From 30 September to 2 October, the eight contemporary multigenre festival “Liepāja Art Forum” was held, which this year invited visitors to fight the tensions caused by global events by having a good time with art. The festival’s programme allowed you to look into the process of creating sounds and movements, to see the revival of an abandoned area with dance art, to experience unusual video opera and the passionate nature of circus art, and to experience human links with artists.
“This year for the eight “Liepāja Art Forum” we have given the motto “Show me a good time!” and, you know, I believe that art is a time well spent that heals, inspires, discovers, excites, empowers and even shapes the ideal world you are looking for. Surrounded by the horrors of the pandemic and war, we lust for a good time and we will give you it by showing new points of view, interesting artistic handwriting and unusual performances”, said the Baiba Bartkeviča, the festival’s programme creator and Artistic Director of the “Great Amber” Concert Hall, at the opening of the festival.
The first day of the festival was opened with a solo exhibit by the world-renowned photographer Ilya Lipkin, titled “YOU are the model! YOU are the majority!” made by Kim? Contemporary Art Centre. The photographs depict today’s young people portraying themselves in an abandoned apartment that has not been renovated since the 1990s. Illuminated by modern screens they wander in their thoughts about world events. Later in the evening, the trio “Surel, Segal & Gubitsch” earned enthusiasm with sophisticated and intimate French salon music. By masterfully combining violins, cello and electric guitar, the musicians took the listeners on a journey of genres and feelings – from tango to sound experiments. During the opening party of the festival, DJ night “Klubnacht Berlin”, the futuristic shape of the concert hall transformed into a real nightclub, where Latvian experimental sound master Kaspars Groševs and British multi-artist Steven Warwick delivered DJ sets worthy of the world’s biggest cities.
The second day of “Liepāja Art Forum” gave the opportunity to feel a strong link with dance art metallic sounds and music. With an unprecedented performance – a walk called “Just good”, students of Latvian Academy of Culture “Contemporary Dance” programme, trained by choreographer and dancer Olga Žitluhina, revived the forgotten territory of “Liepajas Metalurgs”. Movements and bright performance elements in the chain workshop, scrap metal processing workshop, on the surrounding structures and by the open-hearth furnaces literally showed the territory in a new light. The sometimes meditative, sometimes metal-industrial original music of Juris Kaukulis and flautist Liene Dobičina created a special mood during the performance.
“When I got acquainted with this space, I had a feeling of a slightly dangerous playground, which is certainly a great engine for a dancer, I wanted to climb everywhere. What drove us the strongest was the atmosphere. It may seem that everything here is abandoned, but as dancers, we fill this empty space, give it new life and we wanted to create an inviting feeling for the audience. There was a feeling that by being here that we were creating some type of a connection, an interplay with the spectators,” says performance participant Rūdis Vilsons about his experience.
At the end of the day, the Parisian sound ensemble “soundinitiative” led the listeners in a very different adventure. In the open layout of the Event Hall the artists moved among listeners, creating unusual sounds with their voices and instruments and encouraging them to feel a link and touch. The sounds were complemented by colourful and flowing video projections. The members of the ensemble invited the audience to participate in the creation of rope constellations and to join together in a dance at the end of the performance. “It was a wonderful experience! We had expected the audience to be a bit reserved, but they were all incredible, getting up on their feet and dancing with us. We were really happy to see children, young people and elderly people get involved. We see music as an expression – it does not matter what our experience is or how we define music. What matters most is human connection that is created through movement, gesture, sound and drama. I believe we managed to create that tonight,” said Winnie Huang, one of the Artistic Directors of the ensemble, sharing her feelings after the concert.
Joy of children and metallic contrasts marked the third day of the art forum. For the first time Riga Circus was a guest at the concert hall, they offered the performance “Lemons and honey” for the families. Circus artists Grete Gross and Juha-Matti Eskelinen told a story about how to find joy and a game in the seriousness of life with acrobatic tricks and songs. After the show, the children also asked the artists various questions about how to lift such a heavy person with one arm or remember all the moves. Children and parents were also fascinated by the professionals of Riga Circus School, who taught them how to juggle balls and scarves, spin Chinese plates, walk with stilts and other balance-training tools.
The festival ended with tremulous, inspiring and meditative feelings created by the extraordinary video opera “An Index of Metals” by Italian composer Fausto Romitelli. The ensemble of musicians from State Chamber Orchestra “Sinfonietta Rīga” led by conductor Normunds Šnē, Polish soprano Joanna Freszel and sound director Dāvis Ozoliņš offered the audience a surreal contemporary opera experience. Specially tuned instruments and electric guitar, metallic sounds, heartbeat rhythms, soprano voice, surreal poetry, three screens with bustling video projections, all of which brought the audience in a different reality.
“Liepāja Art Forum” was organised by SIA “Lielais Dzintars”. The event was supported by Liepaja Municipality, European Regional Development Fund, French Institute in Latvia, Valmiermuiža, Kokmuiža and “Gardu Muti”. Partners were Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Liepaja Special Economic Zone and Riga Circus.