects as well as his body, trees etc in his art. However, it is neither the media used, nor the unifying themes, but rather the employed method what characterizes the work of Krišs Salmanis. In Latvian there is not an appropriate synonym for the word „joke” to denote that the element, which in Krišs Salmanis’ work can be perceived as irony or humour, is instead mental excersise, intellectual activity, wit as a twist of thought. Another important aspect is formulated best by the artist himself, using Kurt Vonnegut’s idea of the complicated futility. The making of Krišs Salmanis’ work is often seemingly unnecessarily time- and effort-consuming. It is a kind of self-invented craftsmanship, which, even if unnoticed by the spectator, is a vital component of the final piece. The work of Krišs Salmanis is the process of thinking and the way of passing one’s life. K. Salmanis has obtained an MA from the Department of Visual Communication at the Art Academy of Latvia (2003), and has undertaken additional studies in Cologne Art Academy Media Department. Salmanis’ works have been exhibited in Latvia and abroad since 1996; his works are included in the collections of the Contemporary Art Museum of Latvia as well as the National Museum of Estonia. (Z.Z.)

Not Even Something Alnis Stakle (LV) Photography, 2012

Downshifting as a name for the Western cultural phenomenon of slowing down the pace of living was first used terminologically in Amy Saltzman’s book ‘Downshifting: Reinventing Success on a Slower Track’, which was published in 1991 – ironically, coinciding with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The series of works titled Not Even Something is based on a visually subjective examination of the post-Soviet cityscape and its interpretation as a social construct. Although Latvia has seen many significant social/political events since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the selection of cityscape as the main point of reference reveals that the architecture and territorial division of the Soviet era still determine the pace of life, public movement routes and also the landscape aesthetic of the average post-Soviet city. During the Soviet era, city territories were usually subdivided into areas which often differed from each other not only in name but also by their distinct function within the city environment. There were, for example, industrial factory districts, garage districts, sleeping districts, garden allotments. After the collapse of the Soviet Union many of these districts lost their function. Factories were closed, fences were partially dismantled, everything overgrew with shrubbery and people began to use these interspaces as shortcuts to the city locations they needed to get to. There is, of course, public transportation, which connects the various city districts; but late in the evening or at night it is easier for people to pass through these interspaces on foot. This creates paths and roads that are not marked on the official city map. The city map, on the other hand, starts to show territories that are never the city inhabitants’ destinations, but are always interspaces between more meaning-invested parts of the city. The works of this series explore these ‘ghost zones’ at night, which is stereotypically the most dangerous time to be there. The paths made by people passing through on foot often also determined the basic aesthetic structural principles of the works themselves. Before I had started to take pictures I imagined the photographs would present at least some slight visual evidence of the sinister and unwelcoming nature

of the interspace. Instead, I discovered that in photographs the interspace landscapes acquire qualities that are reminiscent of the pictorial tradition of the Romantic landscape painting. These works are not a characterization of any particular geographic location or social event; they convey the imperfection of the eye and the camera as instruments for exploring reality, and describe the inseparable links of the real and the imagined in the interpretation of landscape and landscape photography. (A.S.)

Alnis Stakle through his talented, purposeful and persistent work of the past fifteen years has succeeded in becoming one of the most influential photographers of the middle generation in Latvia. The artist lives and works in Daugavpils, which is where he developed his academic career. Daugavpils is to be perceived as a resource for self-analysis for the artist. Contemporary aspects and historical contexts of image perception and shooting technologies in the works of Alnis Stakle lead to applying old clichés of photo theory, such as the division into mirrors and windows. The photographs of Stakle are like outspoken windows, meant for seeing the artist himself through them. No mirroring of society, or of individuals and separate groups takes place here. The artist photographs everything – marginal architectonic, urban, and daytime changes. Borders and intermediate states that are even more difficult to define are photographed by the artist in order to reveal the peculiarities of his own perception, mind and feelings. To do this, photographs have been taken of students in stripped-down interiors (“Ilgas” (Longing), 2010), little houses in the dark with lit windows (“Home Sweet Home”, 2006–2009), landscapes of his native city (“L.S.D. Living Space Daugavpils”, 2001–2006) and other “things”. Stakle has received a Masters degree in Environmental Education and has defended a doctoral dissertation in Media Pedagogy (2003, 2011, Daugavpils University), yet he does not name any person or institution which has been his teacher in photography. Nevertheless the artist himself successfully performs in the fields of pedagogy linked to photography, giving lectures at the Riga Stradins University and the ISSP school. Since 1998 Alnis Stakle has taken part in group exhibitions and organized solo exhibitions both in Latvia and abroad. He has received a Latvian Photography Award in the category of Author Photography (2006) and the first prize in the Sony World Photography Awards in the category of Architecture Photography (2011). The works of Stakle have been published in “Shots” (UK/USA), “Eyemazing” (NL), “Foto Kvartāls” (LV), “Studija” (LV), “Photography Now” (DE), etc. He has held master classes in photography and visual culture in the UK, Russia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Latvia. (I.L.)

ARTISTS

The Trainee

In Between Things

Pilvi Takala (FI)

Ginta Tinte Vasermane (LV/NL)

The Trainee has been produced in a collaboration with Deloitte and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. In order to realize the project, the artist was working for a month as a trainee „Johanna Takala” in the marketing departement of Deloitte where only few people knew the true nature of the project.

In non-narrative videos I compose and choreograph theatrical-performative scenes, which play with relationships between bodies, architecture, the space of the frame and their limits and elasticity (expansion). While setting up human bodies both in architectural space and in the space of the frame as sculptural elements, I stage an existence with its own logic and rules.

During the month long intervention an initially normal-seeming marketing trainee starts to apply peculiar working methods. Gradually she shifts from the position of someone others believe normal to the object of avoidance and speculation. The videos and slideshow reveal a spectrum of ways of looking after the odd member in a group. Sincere interest and bewildered amusement is juxtaposed with demands directed at the superior regarding the strangely behaving worker.

Movements are composed in a specific rhythm and become irrational and possible at the same time. The arrangements of body positions are expressive of, and play with, the inner conditions of an observer placed in diverse social conditions, spaces and structures.

