EVENTS IN RIGA IN SEPTEMBER 2020. A useful mega-shortlist.
At last! 6 months have passed since our previous event shortlist was published. Although the coronavirus lockdown being over since 10 June, because of the restrictions, many events faced limitations and many people rather preferred to stay out of public spaces. Today - life's precautious, but life's good in Latvia, so here's our first event shortlist in half a year and the very first with 15(!) great activities to finally visit in Riga!
It seems that most events can be called an assorti, potpourri, melange, or medley of various exhibitions, performances, or artists. It seems that many creatives have had enough time to produce works but have not enough certainty of the future to present them independently. This makes the whole month of September not only rich with activities but also provides them full with content and coverage.
I'D RATHER SEE PEOPLE GO
When: until 6 September
Where: ISSP Gallery
How much: free admittance
One of the most prominent and also only photo galleries in Riga presents the graduation works of their two-year study programme – nine Latvian authors presenting their photographic projects to public for the first time.
Web
HOMO NOVUS
When: until 10 September
Where: various locations
How much: free entrance, preregistration required
"International Festival of Contemporary Theatre Homo Novus turns 25 this year – a year when it has been stopped, cancelled, re-imagined and made anew together with artists and team ready to reconnect and gather around some essential values and principles, to dream and create in a landscape where horizon is wrapped in thick and seemingly impenetrable fog. Fragile and fluid, created in extremely short time and complicated circumstances, but full of courage and strength to tackle challenging and often silenced questions – that is our programme this year."
Web
Donate
RIBOCA2
and suddenly it all blossoms
When: until 13 September
Where: Andrejostas 4
How much: 6 / 3 €
One of the only biennials that did not postpone until next year, RIBOCA in Riga took the luxury to spread over 200,000m2 of the Tarkovskian former port district of Andrejsala and exhibit most of the works planned. It falls "between a ruin and a construction site, past fallen dreams and present reality, the project, transformed into a unique experience, acknowledges the limitations and possibilities of today."
Web+Tickets
VICE VERSA
When: until 24 September
Where: PILOT
How much: free admittance
Curator Auguste Petre has invited to participate four current and former students from collaborative schools of the EU4ART alliance and Art Academy of Latvia, in collaboration with Erasmus+ programme and Riga municipality – Ilze Aulmane (Art Academy of Latvia), Maria Kitzing (Academy of Fine Arts Dresden), Luca Lovász (Hungarian University of Fine Arts) and Steven Marigo (Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma). “Collaboration”, “frankness (and experiments with it)” and “trust” are the keywords chosen as focusing points of the upcoming show.
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ALNIS STAKLE
Neither Horse nor Tiger
When: until 4 October
Where: Latvian Museum of Photography
How much: 0.5 - 3 €
"The photographs in the exhibition were taken during several trips to China between 2013 and 2017. China is one of the largest countries on Earth; it has the largest population in the world, the second-largest economy, the largest army with significant geopolitical ambitions in Asia and the world as a whole. It is also one of the rare countries still influenced by the communist ideology.
News headlines in Western cultures often present China in a less than flattering way: human rights violations, labour camps, ecological problems, militarisation, one-party dictatorship, etc. The images created by Stakle do not exclude all of the above. However, they are not intended to reproduce the quest for the sensational inherent to photojournalism. Perhaps the visual language applied in the photograph is used in a way that does not reveal, but rather surprises and provides the pleasure of viewing, even in those situations where the depicted reality is repulsive."
Web
SINTĒZE
When: until 9 October
Where: Boļševička
How much: free admittance
One of the most emerging youngest generation artists and art graduates born in the 90s are exhibiting their exclusively created works in an old textile/rubber factory to discuss totalitarianism and its ideas in contemporary culture.
TOČKA
When: until 18 October
Where: culture space TOČKA
How much: 3€
TOČKA is a newly created platform "for artists to create their own projects, as well as collaborating and creating interdisciplinary projects with other artists, that is why exposition is constantly changing and evolving - some works are made on site, during working hours, some are brought directly from artists workshops. Exhibition takes place on 3 floors within the walls of a former rubber factory that is currently abandoned and empty. Now the place is occupied again, giving opportunity for emerging new artists to express themselves."
