[artinfo] The Latvian Center for Contemporary Art open CALL FOR PROPOSALS: SURVIVAL KIT 2

[Sári Stenczer]

CALL FOR SURVIVAL KIT 2

Last September the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art produced an
international art project SURVIVAL KIT, which invited over 70 artists
to reflect upon diverse survival strategies in the modern world. The
global society is currently actively preoccupied with this subject and
it has become particularly urgent also in Latvia. The project took
place in the empty shopping spaces of the city, one of the most
noticeable features in the face of the economic crisis. Artists turned
the empty retail premises into creative laboratories that housed
exhibitions, an improvised second-hand fashion parlour, a bookstore
and a whole array of activities that involved the society. SURVIVAL
KIT events were attended by 30'000 people, the project attracted
extensive media attention and was nominated for the Annual Culture
Award of the largest daily newspaper in Latvia, the “Diena”.

This autumn the next stage of the project is planned to take place,
using the new initiatives and creative incubators as a platform for
SURVIVAL KIT 2 project. The current situation is characterized by a
fiasco of liberal capitalism, a collapse of economy, threats to the
ecology, outbreaks of regional conflicts.

What can artists do in this situation? Keep searching for creative
survival strategies by finding innovative and witty solutions.
SURVIVAL KIT 2 is characterized by the following keywords: migration,
community, utopia, alternative economy, power, ecology. In the
previous SURVIVAL KIT project, at the time when the society was just
getting acquainted with the situation created by the economic crisis
and was possibly under the illusion that it was a temporary occurrence
soon to pass, artists focused on DIY strategies, using low-cost
materials, short-term, spontaneous solutions, ironic attributes of
spirituality, commentary and documentation of the situation. SURVIVAL
KIT 2 calls for a critical analysis of the current situation as well
as viewing things in a long-term perspective, changing the usual
direction of thinking, focusing on sustainable strategies and taking a
look into the future.

Nicolas Bourriaud has said that the contemporary artist „instead of a
utopian agenda [...] seeks only to find provisional solutions in the
here and now” - instead of trying to change their environment, artists
today are simply „learning to inhabit the world in a better way”. The
participants of SURVIVAL KIT 2 will be urged to create functioning
„microtopias” for the present time.

The LCCA is waiting for artists` submissions that have to be sent
until April 15, to Solvita Krese. E-mail: skrese at lcca.lv.
Submission includes:
1)      Project description
2)      Approximate costs
3)      CV of the author


About LCCA: www.lcca.lv