Installation, 2008

We see the trainee sitting at her workstation in the consults’ open plan office space or in the tax department library all day doing nothing. One of the videos shows her spending an entire day in an elevator. These acts or rather the absence of visible action slowly make the atmosphere around the trainee unbearable and force the colleagues to search for solutions and come up with explanations for the situation. (P.T.)

Installation. 2008

With light irony and poetic methods I play with a subject through staged scenarios. There’s a questioning of who we are and what we do in specific locations.

All the videos are connected to each other in order to create a narrative network, and are to be set up in a multi-channel installation in the space. In SURVIVAL KIT I will show parts of work, displayed as a site-specific installation. (G.T.V.)

Pilvi Takala was born in 1981 in Helsinki, lives and works in Amsterdam. She has completed BFA in 2005 as well as MFA in 2006 in the Academy of Fine Arts (Helsinki). Starting from year 2006 she is having her solo exhibitions, in 2011 she had her exhibition Flip Side in Kunsthalle Lissabon and Sidelines Sørlandets in Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand, Norway. In 2012 she had „Broad Sense” exposed in Forum Box/Mediabox in Helsinki, as well as „Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in” in Kunsthalle Erfurti n Germany. The same year she had an exhibition „Suggested Value” in Künstlerhaus Bremen. She has recieved several prizes: in 2011 Prix de Rome Visual Arts 1st Prize, NL, in 2011 Stuttgart Film Winter, Norman Prize for Best Short Film, in 2010 Kettupäivät Festival, Best Experimental Film, in 2007 Tampere Art Film Festival 1st Prize. (A.V.)

Downshifting? To be honest the thought of downshifting scares me, moving away from the city feels like an impossible idea. I wouldn’t want to „quit the game” either, but maybe I already play the game a bit differently than most of us. As an artist I only produce something when I personally feel it’s absolutely necessary and urgent, so the initiative doesn’t come from outside and I feel like I can take part in the game in my own terms.

Ginta Tinte Vasermane, born in Riga and based in Amsterdam, received a BFA degree from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (2010) and is currently completing MA degree in Dutch Film and Television Academy. Recently have been nominated for Rene Coelho prize by Dutch Media Art Institute and had solo exhibition in Frankfurter Kunstverein. While using mediums like moving image, film, installation and performance, her current works examines human behavioral and gestural codes in public places, our own created rules and roles, the relation of bodies to space and in diverse structures. (G.T.V.)

ARTISTS

Trulā grupa (LV) Performs during White Night on September 8th The project entitled “Trulā grupa” (Dumb Group) was created deliberately in 2012 to educate, surprise and enchant the listener with magic beats, dreamy vocals and wonderful elements of sintypop in the style of the 1980s. The core of the group is two unusually talented musicians – Stinger and Chinaman – who do not hesitate to experiment and are glad to collaborate with young, little-known musicians, like the twitter star EleVele and a couple of less-known producers. Although stars of this scale are known to create little more than songs with texts like “baby, baby”, the “Trulā grupa” likes the difficult themes – the class struggle, conquering the Universe, separation, love and dandelion sap. (T.G.)

obtaining colourful replicas of coins which were later used to create a landscape of Latvia. The works of Upacieris have been also displayed in the exhibitions of the Department of Visual Communication: “Laika nav”, “Stādions”, as well as a student-protest exhibition “Kultūrbloks” in the territory of VEF and in the exhibition “Rough art for rough men” in Brasa prison.

Downshifting? t is possible that “Dumb Group” is the product of slowing down; if the pace had remained fast dumbness would not have overwhelmed us and we would not have time for the “Dumb Saving of the World”, more details on which will be available in our autobiography. I think there is no question as to what will come afterwards – DUMBNESS will take over the world. All signs point to this. We have undergone this transformation a bit earlier! Oh, we are really happy!

Katrina Ilze Vanaga (LV)

Photography (2nd and 3rd cover), 2012

Continuous Choice Klāvs Upaciers (LV) Installation, 2012

The more I look in all directions, the more I see. And the stuff worth looking at is always increasing. As I understand, choice is the advantage of self-conscious creatures. Maybe I am such a creature as well. But then again – the more self-conscious I am, the more… But I don’t get desperate - because I find it interesting. And if this “drawing machine” seemed to be just a nice toy at first, now I think more often that I have created my own self-portrait. An idealised self-portrait, as I am not really as good as this. I probably make the wrong choice from time to time. (K.U.)

Klāvs Upaciers has graduated from the Department of Visual Communication at the Art Academy of Latvia. In his works he deliberately sticks to simplicity and contemporary forms of naive art, following his own conviction that traditional hand drawing still has a lot of unrealized potential. The subject of Upaciers’ works, put in his own words is ”something that is noticed here and now”. At the same time he avoids using clearly recognizable characters, considering this as a function that is better left for words. Together with Brigita Zelča Upaciers took part in SURVIVAL KIT 3 with an interactive drawing installation where the audience was invited to use a technique (well known since childhood) to

„I truly desire to vomit all this out and never return to this story. To encounter this cosmic blast of natural clearance which brings almost tranquilized serenity, relieve and love towards yourself. I am entering a new chapter. Photography is too crazy for me. It came in belief to be a cure, but appeared to be a pin that kept me down with no ability to move forward. I mean I have. I might pick up an instrument now. This story started as a search for my TRUE SELF.” The hurricane Katrina in 2005 was one of the most destructive hurricanes in the history of the USA. Ilze Vanaga’s “Katrina” is the result of over a year of looking into herself, digging through layers of impressions and assumptions she has created. This was not a photo project, rather – a process through which a book has been created, which includes photography, both by and others, magazine and book snippets, notes and drawings. Photographs, published in the SURVIVAL KIT4 newspaper are part from Vanaga’s „Katrina”. Ilzes Vanagas style has come about independently of Latvia’s usual (though nonacademic) schools. Having finished the Department of Art History of the Art Academy of Latvia, Vanaga lived for a number of years in London, assisting recognized fashion photographers. In parallel, she began work on her own personal photo projects, or rather – personal projects, in which photography has been a reliable tool. For example, the series “Childhood is Like a Loaded Weapon” gives testimony to Vanaga’s “journey into her own past” through Katrīna – her brother’s daughter at a prepubescent age. Together with her last photography project “Katrina”, it seems that Vanaga’s relationship with photography as a media is changing: “I no longer feel comfortable calling myself a photographer. It feels inappropriate to put life in frames and for some reason I find these frames very small size. But perhaps I simply need a break.” Vanaga’s photographs have been displayed in the AOP gallery in London in the exhibition VICE/Ctrl+Alt+Shift (2009), the “Host Gallery” in the exhibition “Foto8 summershow” (2010), in the exhibition “All Photographers Now!” in the New York photo festival (2009), “The Bay Salone” in the exhibition “Please excuse the mess, Los Angeles” (2010), the Totaldobže art centre exhibition “Brīnišķīgais ceļojums” (Wonderful Journey) (2010), “Es mirstu – es dzīvoju” (I die – I live) (2011). Vanaga has created photographs for short films by Keta Gūtmane and Mārtiņš Grauds “Lust Lust” and “Creak”. Together with the fashion designer Keta Gūtmane, Vanaga has created the photographic material for her collections. Vanaga held a solo exhibition “Dažādas pasaules” (Various Worlds) at the gallery „AG7” in 2007. In 2012 the “Katrina” project in the framework of the project „Visual narrative: European borderlines” was exhibited at the Bursa PhotoFest (Turkey), Braga Photo Festival (Portugal), Iceland, Fotografia2012 (Italy) and Latvia.