Tickets (in Latvian)
BALTIC SEA DOCS
When: 1 - 4 September
Where: online
How much: free
One of the only online events this month will be the screenings of Baltic Sea documentaries (only available in Latvia). "This international event for professional documentary filmmakers is the only one of its kind in the Baltics and is held in high regard throughout Eastern Europe. Every year, the BSD gathers over 100 professional filmmakers from the Baltic Sea region, as well as from Eastern and Central Europe." For more info and screenings - check their website.
Web
Watch films
SURVIVAL KIT 11
Being safe is scary
When: 4 September - 4 October
Where: Tērbatas 75
How much: 3 / 1 €
This exhibition aims to explore why it’s urgent and necessary to transform the suppositions that undergird such discourse, and calls for safety to be reconnected to practices of love, intimacy, sharing, commonality, mutual support, attention, care for each other and for the environment, and social alliances.
Web
FAKTURA (FOR A NERVOUS SPIRIT)
When: 4 September - 1 November
Where: kim?
How much: free - €
"The exhibition borrows ideas from the work “Faktūra” (1914) by Latvian-born Russian artist and theoretician Voldemārs Matvejs (1877-1914) to describe the surface quality of objects that are otherwise impossible to record by touch. Each piece included in the exhibition – archive photographs and videos, canvas and graffiti, as well as works created through hand-tapping, typeface and collage techniques by both living and deceased artists – gives off a “noise” or texture characteristic of a surface autonomy and content specific to them."
Web
SCULPTURE QUADRENNIAL RIGA
Wonders of democracy
When: 4 September - 31 October
Where: various locations
How much: free admittance
Taking place for the 13th time and since 1972, this has been "a platform for the creative work of both Latvian and international artists, and for promoting the recognition of young talents, as well as for strengthening the international artist community. This year, taking into account the prevalence of Covid-19, the organizers of the festival offer to enjoy works of art in the urban environment of the city, where it is possible to observe distance and safety measures."
Map
TESA
c o n t r o l
When: 4 September
Where: Nometņu 62
How much: donations based
This is the only event this month that takes place after being postponed this March. TESA is three-piece band mostly associated with post-metal and experimental metal genre. A band that has become one of the most successful of its kind not only in Latvia but also abroad, and now TESA will play a release show for their new album. "As the opening act, the band will be accompanied by the very talented cello artist Sarma Gabrēna. Sarma's music is made of original experimental compositions, often in a very atmospheric way, including elements of drone and ambient."
BALTĀ NAKTS
When: 5 September
Where: various locations
How much: free admittance
The idea of the White Night festival to make contemporary art more accessible to the public by involving those interested in diverse art events one night a year. Although most of the more than 30 attractions will be concentrated in the central part of the city, there will be many available in multiple neighbourhoods and spaces including Āgenskalns, Imanta, Ķīpsala, Sarkandaugava, Tallinas kvartāls, and VEF.
Web
CONTEMPORARY CRAFTS FESTIVAL
When: 5 - 6 September
Where: The Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia
How much: 1.4 - 8.5 €
"This Festival invites Latvian craftsmen who apply a wide variety of methods and materials, involving in their production of goods not only crafts skills, but also elements of technology development and modern design. The crafts combine beautiful with useful: artistic individuality, crafts skills and mercantile wisdom. The products represented at the festival have to reflect the demand of modern society for unique products and at the same time to show alternatives to uniform mass products.
Food products and catering services of the festival include modern and creative variations of the traditional Latvian cuisine and cuisine of other nations living in Latvia. A wide choice is available to guests."
Tickets
RIGA PASAULES FILM FESTIVAL 2020
When: 17 - 20 September
Where: Kino Bize
How much: announced soon
The festival will celebrate its 7th edition with a new cycle of film screenings, workshops, a retrospective, and discussions. "RPFF 2020 focuses on cinema works of a broad anthropological persuasion that engage with the cinematic experience of the sensuous body. The films of the festival program Filming Bodies : Bodies Filming will, through their content or form, address the ways in which the filmmaker’s body is integral to the process of filmmaking.
