NEW THEATRE INSTITUTE OF LATVIA

contemporary performing arts in Latvia and abroad

Stage director and actress Iveta Pole traveled to Ljubljana to participate in the “ACT – Art, Climate, Transition” Ljubljana Summer Lab hosted by Bunker from August 23d to 27th. The central theme of the Summer Lab was trees in urban environments. Lectures, interaction masterclasses with Slovenian stage artists, as well as conversations with various researchers took place. The Summer Lab had a strong impact on the Latvian director: “The lectures and events were designed so that we could look at trees in different ways. To be honest, I had a realization – I have had an irreversible change in how I look at a tree in the city environment,” says Iveta Pole.

You were in Ljubljana during Mladi levi festival. Did you see any of the festival’s performances?
Yes, I saw two of them. Our summer lab schedule was so intense that we were not able to see and experience a lot outside the summer lab plans. Actually, we were only four days in Ljubljana. The lab, each day, started at 10 and then we had lectures and all kinds of events till the evening. So, in the end, I managed to see two performances. The first performance I saw was by Tania El Khoury – she told a story about how she was searching for her grandfather in Mexico, how she has traced her kin. She did it in a very interesting way – every audience member was given a bundle of keys, and the space we were in was full with metal boxes/safes. Audience members were encouraged to go to the boxes, open them and find a piece of story in each box. Stories were not only written texts, also audio-visual materials. There was also a space, a room, where one could go in, sit in front of a mirror and by all kinds of interactive tasks reveal the story. I enjoyed the way the author told the story. I also saw a performance called “It Stays As It Is” by Estonian artists Mart Kangro, Juhan Ulfsak, Ero Epner. I really enjoyed this work! Three Estonian guys were in the auditorium among the audience and there was a gray wall built on the stage. And then they started to tell the audience that the wall that is built on the stage that they have built it themselves, that it will stay there and that there won’t be any surprises, for example, the colour will not change, it will not collapse at the end and reveal some kind of surprise. It will be as it is in the name of the performance – “it stays as it is”. Then they started to reflect about different aspects of the space – how far is the ceiling, whether the lights could fall down from it etc. The idea was to talk about this particular space – how it is and how it has changed in the modern context of borders, what space is in the private and public discourse, what is your home. Look at the concept of space in different aspects

About the summer lab – I read that in the programme themes around the nature and more specifically – trees – appeared. Tell us, what was the main theme of the lab and what did you experience?
The theme was trees in an urban space, in a city. Tree as such. There were all kinds of lectures and events that led us to look at the tree differently. Truthfully speaking, the way I look at the trees in a city have changed. There was one philosophical lecture about the concept of the anthropocene, about how we have lost our bond with nature. And then there was an interesting lecture hosted by an architect from Ljubljana about how they fight for the trees in the city, in the context of Ljubljana. What trees mean to people – are the trees important or not. The mayor of the city has stopped talking to this architect, because in the political quarrel the focus is more about money and financing, trees are not an important part.

Well, yes, because trees interfere…
…less spaces to park your car.

In last year’s “Homo Novus” there was a performance by Krista Burane. With the help of a mobile phone you could stroll around Riga’s center and get to know the trees. Like a walking performance about Riga’s history and trees.
This architect I mentioned before showed us the oldest tree in Ljubljana – a 400 year old linden tree with an empty hollow, and then you think – what is your life, the time you are given in this world. You see a totally different perspective. The architect told us about the importance of saving the old trees in the city, because the new ones do not live for more than 10 years, because of the poor environment. They will never become these old, great trees.

Can you tell us what sticks to you the most, as an artist, from the lectures?
Before thinking about it all artistically, it is important for me that this information resonates in me, transforms me in a way. That was actually the most essential part in the summer lab – we were actively being invited to pay attention to the trees in the city and think about them. Getting to know the history of one tree, you start to wonder, why should the tree be less important than a famous, well-known artist’s biography?

Were you investigating this theme about the trees in the city before? I guess you were more concerned with bees…
Not that much. Of course it is all connected – trees with bees, bees with people and trees with people. We are all a small part of the ecosystem.

Are you planning a performance involving nature or is it too soon to think about it?
I think so, I am interested in different topics. For us, Latvians, nature is something sacred. In the lectures a statement that we have lost our bond with nature appeared, and that we need to restore it. And then I thought, that for us nature has always been an integral part – close and present. I don’t think that this bond is somehow lost for us. By the way, I did not know how beautiful Ljubljana is! I was amazed, I had warm feelings being there. Anyway, I had a feeling that I most definitely have to return.

“ACT: Art. Climate. Transition” is co-financed by the EU’s programme “Creative Europe”
ACT is a European cooperation project on ecology, climate change and social transition. In an era of climate breakdown, mass extinction and growing inequalities we join our forces in a project on hope: connecting broad perspectives with specific, localised possibilities, ones that invite or demand that we act. ACT is a project initiated by 10 cultural operators from 10 European countries, working in the field of performing and visual arts.
  

Back