ARTISTS

Slow revolution Iliāna Veinberga, Ainārs Kamoliņš (LV) Conspiracy flat, 2012

I The contemporary rhythm of life – if it is possible to make such an intuitive generalization – is often determined by the pragmatic achievement of goals. The world around us is also structured to accommodate this rhythm, for example: fast food outlets, methods of transport and other systems organized in such a way for people to get a result, having invested as little time as possible. However, this daily rhythm can generate a feeling of unfulfillment and a desire for compensatory experiences: people search for alternative forms of expression, which are found in various „pre-technology” activities, such as handcrafts, painting, cooking and gardening for example. These activities cannot be reduced to the simple achievement of a goal, because the process, and the fact that it has been undertaken, is just as important as the result. However, the search for alternatives does not require a choice between these apparently conflicting models of the world. Instead, we should consider what the American philosopher of technology Albert Borgmann calls main or focal practices1 – those which contrast with daily activities, but also simultaneously structure the general flow of life. One example of this is the creation of a special table culture, which replaces fast food in certain instances and cannot be reduced to the act of eating to feel sated. These practices are comparatively well suited to a bourgeois lifestyle, although the question remains if it is possible to coordinate a slow life with the revolution (not various types of pseudo revolutionary social activities such as, for example, passionately expressing one’s opinion about political questions at a social dinner)? A revolution consists of sped-up social changes. As such it is difficult for revolutions to become part of the everyday life a bourgeois society – not only because the aims of revolutions are sometimes unacceptable, but also because they don’t allow for significant acts of observation and reflection. In Marx’s eleventh thesis on Feurbach, he comments: Philosophers have explained the world in a variety of ways, but the main aim is to transform it.”2 It is precisely this opinion about political involvement – the search for new models of activity – that allows representatives of the bourgeoisie to avoid being involved in revolutionary activities. Furthermore participating in a revolution would be an uncomfortable occupation, because it involves violence, the division of property and various other undesirable side effects. Marx, in his description of the destruction of the Paris Commune, classified it as a special type of show which was suited to a bourgeois passing of time: the representatives of the bourgeoisie watched the battle with great pleasure through a telescope, counted cannon blasts and swore on their honour and on that of the local street walker’s honour that the show was much better than in the theatre by the Porte Saint-Martin. The fallen were really dead, the screams of the wounded were not staged, and the drama that unfolded in front of their eyes was the drama of world history.3 A revolution is a special event because a particular, previously unknown political subject announces itself, and with its actions attempts to change the logic of existence. This subject is the potential potentiality, which either gains a political voice, or cannot realize its potential and – being subjected to moral judgement – is normalized back beneath the ruling structure.4 An example of this on a local scale was the so-called „13th of January” or „Cobblestone Revolution” in Riga in 2009, and the following comments and judgements expressed by politicians and other members of the ruling elite in the media. The aim of the project “Slow Revolution” is to discard the interpretation of the slow life of the bourgeoisie and to find an answer to the question: is it possible to take part in a revolution from a safe distance, actively creating focal practices and simultaneously discovering the possibility of different models?

1 Borgmann, Albert. Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life - University of Chicago Press, 1984. 2 Markss, Kārlis. Tezes par Feierbachu. – Markss K., Engelss F. Darbu izlase. 2. sēj. – LVI, 1950. 380.lpp. 3 Markss, Kārlis. Pilsoņu karš Francijā. – Markss K., Engelss F. Darbu izlase. 1. sēj. – LVI, 1950 493.lpp. 4 Badiou, Allan. The Communist Hypothesis. – New York, London: Verso, 2010. – pp. 168-228.

II A document recently came into our possession, which is quite peculiar. In 1914, 3000 workers from the “Fenikss” factory in Riga left their work stations and went home, without issuing any demands. This kind of behaviour may seem irrational, taking into account the political climate of this and previous years, when workers actively protested, issued demands and so forth – it was considered that to gain a desirable result, it was necessary to make their (the worker’s) needs known. However, this aforementioned event and quiet resilience could just as well be regarded as an act which threatens the current political order the most. A change in political order provides for the creation of new political subjects, which were not visible as potential voices in the political milieu earlier. We are talking about the potential of potentiality when we behold how workers, who earlier were not political subjects, suddenly become such. However, for the potential of potentiality to preserve its status (for it to exist), the logic of existence must change. The logic of existence dictates that one does not arrive at legally formulated relationships of the old establishment, but instead changes and creates a new basis for relationships themselves. Words and formulated demands are the things which allow one to arrive at legal relations – within these relations, those who are not the “rulers” will always be the losers, because they have not created the language, rules and order in which they want to be heard. The intellectual pretends that they can read the message, although those carrying out a subversive act do not offer a key to help understand their work; thanks to the absence of the key and the subsequent difficulty in interpretation, the bourgeoisie and intellectuals are made powerless – they are dependent on those who are acting, but in this case they have no way to reinforce their superiority over them. Therefore the most dangerous form of activity is that which is not expressed in words, which are carried out without concrete statements and demands - because these threaten the foundation of political ontology.