The festival program will include also a film retrospective of innovatory Dutch filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich who developed a distinctive single shot physical method of moving with camera.
Web
It seems that most events can be called an assorti, potpourri, melange, or medley of various exhibitions, performances, or artists. It seems that many creatives have had enough time to produce works but have not enough certainty of the future to present them independently. This makes the whole month of September not only rich with activities but also provides them full with content and coverage.
When: until 6 September
Where: ISSP Gallery
How much: free admittance
One of the most prominent and also only photo galleries in Riga presents the graduation works of their two-year study programme – nine Latvian authors presenting their photographic projects to public for the first time.
Web
HOMO NOVUS
When: until 10 September
Where: various locations
How much: free entrance, preregistration required
"International Festival of Contemporary Theatre Homo Novus turns 25 this year – a year when it has been stopped, cancelled, re-imagined and made anew together with artists and team ready to reconnect and gather around some essential values and principles, to dream and create in a landscape where horizon is wrapped in thick and seemingly impenetrable fog. Fragile and fluid, created in extremely short time and complicated circumstances, but full of courage and strength to tackle challenging and often silenced questions – that is our programme this year."
Web
Donate
RIBOCA2
and suddenly it all blossoms
When: until 13 September
Where: Andrejostas 4
How much: 6 / 3 €
One of the only biennials that did not postpone until next year, RIBOCA in Riga took the luxury to spread over 200,000m2 of the Tarkovskian former port district of Andrejsala and exhibit most of the works planned. It falls "between a ruin and a construction site, past fallen dreams and present reality, the project, transformed into a unique experience, acknowledges the limitations and possibilities of today."
Web+Tickets
VICE VERSA
When: until 24 September
Where: PILOT
How much: free admittance
Curator Auguste Petre has invited to participate four current and former students from collaborative schools of the EU4ART alliance and Art Academy of Latvia, in collaboration with Erasmus+ programme and Riga municipality – Ilze Aulmane (Art Academy of Latvia), Maria Kitzing (Academy of Fine Arts Dresden), Luca Lovász (Hungarian University of Fine Arts) and Steven Marigo (Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma). “Collaboration”, “frankness (and experiments with it)” and “trust” are the keywords chosen as focusing points of the upcoming show.
ALNIS STAKLE
Neither Horse nor Tiger
When: until 4 October
Where: Latvian Museum of Photography
How much: 0.5 - 3 €
"The photographs in the exhibition were taken during several trips to China between 2013 and 2017. China is one of the largest countries on Earth; it has the largest population in the world, the second-largest economy, the largest army with significant geopolitical ambitions in Asia and the world as a whole. It is also one of the rare countries still influenced by the communist ideology.
News headlines in Western cultures often present China in a less than flattering way: human rights violations, labour camps, ecological problems, militarisation, one-party dictatorship, etc. The images created by Stakle do not exclude all of the above. However, they are not intended to reproduce the quest for the sensational inherent to photojournalism. Perhaps the visual language applied in the photograph is used in a way that does not reveal, but rather surprises and provides the pleasure of viewing, even in those situations where the depicted reality is repulsive."
Web
SINTĒZE
When: until 9 October
Where: Boļševička
How much: free admittance
One of the most emerging youngest generation artists and art graduates born in the 90s are exhibiting their exclusively created works in an old textile/rubber factory to discuss totalitarianism and its ideas in contemporary culture.
TOČKA
When: until 18 October
Where: culture space TOČKA
How much: 3€
TOČKA is a newly created platform "for artists to create their own projects, as well as collaborating and creating interdisciplinary projects with other artists, that is why exposition is constantly changing and evolving - some works are made on site, during working hours, some are brought directly from artists workshops. Exhibition takes place on 3 floors within the walls of a former rubber factory that is currently abandoned and empty. Now the place is occupied again, giving opportunity for emerging new artists to express themselves."
