From September 30 to October 8, the fourteenth stage and audiovisual arts festival “Patriarha Rudens” of the Latvian Academy of Culture will take place, which will present a wide selection of works by LKA’s undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students. The main guiding motifs of the festival this year are the doubts and confusion of young artists, as well as a tribute to the jubilarians of theater art – Pēteris Pētersons, Rūdolfs Blaumanis, Māra Ķimeli and Mihail Gruzdovs.
About doubts and overcoming them, the logo of this year’s festival, traditions and innovations, serious and smiling Patriarch’s autumn awards, about the way of creating a work of art, the blessed opportunity for students from different fields to meet and the festival also going outside the capital – a conversation with the directors Renata Sauliti and Elmár Senkovuas well as choreographers Ramon Galkin.
In nine days, the creative team of the festival will offer a diverse program of stage, audiovisual art and interdisciplinary works: eight theater performances, three contemporary dance performances, readings of plays by six future playwrights, three film screenings, four master classes, discussions, talks and other events.
Last year, the anti-prize “Golden fly” was presented at the festival, where an anonymous delegation of LKA nominated witty nominations for works and artists of the previous season of professional theaters. This year, the current award nominees will be announced at the opening of the festival, and during the week everyone will have the opportunity to vote in all LKA buildings and structural units, as well as at the festival venues.
Dina Dūdiņa-Kurmiņa: What would be the special thing that you would highlight if you had to describe this year’s festival in one sentence? We know there are upgrades, but what is that engine?
Elmārs Senkovs: Engine? You know, our logo Eduards Smilģis is also so thoughtful this year. The festival also takes place in the name of Peter Petersons, is dedicated to him. He has actually been a rather contradictory personality, there is also a kind of schizophrenia in his works, which we will see in the opening of the premiere “Shining and dark blue” – his fight with the stage boards, with his wife, with critics. It must be said that
the theme of the festival is confusion or common search, looking for something new, asking the same questions – where are we going in the future? – and address these topics. And the generation of young artists is also solving how to live in this world, which is currently made of fragile glass. It is a time of reflection.
Dina Dūdiņa-Kurmiņa: And there are also beautiful traditions – the opening is on September 30 at the Eduardas Smilģas Theater Museum, as far as I understand, there will also be soup, “flies will fly” for the second year. By the way, where is the fly you received last year placed?
Elmārs Senkovs: My fly has traveled to Liepāja and is attached to the wall in honor.
So the fly continues its life and inspires. Is there even a chance to get inspired during this week to feel that flight afterwards? Looking at the materials, it is not the case that everything starts, stops and ends in “Patriarch’s Autumn” – sketches were shown last year and the big, beautiful work is already coming to the audience this year. What is that path – can the visitors of “Patriarch’s Autumn” also follow the creation process?
Ramona Galkina: Yes, definitely in some cases. “Starters and Beginners”, for example, last year’s sketches, which are in full this year. If there is an enthusiast and follows the development, then by all means.
Elmārs Senkovs: It is a wonderful work that Ramona has done – I have already seen the sketch and now I will be more happy to see the full work, where there was this meeting between two generations of dancers. I think,
the research Ramona does on the differences between these generations is very interesting. I recommend everyone to watch this work. It was very moving for me to watch the dancers of different generations participate.
Renate, and what about cinema? It won’t run in five minutes. Could you have sensed something last year and also this spring?
Renate Saulite: Absolutely. In cinema, sometimes it is very difficult to finish something, because you can always re-edit and improve something. This is especially the case with students’ works, which are created in a relatively short time – a short film is created in about nine months, which would be the full speed of light in the industry. That’s why students often tweak something in the summer, change the music. The versions of the films that we will see in “The Fall of the Patriarch” are definitely not all the final versions. There will probably be more (laughter). This is always the case, so it is really possible to track the progress of the work.
And this year there is an opportunity to follow how the great masters of this time have developed – Māra Ķimele, Pēteris Pētersons, Mihails Gruzdovs, to whom the morning lectures at the Latvian Academy of Culture will be dedicated.
Elmārs Senkovs: In these lectures, we will look back at the works of our masters, what they have done and how their works have developed. I recommend it to those who have fallen in love with the performances of both Mara Ķimele and Mihaila Gruzdov and remember them – these lectures will definitely be open on Ludza Street. This will be a review and analysis. It is especially important for me, and I think it is also important for students to look back where my teachers have doubted (laughter), where they have looked for their handwriting and their path. It should be mentioned that it is also within the framework of the anniversary, which will be soon, for Māra Ķimele. Of course, a warm memory also goes to Mihailas Gruzdovs, who has invested a lot in the pedagogical work of the Latvian Academy of Culture.
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2023-09-29 16:04:25
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