Iliana Veinberga is an art historian, curator and art critic. She has obtained MA in Art History from the Art Academy of Latvia, where she currently is a PhD student. Veinberga’s academic interests include 20th century design history and industrially produced objects of Soviet era. She has participated in research projects, most notably „Documenting and preservation of the non-conformist heritage of the Soviet Period for the archive of the Contemporary Art Museum” carried out by the Latvian Centre for the Contemporary Art (2010). In 2011 she co-curated the exhibition „Modernization. Baltic Art, Architecture and Design in the 1960s-1970s” at National Gallery of Art, Vilnius, Lithuania. Apart from academic duties she enjoys curating contemporary art exhibitions and collaborates on various art related projects, etc. Ainārs Kamoliņš has obtained BA (2002) and MA (2006) degrees in philosophy from the University of Latvia and right now studies Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. His academic interests focus on questions raised by early modern philosophers. Kamoliņš regularly takes part in conferences, and his papers have been published in conference proceedings, journals and the mass media. In 2008 Kamoliņš took part in a bio-art workshop organized by Symbiotica in Stavanger, Norway. Since then, the correlation between philosophical theories and biology has become one of his interests. Kamoliņš participated in SURVIVAL KIT 3, developing a project together with Iliāna Veinberga.

ARTISTS

I had no other Choice than to Jump from one Pile to the Other, as there was Nothing in between Gitte Villesen (DK) Video. 2012

The Gambian musician Amadou Sarr, with whom I have cooperated before tells an old tale while playing on his Molo - a traditional instument. In the tale the Frock and Cockroach are competion on who are oldeste.

Gitte Villesen has traveled several times to Gambia since 2008. The point of departure for these works is the encounter with the Gambian musician Amadou Sarr, with whom Villesen has entered into a long-term cooperation that introduces her to the social texture of his culture as well as the magical practices of Juju. In the course of her projects, Villesen expands this cooperation, for example by recording conversations with three women related to Sarr, Yenden Joff, Mariama Corr and Mariama Senghor, or by asking Mariama Senghor to make the curtains for her installations. On the whole, Villesen’s works follow an ethics of documenting, which can be succinctly described with the words of the author Ursula LeGuin: “The story is not all mine, nor told by me alone.”

Gitte Villesen’s documentary videos and installations can be understood as portraits in the broadest sense: they explore the form in which individuals or social groups give shape to their lives within the framework of their cultural possibilities. However, their protagonists appear neither as heroic subjects nor as victims of circumstance. Instead, Villesen illuminates how subjects and identities are constituted in the everyday micro-politics of gestures, habits and rituals in the charged relationship between norm and deviation. At the same time, she carefully avoids social generalizations by situating the practice of documenting itself as exchange and encounter – as a specific form of social interaction, in which the forms of representation always become the subject of negotiation as well.

Downshifting? Trees, trees, trees.

Crisis Point Zane Veldre (LV) Illustration, painting, 2012

A person goes about the business of living, and then suddenly there’s an instance when a heap of information and experience has been collected, and it all just goes up in smoke! All that you have understood, thought out, decided, simply BLOWS UP. And you have to start anew. Some people rush to swim against the tide, some start buying tomatoes only grown in Latvia and nowhere else; some decide to open a bar, others – to leave work or to start learning to play the piano. Everyone recognizes those little moments when we suddenly understand things that have seemed unclear before, or when we finally get the right feel for where and how to proceed. These moments are like explosions, when someone’s individual limit of patience is exhausted. (Z.V.)

Zane Veldre is completing her Masters studies at the Art Academy of Latvia . Veldre has taken part in exhibitions “SEB scholarship in painting”, ”Most hidden dreams or what I have always wanted to show” (Nabaklab), ”Young Latvian painters II URBANKIDS.” (LNMM Arsenāls), ”Process” (Laimīgās mākslas muzejs).

Downshifting? I can affirm that I have been successful in avoiding this oftenmentioned hurricane of life. During the last years, I have studied in both Latvia and abroad, and my survival had depended on one or another scholarship. Everything has always been a bit unstable, based on unpredictable and casual events and circumstances. I have always felt like a detached observer contemplating the big, real life; also the environment in which I grew up and I am still a part of today can be regarded as healthy and silent. Just distance few steps away, there is the possibility to spend time outside the city, to boil syrup from spruce cones and contemplate wild boars eating groats in the early morning. This means living your life without excess information and retaining balance. This is not rural tourism, but real life. Afterwards, I return to the city and enjoy its advantages – social circles, traffic and streets. But I think about, do not envy and occasionally also admire people who try to get along, solve questions of the right kind of lifestyle and have caged themselves

ARTISTS

Čakra

Idyll, August 3, 2004

Kārlis Vītols (LV)

Julita Wójcik (PL)

Frost and winter cold, it almost feels as if your nose is falling off. Wrapped up in warm clothes, ice anglers are sitting in a frozen and snowy landscape, like proud mushrooms. They make accurate circular cut-outs in the white surface, and with a satisfied facial expression attune themselves to several hours of sitting and waiting. They spend hours this way, focusing on the spot that connects this and the other world, as if practicing unconscious meditation in a field of ice. Ice anglers are apparently not influenced by factors such as freezing cold or spring thaw, causing them to think that the visible is a ritual necessary for the internal world – the soul.

A film „Idyll” is produced in a post-industrial Russia – in a meadow, a young girl wearing a headscarf and a Komsomol-style dress lies on the grass with a closed, dormant Russian industrial plant in the background. An idyllic countryside atmosphere similar to that portratyed in Indian Summer by Józef Chelmonski contrasts sharply with the industrial landscape. On the one hand, it is a a cheerful propaganda image of a woman from a bygone era; on the other hand, it is the image of a degradaded enviroment somewhere at the outskirts of the industrialized world.

Installation, 2012

Kārlis Vītols was born in 1979. In 2001 he graduated with a Master’s degree from the Graphic Art Department of the Art Academy of Latvia, while in 2003 he obtained a second Master’s degree from the Department of Painting at the Academy. Vītols has been taking part in exhibitions since 1997. He has organized five solo exhibitions that express a tendency to broaden the ideas touched upon in his paintings, using other media – comics or animation. Vītols’ works show a solid interest in mythical thinking and its development today. He has received several awards for his works in animation. Vītols’ hobbies are making music, such as playing the harmonica, and he uses these skills in producing film scores. Vītols uses the nickname Kloijhi.

