Deisolation. About the Endless.

2021 is almost over. Nearly two years spent in isolation and on digital platforms. We live in the age of constant communication, yet loneliness and sadness mark too many people’s lives. Do we truly share in our joys and sorrows?

The foundation of art is the act of its creator and its receiver coming together. During the pandemic, forced to slow down our active lives, we longed for a meeting in the world of art. We reached towards what is out of this world and endless.

How do we come together – that is the question ruthlessly posed by the pandemic crisis. It demands radical and creative reimaginations of forms of togetherness, makes us realize that togetherness is ultimately necessary for a fully happy human life.

The pandemic deeply affected the structure of society as well, it left public spaces empty and contributed to our encapsulation in the private and individual sphere. How do we restore togetherness? How do we deisolate?

We, the team of Concert Hall Great Amber and creators of the Liepāja Art Forum, continue looking for creative ways and forms for us to meet and be together. The festival is one such opportunity that we will gladly use! We have created a feast of contemporary art discoveries for you, this year taking place not only in our amazing concert hall, but in four different locations in the city as well.

Reflecting on the concept of isolation, we will start by opening the exhibition Isolation by curator Astrīda Rogule featuring pieces by brilliant Latvian visual artists. Belgian choreographer and dancer Lisbeth Gruwez will dance the intricate partitures of French composer and dreamer Debussy.

True discoveries await us in a grandiose concert of contemporary vocal music, where the almighty Latvian Radio Choir and French conductor Roland Hayrabedian will lift our spirits to cosmic orbits with Hungarian composer György Ligeti’ mystical work Lux Aeterna. Through sounds by the fascinating Lebanese composer Zad Moultaka, whose works have never been performed in Latvia, we will learn the ancient Egyptian death ritual.

Grandmasters of French contemporary music, mystic Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Boulez, will be performed by masterful Belgian chamber ensemble Het Collectief.

We have created a cinema day within the Liepāja Art Forum at the locally-beloved Culture House Wiktorija in collaboration with the Rīga International Film Festival. Three powerful auteur films about themes of eternity and humanity, which will definitely leave no heart untouched in the age of loneliness and indifference!

For the first time in many years, the former culture house Kursa, proudly standing right by the sea, will host two different events – a concert by jazz and fusion band Lupa with an exciting contemporary sound, and a slightly nostalgic party – Discotheque Aldis Ermanbriks as a reference to the once popular Latvian Television program Varavīksne. In the deep Soviet era, journalist, musician and record collector Aldis Ermanbriks introduced his viewers not only to news of Latvian popular music, but also let us in on the exhilarating compositions of Western pop talents, which were like sweet forbidden fruit to us, living behind the iron curtain. A Soviet-era culture house and Soviet-era golden oldies combined into a hot party!

For children and their parents, we have prepared several fun events – documentary dance performance Trajectories of Childhood and movement class MOveMENT by choreographer, dancer and director Kristīne Brīniņa, and an interpretation of Erich Kästner’s The Little Man by talented director Ģirts Šolis, performed by the Liepāja Puppet Theater.

Let us come together in our deisolation!

Baiba Bartkeviča

Artistic Director

Liepāja Art Forum