Tickets (in Latvian)
BALTIC SEA DOCS
When: 1 - 4 September
Where: online
How much: free
One of the only online events this month will be the screenings of Baltic Sea documentaries (only available in Latvia). "This international event for professional documentary filmmakers is the only one of its kind in the Baltics and is held in high regard throughout Eastern Europe. Every year, the BSD gathers over 100 professional filmmakers from the Baltic Sea region, as well as from Eastern and Central Europe." For more info and screenings - check their website.
Web
Watch films
SURVIVAL KIT 11
Being safe is scary
When: 4 September - 4 October
Where: Tērbatas 75
How much: 3 / 1 €
This exhibition aims to explore why it’s urgent and necessary to transform the suppositions that undergird such discourse, and calls for safety to be reconnected to practices of love, intimacy, sharing, commonality, mutual support, attention, care for each other and for the environment, and social alliances.
Web
FAKTURA (FOR A NERVOUS SPIRIT)
Where: kim?
How much: free - €
"The exhibition borrows ideas from the work “Faktūra” (1914) by Latvian-born Russian artist and theoretician Voldemārs Matvejs (1877-1914) to describe the surface quality of objects that are otherwise impossible to record by touch. Each piece included in the exhibition – archive photographs and videos, canvas and graffiti, as well as works created through hand-tapping, typeface and collage techniques by both living and deceased artists – gives off a “noise” or texture characteristic of a surface autonomy and content specific to them."
Web
SCULPTURE QUADRENNIAL RIGA
Wonders of democracy
When: 4 September - 31 October
Where: various locations
How much: free admittance
Taking place for the 13th time and since 1972, this has been "a platform for the creative work of both Latvian and international artists, and for promoting the recognition of young talents, as well as for strengthening the international artist community. This year, taking into account the prevalence of Covid-19, the organizers of the festival offer to enjoy works of art in the urban environment of the city, where it is possible to observe distance and safety measures."
Map
TESA
c o n t r o l
When: 4 September
Where: Nometņu 62
How much: donations based
This is the only event this month that takes place after being postponed this March. TESA is three-piece band mostly associated with post-metal and experimental metal genre. A band that has become one of the most successful of its kind not only in Latvia but also abroad, and now TESA will play a release show for their new album. "As the opening act, the band will be accompanied by the very talented cello artist Sarma Gabrēna. Sarma's music is made of original experimental compositions, often in a very atmospheric way, including elements of drone and ambient."
BALTĀ NAKTS
When: 5 September
Where: various locations
How much: free admittance
The idea of the White Night festival to make contemporary art more accessible to the public by involving those interested in diverse art events one night a year. Although most of the more than 30 attractions will be concentrated in the central part of the city, there will be many available in multiple neighbourhoods and spaces including Āgenskalns, Imanta, Ķīpsala, Sarkandaugava, Tallinas kvartāls, and VEF.
Web
CONTEMPORARY CRAFTS FESTIVAL
When: 5 - 6 September
Where: The Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia
How much: 1.4 - 8.5 €
"This Festival invites Latvian craftsmen who apply a wide variety of methods and materials, involving in their production of goods not only crafts skills, but also elements of technology development and modern design. The crafts combine beautiful with useful: artistic individuality, crafts skills and mercantile wisdom. The products represented at the festival have to reflect the demand of modern society for unique products and at the same time to show alternatives to uniform mass products.
Food products and catering services of the festival include modern and creative variations of the traditional Latvian cuisine and cuisine of other nations living in Latvia. A wide choice is available to guests."
Tickets
RIGA PASAULES FILM FESTIVAL 2020
When: 17 - 20 September
Where: Kino Bize
How much: announced soon
The festival will celebrate its 7th edition with a new cycle of film screenings, workshops, a retrospective, and discussions. "RPFF 2020 focuses on cinema works of a broad anthropological persuasion that engage with the cinematic experience of the sensuous body. The films of the festival program Filming Bodies : Bodies Filming will, through their content or form, address the ways in which the filmmaker’s body is integral to the process of filmmaking.
The festival program will include also a film retrospective of innovatory Dutch filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich who developed a distinctive single shot physical method of moving with camera.
Web
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