Video, 3’55”, 2004

This film has been produced within the framework of the exhibition Under the White & Red Flag. New Art from Poland in Niznhy Tagil, the Middle Urals in Russia, curated by Magda Kardasz. The film belongs to the collection of the Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw / Poland. (J.W.)

Julita Wójcik introduces to her art a very personal, and thus very feminine, idiom. She reads from a private perspective the social conventions and codes, which she then ’familiarises’ and employs in her projects. Those are often very prosaic activities, typical for a ‘provincial girl,’ as the artist likes to call herself. Crocheting, sweeping up, cultivating a small vegetable garden, or setting up water holes in public places, building bird tables or flying kites are hardly activities one would think of as art, being more of everyday-life experiences, somewhat characteristic for a bygone era that is slowly falling into oblivion. The simple activities acquire a deeper meaning only when placed in an artistic context which, on the one hand, elevates them, and, on the other, strips art of its elitist quality. Demonstrating how art can negotiate with reality on an equal footing. (Ewa Gorządek)

Downshifting? I think in a way we live now at the similar times like middle ages or in some way also like near the Revolution times in XIX century France. And this revolution already began: in Spain, Greece and those countries where the financial economy collapsed. People change their life into more personal one, more “useful” one, they eat less, build less, make less garbage. They do those everyday things but in human proportions. In my artistic practice I have aways been trying to expose simple daily activities like flying a kite, gardening, peeling potatoes... to do that what for today’s world is to “slow-living”…

ARTISTS

New life Horbelev

Untitled

Wooloo

Mārtiņš Zutis (LV)

NEW LIFE HORBELEV is a social experiment based in the village of Horbelev in Denmark. The project is a commission from the public art

According to the principle that happiness belongs to them who don’t realise they could be even happier, new commitments, works and thirst for more information are subjected to the questioning of their necessity. May be sometimes it is better not to see, not to hear, not to taste and not to know, in order not to raise requirements against the existing reality, because un-happiness resides in the distance between the expectations and this reality.

Video, 10’56’’, 2010

festival TUMULT. The project began in spring 2010, when Wooloo contacted a joint stock company set up by the citizens of Horbelev to create new life in their small village, which is threatened with economic and social decline.

Animation, 2012

After considering proposals for various forms of cooperation, Wooloo and the inhabitants of the village decided to erect a sculpture in Horbelev together. In return for the villagers’ efforts, Wooloo is investing its construction budget in the association. From August 14 to 21 2010, all participating households in Horbelev stopped watching TV at home. Instead, the families met up with Wooloo to jointly build a gigantic sculpture forming the words “NEW LIFE HORBELEV” in the centre of the village, using old pallets, discarded planks, and whatever else they could find in barns and garages. When the sculpture stood completed, the TVs of all of the participating families were installed as part of the sculpture. Many screens displayed portraits of the villagers, created by Wooloo, and of their opinions about collectivity and change.

Mārtiņš Zutis is studying in the Masters programme in the Department of Visual Communication at the Art Academy of Latvia. His illustrations, comics and animation stay in mind because of their unusual characters and unexpected flashes of imagination, wherein word games and exact patterns are turned into visual language. The works of Mārtiņš Zutis are regularly published in the magazine of comic culture kuš!, and his works were shown in the group exhibitions “Laika nav” (There is No Time, Department of Visual Communication, 2011), “Eksplozīcija” (Explosion, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, 2010) and “Stādions” (Art Academy of Latvia, 2008), and elsewhere. (Z.Z.)

Downshifting? The idea of reducing workload to spend the earned income just for what is necessary is tempting. But working in a collective often complicates this goal. Wooloo is a Danish artists’ group founded in 2002 by Martin Rosengaard and Sixten Kai Nielsen. Wooloo conducts social experiments in collaborative participation. Wooloo acts as an intermediary, creating the infrastructure and conditions for social experimentation. Wooloo regards “hospitality” as the medium in which they operate. The New Life projects explore new ways of living together; these works simultaneously re-examine established modes of living and interacting and question their underlying political and economic structures. For Manifesta 8, Wooloo created New Life Residency (2010), a week-long non-visual residency program pairing blind local inhabitants of Murcia with artists living and working in complete darkness.

ARTISTS

Retelling Kristīne Želve (LV) Action, video, 2012

July 2012 I was looking for people who would be willing to retell their Latvian literature experience in front of a camera. I spoke to my first literature teacher. She’s still making up her mind about taking part, arguing she’s getting on in years, and so on… But her reply does not even matter so much. What matters is that I still remember her classes and the texts she taught. The walls of her Latvian Literature classroom held some „showcases” of Latvian literary figures, and one of these was devoted to poet Imants Ziedonis. Under a picture of Imants and his wife Ausma was a quotation from Ziedonis– Ai, kādiem ziediem smagi melniem / Pret tavu sirdi mana zied [With darkly heavy blossoms / My heart blooms toward yours]. This was my first encounter with love poetry. spoke to my father, who used to go on and on that a film should be made of the short story from Zaļā grāmata [The Green Book] by Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš, a story about draining a pond and catching the fish. I never quite understood why he had settled on that particular story, but that does not matter. What matters is that he used to read to me at bedtime, andtell me stories from his childhood whenever we walked for long stretches together. some stories were repeated countless times. I also searched the internet. My correspondence with strangers, whose only mark of identification were the books they had read and chosen, turned out to be surprisingly interesting. A beautiful and unexpected “readers’ map” started to take shape: - The last Latvian book I read was Gaetāno Krematoss [Gaetano Krematos] by Margarita Perveņecka, and after reading it I had the idea of going to Karosta and recording a few phrases for my personal archives. - I would love to retell Kā Runcis kļuva par Runcē [How Mr Cat Became M. Chat] by Poruks, just as a change from the usual “pale boy protagonist” routine… - I feel like I should go with retelling Vārnu ielas republika [The Republic of Vārnu Street]… Probably because my grandmother is a character in that story, and because the story is what it is… Granny, or she and her sister, to be more precise, were allegedly part of that little gang; Granny’s sister was born in 1899, Granny herself was a bit younger. People who sing are beautiful. So are people who tell stories. Initially I had decided to use only the literary text, so that the only impact would come from the words chosen by the writer – with no surplus information on what and why, no added filmed material or illustrative pictures… After meeting these people who read books I am no longer so sure I can keep myself from filming that photograph of the grandmother, that pencil-marked page of the book, that one particular, special tree in the forest… (K.Ž.) Kristīne Želve is a film director, writer and publicist. She has studied film direction under Ansis Epners at the Latvian Academy of Culture. Želve is the author of documentary films Fedja (Fedya, 2012), Sievas (Wives, 2008), Blondie stāsti (Blonde Stories, 2003), ES, episode Cietums (EU, episode „Prison”, 2004) a.o., as well as the urban culture event Pur4ik 4ever (2011). Since 2011 Želve has presented the TV programme 100g kultūras. In 2011 Želve published her first compilation of stories, Meitene, Kas Nogrieza Man Matus [The Girl Who Cut My Hair], which brought her a Latvian Literature Award nomination for Best Debut of 2011. Downshifting? As long as there’s enough time, energy and interest to cultivate a relationship with yourself, all the rest of it – countryside, city, local shops, farmers’ markets, ignoring the big brands and networks, allotment gardening, mushroom gathering, berry picking, preserve-making and freezing, refusing the plastic bag in supermarkets, giving up meat, giving up the TV box, giving up Made in China rubbish, giving up rubbish in general, giving up on the third side job and the newest mobile phone model twice a year, meditation and marathon running – is no more than just a backdrop against which this most important relationship takes (or does not take) place. There will be no collective salvation – just one by one, individually. Every person with themselves (sic! Not to be confused with ‘every man for himself and God against all’!), their own ‘strategies’ – their books, their music, their movies, their children, their people, their animals, their conversations, their loneliness, their silence, their questions, their answers.

