In September, Liepāja Art Forum will celebrate the Festival of Contemporary Art Discoveries

From September 24 to 26, the festival “Liepāja Art Forum” will invite you to be together for the seventh time at the Contemporary Art Discovery Festival, the organizers informed. The festival is expected to feature 10 events in contemporary music, visual and movement arts, as well as two premieres for families and three works of cinema. The participation of Belgian, French and Latvian artists is planned in the festival program, and as usual, it is organized by the Liepaja Concert Hall “Big Amber”.

“After almost two years in isolation and on digital platforms, we will look for answers to the questions, does constant communication signify true coexistence or loneliness and sadness? Do we really share our joys and sorrows? How to de-isolate? Like everyone else, the team of the concert hall “Lielais dzintars” and the festival “Liepājas Mākslas forum” are always looking for creative ways and forms of meeting and being with their spectators. The festival is such an opportunity and we will be happy to use it!

We have created a celebration of contemporary art discovery, which will take place this year not only in the grandiose rooms of the concert hall, but already in four different places in the city. Let’s get together in our de-isolation! ”

urges Baiba Bartkeviča, the artistic director of the concert hall “Lielais dzintars”, whose festival program has been developing for 5 years already.

Reflecting on the concept of isolation, an exhibition of works by five outstanding Latvian contemporary visual artists – Leonards Laganovskis, Juris Artūrs Putramas, Krišs Salmanis, Vilnis Vītoliņš and Armands Zelčs – created by curator and art scientist Astride Rogule will be opened in the art hall of the concert hall. As the author of the concept emphasizes, the works selected for the exhibition come from isolation – the collection of the future Museum of Contemporary Art, which will travel to Liepāja thanks to cooperation with the Latvian National Museum of Art.

Immediately after the opening of the exhibition, the Belgian choreographer and dancer Lizbet Gruvez will dance the fine music scores of the French composer, dreamer Debussy. “Piano Dancing in Debussy” is a physical dialogue between dancer Lisbeth Gruwez and pianist Claire Chevallier. In the new performance, the artists, wandering between rules and roles, look for a space between the notes in the compositions of the French composer Claude Debussy. The world premiere of the event was already planned at last year’s art forum, but due to the pandemic it was postponed to this year’s program.

On the opening night of the “Liepāja Art Forum”, the city club “Kursa” will be revived, where the modern jazz group “LUPA” will perform with a combination of jazz and electronic music, but the continuation of the evening will be in the mood of the last century. As the organizers explained, the slightly nostalgic party-disco “Aldis Ermanbriks” will be an ironic replica of the once popular Latvian Television show “Rainbow”, which was directed by musician, record collector and the first popular music journalist in Latvia – Aldis Ermanbriks.

In its turn, a versatile film day program has been created in the culture house “Wiktorija” in cooperation with the Riga International Film Festival. It consists of three powerful European films on eternity and universal themes that will not leave the indifferent in an age of loneliness and indifference.

The Latvian Radio Choir and French conductor Roland Hayrabedian will present an art event unheard of in Latvia at the Liepāja Art Forum, inviting them to the farewell ritual of Egyptians captured in the sounds of the French composer Zad Moultaka of Lebanese origin.

There are several events for children and parents. Introducing the audience to the documentary dance method, choreographer, dancer and director Kristīne Brīniņa will offer a new dance performance “Surviving Children” and a movement class “MOveMENT”. The show “Surviving Children” is about the courage to overcome fears and doubts, about mutual trust between different generations, the desire to listen and be heard. In order to keep the performance documentary, five parents have mastered their children’s movements, thoughts and situations. During the show, the parents will experience them and broadcast them empathetically for themselves, but the audience will witness the world created by the children. Registration for the movement class and show will begin on September 6, and these events will be available free of charge.

For the first time during the existence of the “Liepāja Art Forum”, cooperation with the Liepāja Puppet Theater will be implemented. The youngest visitors of the forum will be the first to see with their own eyes the interpretation of director Ģirts Šulis about Erik Kestner’s work “The Little Man”.

At the end of the festival, the grandiose of French contemporary music – the mystic Olivier Messian and Pierre Boulez will be performed by the musicians of the Belgian chamber ensemble “Het Collectief”. The concert program includes Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, but as a prelude to the work of one of his most influential students, Pierre Boulez.

An hour before the concerts of “Het Collectief” and the Latvian Radio Choir, “Lielā dzintara” on the 2nd floor gallery will host exploratory talks / discussions on contemporary music led by musicologist Dāvis Eņģelis.

When attending the “Liepāja Art Forum’21” events, visitors will be asked to present a Covid-19 certificate confirming the completion of a vaccination course or infection during the last 6 months. Under current regulations, face masks will not be required during events, except for events intended for children’s audiences, where all visitors over the age of 7 must wear face masks.

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