NEW THEATRE INSTITUTE OF LATVIA

contemporary performing arts in Latvia and abroad

Latvia participates at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2015 with two expositions in the national and student section. Author of the national exhibition entitled “Submission” is director and set designer Vladislavs Nastavševs. His exhibit features the set of the performance “Miss Julie” staged by Nastavševs in Valmiera Theatre in 2012, where he continues to explore the tension between human longing for the system to obey and the inability to resist and control the instincts awaken by the outside force. The set requires continuous interaction with performers to become a living creature that embodies equilibrium, tension and collapse.  The directorial debut of Nastavševs on Latvian stage in 2010 marked a new relationship between the linguistic linguistic and visual forms of the performance. This tension became the dominant force in his work and challenged the tradition of Latvian scenography. It seems that the director, stage designer and musician inhabiting Nastavševs, compete with each other for the leadership in his work. Fortunately, in the end, the winner turns out to be each one of them. Nastavševs takes great care of the production as an integrated art work where the space is shared equally by the performers, set, sound and light. By minimal, yet effective means the director turns empty, unaltered stages into imaginary rooms, where all relative constraints have to fall.

The student exhibition made by students of the Scenography Department at the Art Academy of Latvia under the guidance of professor Andris Freibergs will feature the creative path of young artists starting from the very first tasks of the first year of the batchelor’s programme and ending with the MA graduation works. The authors of the exhibits are Māra Broka, Anna Ansone, Līva Puļķe, Svens Kuzmins, Einārs Timma, Dace Pudāne, Gerda Šadurska, Liene Pavlovska, Rūdolfs Baltiņš, Evija Pintāne and Reinis Dzudzilo.

Both exhibitions will be installed at Kafka House, Namesti Franze Kafky 3 and will be open daily from June 18 until June 28.

The curators of Latvian national and student exhibitions at PQ are Gundega Laiviņa and Andris Freibergs, designer of student exhibition – Monika Pormale, light designer Jānis Sniķers, performers at the national exhibition – Marija Linarte and Raimonds Celms, technical producers Jānis Liniņš and Oskars Plataiskalns (Dekorāciju darbnīca).

Latvian participation at PQ is organised by the New Theatre Institute of Latvia in collaboration with the Art Academy of Latvia, Valmiera Theatre, Latvian embassy in Czech Republic, and with the support of the State Culture Capital Foundation and the Ministry of Culture of Latvia.

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