SURVIVAL KIT SATELLITES

Urban renewal (for those who stayed) SURVIVAL KIT headquarters

The project Urban Renewal (for those who stayed), featuring artists from Latvia and Turkey, is searching for coherence in urban changes and their impact on the habits and everyday paths of citizens. The city is a field of play well suited to ordering and reordering. City buildings are being built as a vision of the future, as a step towards the ideal city. The emergence of new buildings makes the city change both visually and socially. Often the destruction of something is required in order to build something new, interrupting certain models of living while making others emerge. Upon their emergence, new structures also introduce the possibility of disappearance. Given that a city maintains its magnetic status despite demographic changes, the question of its future is multifaceted and ambiguous. How are dreams being fulfilled within the new buildings? Do they improve the environment and quality of life? Or are they unwanted neighbours that we just have to live with... a contemporary city carries a lot of contradictions. Inappropriate architecture and crumbling houses, empty spaces between new buildings, as well as unlit alleys and a lack of infrastructure – changes in the city make visual representations of our dangerous relationship with it. Which is the public space, what is it like and who do we share it with?

Artists: LV: Arnis Balčus, Iliāna Veinberga, Alma Ziemele, Margrieta Dreiblate, Alnis Stakle, Irīna Špičaka, Gints Grīvans. TR: Sibel Yavuz, Zümra Hecan, Elif Köse, Tayfun Akdemir, Yakın Refleksler Collective, Bengisu Muazzez Kurtuluş, Şükrü Köroğlu, Özge Su Çalasın, Burhan Yılmaz. Curators: Ahmet Karabulak (Turkish artists) and Zane Dātava (Latvian artists). Project is realized in collaboration with artists of Mersin (Turkey) and it will be shown in Gallery DEPO in Stambul, Turkey. This project is part of TANDEM, EU and Turkey cultural exchange programme. It is cultural programm that is supported by European Culture Fund and Stiftung Mercator in cooperation with MitOst, Anadolu Kultur and Bilgi University. Project is supported by Latvian Embassy in Turkey and Turkish Airlines. Image of project by Iliāna Veinberga, Alma Ziemele, Margrieta Dreiblate

SSSR: To See! To Hear! To Understand! To Act! SURVIVAL KIT headquarters The project SSSR: Saredzēt! Sadzirdēt! Saprast! Rīkoties! (SSSR: To See! To Hear! To Understand! To Act!) will be available for viewing as part of SURVIVAL KIT 4. Photographs by Ēriks Božis narrate the 9th of May and a documentary by Kristīne Briede Tuvu prom savā vietā (Close Away in My Own Place) talks about a family which has moved from Russia to Latvia. Who are our own people and who are the strangers? What prejudices do we hold about one another? What is needed to reduce prejudice and promote better understanding? Project is funded by European Fund for the Integration of third-country nationals (75%) and state budget fund (25%).

SURVIVAL KIT SATELLITES

SURVIVAL KIT in Aizpute Applethink Creative Camp in Aizpute, September 13-15 The AppleThink event takes place in Aizpute, Latvia, focused on creative trans-disciplinary approaches to apples and their diverse use after harvest. Artists, who once were exploring the boundaries of the digital realm, are today investigating survival tactics and resilience experiences that have been used in different times and by different cultures. In the quest for a sustainable future these emergent art practices are adapting, mixing and combining methods and techniques grounded in historical and traditional cultures, with emerging technologies, scientific research, and contemporary practices in today’s urban and rural communities.

Apples are one of the most harvest-rich, yet under-exploited resources available in Latvia and other post-kolkhoz (collective Soviet farms) countries. AppleThink event aims to re-approach our ‘habitual’ apples from a variety of different perspectives. The event will bring together an international trans-disciplinary group of participants, who will be sharing their knowledge and experience by approaching apples as a ‘real’ resource of food and energy, as well as as a cultural metaphor for fecundity and wealth.

AppleThink will start with a Helsinki event, where documentation will be made at Malminkartano’s public orchard event on 8th September, including the gathering of apples to bring to Latvia. During the following week from 13-15th September, the main AppleThink event, a creative camp in Aizpute will explore the phenomena of apples. We will start with the process of traditional fermenting, brewing, juicing, and preserving, ending up with experimental investigations: Can an apple be a transmitter of energy? How can one build a ‘bacteria-battery’ from apples-waste? How can apple-electricity signals be interpreted through sonification and visualization? The AppleThink event will also include presentations and discussions by artists, curators, science researchers, and community activists who will be discussing different survival strategies ranging from the concepts of ‘downshifting’ and ‘withdrawal’, to the approach of ‘resilience’ and a ‘techno-ecologies’ perspective. The camp will end with a local outdoor market together with local farmers, where the artefacts created during the creative camp will be put out for symbolic sale-exhibition.

