BIRTHDAY: LCCA 25TH ANNIVERSARY PROGRAMME

The Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA) marks its 25th anniversary by presenting a series of performative walks and events titled Time, Dawn, or a Passing Train.  The start of the extensive anniversary programme will be marked by celebrations throughout the entire day and night of May 31 in Riga and will continue in the unique form of a series of walks organised monthly until October of this year.

Since its founding in 2000, the LCCA has significantly influenced the development of contemporary art in Latvia by providing a platform for artistic expression and increasing the international recognition of Latvian contemporary art. The LCCA has also launched a series of significant processes in the cultural sphere in Latvia, developing educational methods and encouraging inclusive approaches in the arts.

Without being tied to a specific location or exhibition venue, events organized by the LCCA mostly take place in the spaces of other art institutions. The organization’s nomadic way of working has inspired the format of the 25th anniversary celebration, which encourages visitors to look at the LCCA as a living organism – a mycelium – whose threads of activity and influence spread through walks led by artists, writers, poets, philosophers, researchers and curators, who collectively carry out cultural mapping of the urban environment.

The name of the event series – Time, Dawn, or a Passing Train – is a reference to one of the most iconic practices in Latvian avant-garde art: the Walks to Bolderāja, carried out in the 1980s by members of the artist group NSRD (“The Workshop For The Restoration Of Unfelt Feelings”).

On May 31, the anniversary celebrations will kick off with an almost 24-hour-long event spread across six different locations in Riga. Activities and performances throughout the day will highlight significant moments in the LCCA’s history, as well as its collaborative ties with members of the Latvian art ecosystem, and will create new opportunities for dialogue between art and society. The day program will conclude with the opening of the artist Andris Eglītis’s solo exhibition Still Under the Sky at the Spirits & Wine venue in Andrejosta, followed by musical performances and dancing until dawn at the former Boļševička textile factory in Sarkandaugava.

May 31 programme of the LCCA 25th Anniversary Walks Time, Dawn, or a Passing Train:

11:00 Total body workout at the National Library of Latvia (LNB)
On the morning of May 31, the artists Katrīna Neiburga and Monika Pormale will reconstruct the performance Total body workout by the artist Kristīne Kursiša, inspired by aerobics classes and feminist ideas. The performance was witnessed for the first time in 2002 at 6th Element, an exhibition of women artists organized by the LCCA. This event will test methods for reconstructing process art while bringing to life the context of our current moment.

12:00 Performative procession by the artist collective Grāfienes (“Countesses”) from the National Library of Latvia to the Art Academy of Latvia

13:00–15:00 Culinary performance “Reemergence of Land of Plenty” in the garden of the Art Academy of Latvia (LMA)
With this reconstruction of the performance “Land of Plenty” from the first edition of the annual contemporary art festival Survival Kit (2009) – in which artists and poets prepared daily meals for any hungry person who wanted one on the premises of a bankrupt wine shop on Dzirnavu Street – art will feed the people once again in the LMA garden! The authors of the celebratory soup will be the artist Katrīna Neiburga and the poet Agnese Krivade. The food at the LCCA’s 25th anniversary table will be served to the guests by artists, whose only request is that the guests arrive hungry.

Meanwhile, the team of the philosophy journal “Tvērums” will host table talks in the LMA garden, inviting guests to engage in discussions on key texts about aesthetics, visual art, and cultural theory — all published in the LCCA’s Translation Series.

15:00–16:00 Curatorial tour by curator Andra Silapētere of Viktors Timofejevs’s solo exhibition Other Passengers at the Latvian National Museum of Art (LNMM)

15:00–17:00 Creative workshops – diversity festival for families in the courtyard of the Pauls Stradins Medicine History Museum
In a performative procession, together with the artist Anda Lāce, everyone interested will have the opportunity to bring into motion the harbinger of spring – the yellow caterpillar. The caterpillar is a special work of art that comes to life only when several of its bearers collaborate, becoming participants and executors of the performance. 

The artist Eva Vēvere will lead an active art workshop or training for capturing ideas titled Throw an Idea. And the art therapists Lība Bērziņa and Tengjo Kura (JP) will call for reflection on what is often overlooked and stands out as different in society – including attitudes towards people with disabilities. To find similarities and celebrate diversity through art, workshop participants will have the opportunity to share stories and create paper objects, in the end creating a festive table – an art installation – together.

19:00 Opening of Andris Eglītis’s solo exhibition Still Under the Sky
The premises of the company Spirits & Wine – in the place which used to be the LCCA exhibition hall – will host the opening of the solo exhibition Still Under the Sky by the artist Andris Eglītis. The event will bring back the memory of the artist’s first solo exhibition Under the Sky  which took place at the same venue in 2008.

21:00–05:00 Music and dancing until sunrise in the Boļševička area
The first day of anniversary events will conclude with a programme of performances, site-specific art, and music, featuring the participation of: the musical ensemble Ansamblis NSR, the band Zvīņas and “Tante Gaida”, the composer Platons Buravickis, and the artists Liene Pavlovska, Andris Eglītis, Artūrs Virtmanis, Miķelis and Anna Fišers, DJ Krauklis, DJ Tim Jugla, et al.

The LCCA’s 25th anniversary programme will continue with monthly walks in Riga, Aluksne, and Helsinki from June until October, referencing socially relevant themes and problems as well as sketching out future trajectories. A detailed programme of upcoming walks during the summer and the autumn will be announced soon.

The walk series Time, Dawn, or a Passing Train is organized by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art. The project is supported by the Nordic Culture and Art Programme, Riga City Council, Satori, Riga Art Week, and the magazine Kulturas Diena.

The project is implemented in cooperation with the National Library of Latvia, Latvian National Museum of Art, Art Academy of Latvia, Pauls Stradins Medicine History Museum and M-Cult (Helsinki).