The third “Dzīvotnes” mini-festival of the “Kantastrofa” program will take place on April 24 at 6:00 p.m. at the K. K. von Strick Villa. This year, it is dedicated to ideas of multispecies coexistence and future perspectives. Participants in the mini-festival will include Basque-French artist Vincent Rumanjak, Latvian artists Rasa and Raitis Šmits, and researchers Kitija Balcare and Ilva Skulte. The artwork “Atmospheric Forest” will be on view, and the audiovisual performance “Ummis and Lobelia” will take place. Admission to all events is free. The mini-festival is organized by the associations “Mākslas birojs” and “Tvērums” in collaboration with the Latvian Academy of Culture and the portal “Satori.”

For the third year in a row, the K. K. von Strick Villa will host an event from the international and interdisciplinary program “Kantastrofa”—the “Dzīvotnes” mini-festival of criticism. On April 24, starting at 6:00 p.m., the villa will be filled with intellectual exchange, critical discourse, artistic interventions, and music. The mini-festival continues the trajectory established in previous years—both the celebratory format inspired by the 300th anniversary of philosopher Immanuel Kant and the focus on post-humanist ideas introduced by the Little Academy of Post-Humanism at the beginning of the year. How should we shape our lives to coexist meaningfully with the Other—not only with people, but also with nature and technology? What kind of future can we imagine? And how can we bring it to life?

The mini-festival’s international guest will be https://vincentroumagnac.com/, a Basque-French performing artist and researcher based in Helsinki. He will present a performative lecture titled “The Stage as Environment: Fifteen Experiments in Transforming Scenographic Ecology.”

Latvian thinkers will be represented by environmental humanities expert Kitija Balcare with a talk titled “(Co)habitation or (Sur)vival?” and media theorist Ilva Skulte’s presentation on discussions regarding the translation and adoption of post-humanism terminology into the Latvian language. This will be followed by a presentation by artists and researchers Rasa and Raite Šmits on eco-art and technologies titled “Atmospheric Forest – The Interaction of Climate and Ecosystem Viability.” The evening will continue with an audiovisual version of the performance “Ummis and Lobelia” by composer Ernests Circeņš, video artist Katrīna Neiburga, and musician Alise Golovacka, which tells the story of a fragile lake ecosystem and its history. Throughout the evening, visitors can experience Rasa and Raitis Šmits’ virtual reality installation “Atmospheric Forest,” which explores the relationship between the forest, climate change, and the atmosphere. The mini-festival will conclude with informal conversations and music.

The mini-festival will kick off on April 23 at 7:00 p.m. with a screening of student films from the Latvian Academy of Culture titled “Transhuman Frames: Posthumanism in the Works of Young Filmmakers.” The event will explore how issues characteristic of posthumanism are directly and indirectly revealed in the students’ graduation films. At the beginning of the screening, curator Kristaps Opincāns will give a short lecture.

The curators of the mini-festival of criticism are Evarts Melnalksnis, Rūdis Bebrišs, and Kristaps Opincāns; the producer is Kristians Priekulis; and the event is organized by the curatorial association “Mākslas birojs” and the philosophy association "Tvērums" in collaboration with the portal "Satori," as well as with the support of the State Culture Capital Foundation, the Latvian Academy of Culture, and the Riga City Council. Admission is free.

Poster designer: Māra Drozdova.