AppleThink is a collaboration between The Center for New Media Culture RIXC, Latvian Contemporary Arts Center and Serde from Latvia, as well as Pixelache Helsinki from Finland. The AppleThink event takes place in the framework of the European partnership project ‘Survival Kit’. The outcomes of the AppleThink creative camp will be presented publicly during the Art+Communication Festival conference titled ‘Art of Resilience’ that takes place in Riga, October 4-6, 2012.

http://renewable.rixc.lv

SURVIVAL KIT SATELLITES

SURVIVAL KIT in Sigulda Timeline Hotel Sigulda, 18 Pils street, September 8 – 30 Sigulda, one of the most beautiful of Latvian cities, is now home to Timeline Hotel, a hotel of ephemeral art. We invite you to enjoy all the best traditions of Sigulda – hospitality, tranquillity, beautiful surroundings, bountiful nature and quality of service. The hotel is located in the historical centre of the city – in the ruins of Sigulda Medieval Castle and at Sigulda New Castle. A vast spectrum of visual comforts has been provided as a part of SURVIVAL KIT. Standard double, triple, semi-luxury and luxury rooms are available, along with an institutional marriage hall and rooms for people with special aesthetic needs. The rooms have been decorated in various styles: Compost, Electronics, DNA, 22nd Cave Age, Solitary Post-Soviet, Northern Tower, Carpenters’ Bungalow, Maps, Personal Story, Dwelling of the Contemporary Ancestor, Anemone. This month’s special offer is the Thousand Stars Suite for downshifting aficionados (no reservation necessary).There are also outdoor bathing facilities in the castle courtyard, as well as refreshing drinks courtesy of Saltavots Spring. The Timeline complex also features a stage for private karaoke sessions, spontaneous art presentations and reasonless celebrations. Intellectual baggage storage facilities are also available. In the immediate vicinities of the hotel in Sigulda there are ample opportunities for leisure activities (vertical free fall, Ferris wheel, golf, tennis and paintball, as well as bungee jumping from aerial cableway). Landscape lovers will enjoy nature walks and rafting along the Gauja River. Timeline Hotel is a place for time-travel to the past, the future and parallel realities. It merges memories and dreams, imaginary lives and factual experience. Located in heterotopia, the space between reality and imagination, the hotel guarantees its visitors a sensory experience of the highest quality. Timeline Hotel will be open 08.09–30.09 daily 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Grand opening: September 7th 6.30–9.30p.m. Poetry Slam and Spoken Word night in collaboration with Totaldobže Art centre on September 27th 7 p.m. Participating artists: Elīza Ceske, Ida Hansson, Joakim Hansson, Fanny Carinasdotter, Daiga Krūze, Sebastian Muegge, Eskil Liepa, Ingrīda Pičukāne, Laura Prikule, Krists Pudzens, Alexander Svartvatten, Ausma Šmite, Justin Tyler Tate, Ylva Westerhult, Eva Vēvere, as well as poets: Toms Treibergs un Krišjānis Zeļģis. Project is collaboration with Sigulda municipality and Verkligheten (Umeo, Sweeden). Curators: Laura Prikule and Eva Vēvere.

Ausma Šmite. Legend of the last remaining. Some left, others came. That is my family. I don’t remember who is who. Sometimes we are all together, and sometimes I am alone. My memory is actually long. But sometimes I get lost. I cannot find where to go for years. It is hard to explain. Many don’t understand. The story is not that long: once we were walking, then we arrived and lived here for a long time. Here is good. So good that we stayed here even after everything went wrong. It did not happen at once. The world kept turning faster, and faster, and faster. Stop. If you stop too fast, all the excess continues to run forward, until only the significant is left. We were left. The air ran away, the sun ran away, the duties ran away, and the time ran away. Continents were pushing and hiding one behind the other. Rainbows stood upside down like horns imposed upon the land, the clouds rose higher and higher, until they disappeared in the dark. Only the most significant was left. We were left. Then there came others who liked it here. The others were completely different, for they lived the other way around – inside out instead of from the surface inwards. They had a different time, which interacted with outs. And we were there already, and in the end everything met and converged together and now we are here.

