Art Beyond Participation — BE PART Symposium
06.09., 07.09., 08.09.
Festival Centre – Kaļku iela 24, Rīga
Free, with registration
In Latvian and English

After four years of exploring the ethics of artistic participation, the BE PART partners, artists, community members and audiences will gather in Riga for a final Symposium.

BE PART is a project initiated by a network of 10 EU and non-EU partners that critically explores the politics and practices of participation in the arts field. From collaborative art-making and sharing to decentralised governance models involving local citizens, artists and policy makers.

The Symposium aims to highlight projects from around the network, invite provocations from the participants and provides further inspiration to dive deeper into an ethical framework of co-authorship. Collectively for three days we will listen, talk, discuss, watch, participate, dance, sing and toast to the future.

Wednesday September 6
14:00 Feel for the Game – Keynote by Darren O’Donnel (CA)
Darren O’Donnel is the artistic director of Mammalian Diving Reflex, he shares strategies for co-authoring the cultural sector with young people who couldn’t really give two shits about the cultural sector.
16:00 First Panel Notes from the Future with The Shake Down curators
In the last two years, several different projects within the BE PART network have given context, power and artistic freedom to young people. However, were the right frames in place to achieve true artistic freedom? With Ikars Graždanovičs, Karu Treij, Samuels Ozoliņš (LV) and Kiasma young curator Alex Mitiku (FI).
17:30 Wrong Families – Festival School Debrief
The Gob Squad (GB/DE) will run a 6-day workshop, sharing different strategies for co-creation, all framed by the concept of ‘wrong families’ and notions of collectivity.
21:00 The Publication Party – ATLAS
A small delegation of artistic and social laboratory ATLAS (BE) will come to Riga for their official presentation and they need your help!

Thursday September 7
10:00 Kubakiya kile tuko (‘Remain What We Are’) – Keynote by Joseph Kasau (CG)
Joseph Kasau is a visual artist, filmmaker and author based in Lubumbashi. Joseph will introduce his practice through his collaboration on the films Ulemu and Return, an epic journey by Rita Mukebo. The discussion will propose a lens in which to understand art as essentially functional, representing celebrations and rituals within communities.
10:00-11.30 Hamis Ahmed (FI) x EMBODY Riga – Dance Workshops at Dzirnas, Lāčplēša iela 106, Rīga – Drop Class 9€
11:30 Second Panel Community and identity – Barbara Lehtna (EE/LV) and Katrīna Dūka (LV)
The artists will share their experience on working with identity-based communities in their piece In the Name of Love (2021) which was created with 8 local queer people.
14:00 The Book of Riga – Andy Field and Beckie Darlington (GB)
A live book launch where the book’s young authors will present their prospects for the city to the Riga City Council.
16:00 Critical Network – BE PART Protocol Presentation
The critical network will organise different meetings during the Riga assembly that will be centered around the building of toolboxes departing from the protocol. We will start by reflecting on the whole protocol process, its usefulness, necessity and efficiency for the different participants and organisations.
17:30 Wrong Families – Festival School Debrief (See above)
19:00 Film Beyond Participation – A glimpse into the fieldworks from beyond. The Screening program invites a gaze into the process and the outcomes of many collaborations from across the BE PART network. We dance in Tunis, Sing Ode to Joy with Amanda Coogan and Lianne Quigley (IE) (through the unique perspective of Deaf culture with Cork Community Deaf Choir) and meet Young Traveller artists in collaboration with Eszter Némethi and Clare Murphy (IE). After the screening there will be a short Q&A with the artists present at the Symposium.
21:00 Be water, my friends – a performative dance by Mara Oscar Cassiani (IT)
Be water, my friends is made to unify the people as a transgenerational open ritual, inspired by Bruce Lee’s “homonymous” monologue. We will be water, we will be the river, we will be the same dance.

Friday September 8
10:00-11.30 Hamis Ahmed (FI) x EMBODY Riga – Dance Workshop at Dzirnas, Lāčplēša iela 106, Rīga – Drop Class 9€
10:00 (FULL) Artist Workshop Erased Gazes – Politics of Touch (SI)
In 1992, soon after Slovenia broke away from Yugoslavia, the administrative bodies of the Republic of Slovenia arbitrarily and illegally erased more than 25,000 people from the register of permanent residents. To protest the injustices caused by the Erasure, the Artistic collective of the Politics of Touch project created the Erased Gazes memorial canvas.
14:00 Third Panel Community as Locality – heading towards the more than human
This panel will explore the techniques of collaborating with non-humans and the humans that interact with the landscapes that also contribute to the complex make up of the locality. Panel features: One step at a time like this (AU), Vinny Jones (NL), Zoë Laureen Palmer (UK) and Linda Krumina (LV).
15:30 Workshop Beyond Participation? – Reflecting on BE PART
Sophie Hope and Henry Mulhall (GB) will present their research methodology inviting participants to reflect on the changing meanings, understandings, motivations and experiences of participation, power-sharing, co-creation and collaboration, asking the audience to play a game to explore what lies beyond, and behind their own experiences of participation.
17:30 Wrong Families – Festival School Debrief (See above)
20:00 Symposium Closing Party – QUEEREEOKÉ supported by members of the Baltic Drag King Collective
Performative means of spontaneous backup choreography, singing and show effects, memorable moments with life-changing potential.