In Cēsis, in the Rucka manor, this week a summer school, in which artists of various fields, activists, representatives of cultural and creative industries from Latvia and neighboring countries – Poland, Estonia, Belarus and Kazakhstan – participate, a total of 30 creative people.
The week-long summer school is organized by ISSP (International Social Survey Program, Latvian – International Social Research Program).
The executive director of ISSP, Julija Berkoviča, says that the artists represent different age groups, which makes the organizers happy, because it promotes the exchange of opinions and ideas of different generations. “The goal of the summer school is to critically reflect on the role of art in society, share experiences and practices, as well as establish a support network for artists, activists, cultural workers and other representatives of the creative sphere from Latvia and other countries. The event is basically focused on activities that combine art and socio-political activism,” said the representative of ISSP.
It is interesting that the summer school is held in English. “This thematic summer school will be held for the first year. ISSP has been organizing international summer schools since 2006, but mostly we have worked only with photography. Since last year, we started working on a project on the interaction of art and socio-political activists, there was a two-day event here in Rucka. We realized that the topic is topical, artists are very interested, that’s why the idea for this longer program was born.”
The organizer of the event also says that there will be a public presentation on Saturday, where anyone interested is invited to see what happened during the week. “This public presentation is the end of the whole summer school week, we welcome everyone to see what we have developed,” said J. Berkoviča.
She says that the artists spent the first days in discussions and introspective work, analyzing their origins, topics and questions that interest them. Yesterday afternoon, the artists started working in the workshops where the works of art are created.
A very interesting event within the framework of the summer school is also expected this Thursday, when a public lecture on the cultivation of hemp plants will take place. “A photographer from Germany, who is very passionate about the topic of ecology, will talk about it. Over the course of six years, she developed research on hemp as the first plant in the world to be cultivated for a very wide range of uses: both for making clothes and ropes, as well as for food. Growing hemp, it turns out, can restore soil very quickly. Photographer Maren Krings has traveled across four continents documenting hemp farms and the various uses of the plant, but in many countries the cultivation of hemp is prohibited due to the narcotic substances the plant contains. As a result of the project, a book was published – a cannabis encyclopedia, so the lecture will be very interesting,” J. Berkoviča invites the audience who might be interested in this topic to the open lecture on Thursday evening, adding that the topic of the summer school is very relevant and the authors and organizers of the idea hope to organize something similar next year as well.
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