SURVIVAL KIT SATELLITES

There is and there isn’t time. The inhabitants of the Timeline Hotel talk about their relationship with time. Hotels are spaces meant for short-term visitation, and many people think that Sigulda is a place to visit.. We asked the guests of the Timeline Hotel shortly before their arrival in Sigulda about their strategies or experiences in coping with time; how they see the difference between being guests and living somewhere, and how this relates to the time they are about to spend in Sigulda. Aleksandrs Svartvatens: When visiting, one is in a new territory, a temporary habitat. This sharpens the senses, which in turn poses new questions - how are things working out here? Which patterns should I be aware of? Which path fits me? In my case, I also tend to be curious and Attēls no Džastina Tailera Teita projekta Nidā (Lietuva) explorative, rather than being overly careful and protective. In my world, I am swimming around in a large, deep lake, where all “time” is present simultaneously. simultaneously. Justin Tyler Tate: A visitor is a person who has clear plans to live elsewhere, while a resident is a person with no plans to live elsewhere. My plans for Sigulda are to make work which belongs in Sigulda. My strategy for dealing with time-space is generally looking for ways to fill it by incorporating personal experiences with a more general history and combining ready-made landscapes, or architecture, with constructions, interventions and installations. Fanny Carinasdotter: In Sweden we use the expression hemmablind (“home-blind”) meaning that you are blind to what you have in your surroundings (like abeautiful ceiling on a building, a view or social codes and power structures). I do not think this necessarily needs to be true. I can be equally fascinated by things I find in my neighborhood as to something I see while traveling abroad. My art projects often deal with a “then” and a “now”. Ylva Westerhult: Both the person visiting a placeand living in it are vistitors of a kind. The only difference is that the longer you spend in a place, the more traces you leave behind, the more memories you gather, and the emotional connection to the place gets stronger. I was brought up in an old vicarage in the rural countryside of south Sweden. I am not the first, nor the last person that will live in this place. I am just a visitor, for a short period of time. Sebastian Muegge: For me, visiting a place includes an awareness of the temporary aspect of the stay which often leads to a more lively and intense “seize the day”-feeling (or ideal) and a huge stimulation of the senses as well. And that is exactly the side of tourism which fascinates me the most, the desire to “conquer” a new place in a short time, document it with photographs and enjoy the precious time as much as possible. As a tourist all impressions are fresh and new, often exciting. Living means to feel more at home, but that is also the time when the magical moments disappear and the good old routine starts. I would say that the present perfect fits quite well to my approach as it describes my process-oriented practice quite well. My works are often ongoing projects which sometimes are never really finished. Joakim Hansson: My expectation is that I will experience it as a longer visit, a bit different from a tourist visit though since that´s not the purpose for me coming to Sigulda. I´ll expect to find myself in between visit and living there.I try to see most time based projects as a line with a clear beginning, middle and end. Ingrīda Pičukāne: The work I will exhibit in Sigulda (an animation, Zima) is linked to the past: of the things that can be observed in a post-Soviet living space, many things are recognizable because they were common in classic Soviet apartments, and nowadays they are gradually being thrown away and disappearing. Therefore I am focusing on a very long history, which becomes a trap in the life of a single person. Time is a very strong force that I cannot compete with, therefore I stick to one life strategy: to get along with the present in a chaotic way, and try to emerge in a more or less acceptable place. Daiga Krūze: I am discovering the most interesting sights of the city on my visit to Sigulda– I am observing and evaluating them. By living in Sigulda, my view of things and places becomes more nuanced. Human beings come into view and my participation in information exchange intensifies. In art, I find it important to depict proximity and remoteness as existing simultaneously. The human being remains in the middle, while time takes place around them. There is and there isn’t any time. Krists Pudzens: We create time ourselves and we ourselves are living in the time we have created. If it sometimes seems that time flies or drags, then we are not living our own time, but that of someone else. It is important to find our own tempo, rhythm and time zone and to succumb to time. My works are based in the past; they reflect the present and warn about the future. Ida Hansson: Time is healing, time is running fast. Time is letting you forget, time is distance. Time is never ending. The difference between visiting and living is for me if I feel like I´m living in a suitcase or not. Where I live is my Home. At home my things have their place. My home is nowadays my basecamp, the place I return to. Eva Vēvere: From the age of three my relationship with Sigulda has been marked by a dynamic of changing intimacy. As a

SURVIVAL KIT SATELLITES person who inhabits several living spaces, I look at the time I have spent there as if it were a precious stone. I sometimes think that Sigulda could be special place where I could die. Time is speckled like a quail egg. It can be mowed like a lawn: around the perimeter in steady squares. Or it can be played like the accordion, by stretching it longer, or shortening it. When pulled too much, the face cracks. I like to think about time in various forms, especially about interruptions in time, when experience grants these pauses a bodily image and corporeality. Laura Prikule: I want to feel the rhythm of local time, to see how it flows into or contrasts with world time, and to correlate it with my own subjective sense of time on. During my visit to Sigulda I would like to discover the Timeline Hotel.. In art I am interested in situations in space when all of the times are overlapping. My works are influenced by play – a process, ancient as the world itself, but with future potential. I sometimes step outside time and then urgently try to find its new address. Observations of time are a part of this process.

SURVIVAL KIT in Tukums T.E.H.D.A.S. Performative actions and an exhibition in Tukums, September 7 – October 28 Between September 3-7 the Finnish performance group T.E.H.D.A.S. are visiting the Tukums Region Youth Centre, creating performative actions and interventions in an urban environment. Results of the cooperation can be viewed at the Tukums Art Museum from September 7 to October 28. SURVIVAL KIT in Tukums is organized by the Tukums Art Museum. Līga Lindenbauma, head of the Tukums Art Museum explains: What is T.E.H.D.A.S. and what does Tukums Art Museum expect from this cooperation between Finnish artists and the young people of Tukums? T.E.H.D.A.S. is a group of performance artists, uniting artists, philosophers and writers. Their performances, happenings, hosted workshops and festivals often trigger the use of public space. When Rigans come to Tukums, the locals often have a feeling that there is an external attempt to define them, to tell them what is right, which therefore leads to a pronounced distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them’. What I would like is to engage the people of Tukums, to create interaction, for them to have a feeling that everyone is equal. Furthermore the museum has a chance to work together with youth, who up to this point have not been our traditional visitors. This year’s festival theme is downshifting – the slowing down of tempo, which often is linked to leaving the city. It is a romanticized view of the countryside and small towns. What does it look like from Tukums’ point of view? My observations show that ideas of downshifting belong more to Riga. Whatever is understood as downshifting there, is just reality, or regular everyday life in small towns – it is not about returning to some long-forgotten values. Furthermore it is often quite the opposite – at a time when city people are excitedly drawn to the idea of allotments, for instance, people from towns who have been working their little allotments all their lives would much rather go to the nearby market and buy potatoes there. In addition it needs to be remembered that mobility and the opportunity to change life circumstances often depend on education level and skills – the extent to which these are convertible. In a small city such variations are often limited. People would rather stick to what they already have. What is the role of the museum you are managing in Tukums and what is the role of contemporary art within this museum? In a way, Riga ‘sucks up’ one segment of the population and its attention, like a vacuum cleaner. Despite this, Tukums has a lot to offer. Contemporary art in Tukums most certainly is something new and I cannot say it is received with enthusiasm. At the same time the interest is there. Every once in a while new visitors come to the museum, because someone else has recommended it. The format of the exhibition series Duets (Duet) seems to have been successful – the Art Museum has exhibited two expositions at the same time – modernist painting from the museum collection and works by a contemporary artist. I am trying to find a formula for creating something contemporary alongside traditional and understandable things. This time, parallel to T.E.H.D.A.S. the museum will host an exhibition dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the regionally significant personality Taira Haļapina. I sometimes think I am like a fisherman trying to guess which would be the most delicious bait to use, for those who want to see something familiar, and for those interested in something new. T.H.E.D.A.S. exhibition at the Tukums Art Museum, Harmonijas Street will be open from September 8 to October 28. Opening: September 8, 12:00. On the day of the opening a special SURVIVAL KIT bus will be heading from Riga to Tukums. For information please call: +371 63182391