As the centers of the cities in their more and more uniform look represent the global aspect of the city, the outer districts and quarters reflect the other side of the globalization process, as each city and each quarter is still very different, with its own history, location, mentalities, language habits, local rituals, population structures, education, ecotopes, surroundings, and social and cultural heritage. The social, economical and political aspects in a city quarter can be tangibly experienced and are configurable for the people at eyelevel. The city quarters are the experimental zones of social changes.
GC-LC is a proposal for the artistic exploration of the social, ecological, and political realities, and civic and social potentials in different cities and of global city developments. After the research phase at nine City Labs, through residencies and festival programmes, GC-LC will create new artistic work making visible specific issues relevant to different city phenomena.

theatrefit.org

BaNd:expanded is the initiative of eight internationally active performing arts organisations fro Baltic and Nordic countries. During three years (2011-2013) young performing arts professionals from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden meet and share their artistic experience in six thematic interdisciplinary ateliers – “A Hero of Today” in Tallinn (2011), “Immaterial Labor” in Trondheim (2012), “Diary and Documentation” in Vilnius and Alanta (2012), “Art and Activism: Tactocal Performance” in Helsinki and Tampere, “On Curatorship: Phantom Power Re-edit” in Malmo (2013) and the final one in Riga during the “Homo Novus” festival – “Definition of Tomorrow”. The atelier in Riga will be run by Croatian dramaturg and choreographer Goran Sergej Pristaš, and its central theme will be time. Latvia in BaNd:expanded is represented by Janis Balodis, Krista Burane, Viesturs Meiksans and Valters Silis. The project is supported by Kulturkontakt Nord.

bandexpanded.net

Homo Novus is a place where young theatre artists and scenographers from Switzerland, Poland and Latvia come together to explore theatre outside its traditional settings. Together with the festival artists they discover how the city lights, space, sounds, smells and stories become an integrated part of the scenography and the story of the performance. Meetings, workshops, and lectures for a group of 16 young artists are run by Homo Novus artists and guests Serge von Arx (scenographer and architect, professor at Norwegian Theatre Academy, Norway), Alan Read (theatre scholar, professor at King’s College London), Signe Becker (scenographer, Norway), Philippe Quesne (visual artist, theatre director, France), Guido Kleene (director, the Netherlands, Republic of the Congo), Marco Mazzoni (choreographer, Italy), Monika Pormale (scenographer, Latvia). The project is initiated and supported by Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.

www.prohelvetia.pl