Call for applications for the annual LCCA Summer School “Language and its Social and Political Contexts” in Valmiera, Latvia, 9–13 August 2024.
Application deadline: 16 June.
This year's Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA) Summer School program focuses on language and its social and political contexts to explore both our shared living space and what it means to have diverse social and communicative environments within and between different groups of people. The Summer School is open to early-career artists, art historians, humanities and social science scholars, curators and cultural studies researchers. MA and PhD students are particularly encouraged to apply.
Lectures workshops and discussions will be led by Niels van Tomme, Haralds Matulis, Anna Kin, Francisco Martines, Patricia Couvet (Pickle Bar), Dens Dimiņš, Jussi Koitela, Mar Fjell, Malin Arnell and others.
Offering interdisciplinary perspectives, this year's Summer School will delve into the experiences of the recent past as well as the contexts of the present in the Baltic Sea region and Eastern Europe. The various aspects of language will be explored considering the social-political, cultural and historical contexts, especially Russia's colonial war in Ukraine and its impact on the region. The school will explore the processes of adaptation, evolution and hybridization in the face of geopolitical change, for example, as communities regain self-determination in the context of imperial languages, or as they develop specific gestures, secret languages and codes to ensure mutual communication and security. Central to the school will be issues of language accessibility for different groups of people and ways we can mediate these questions in culture and art.
Together with the lecturers, the participants will explore the questions: How do political and social environments influence changes in language expressions and conditions? How does language reflect identity and processes of change? How looking back at the past can help to understand the social and political contexts of language today? How does language reflect processes of coexistence and interaction? Can language be an instrument of social as well as sexual emancipation? What happens when communication is interrupted? What are the innovative forms of language and communication today and how can we think about language beyond the usual assumptions in communication?
The program of the Summer School is created by Andra Silapētere, Mārīte Lempa and Andris Freibergs.
To apply, please fill in the application form and attach a motivation letter here. Application deadline: 16 June 2024. Information on participation in the Summer School will be provided individually by email by 23 June.
The programme of the Summer School will be held in English. Participation is free of charge, however, participants must cover partial accommodation and catering costs of EUR 120. To add, everyone is welcome to attend the free open lectures that will be held at the Summer School. More information regarding the content of the Summer School programme, as well as on how to apply for the open lectures, will be published soon.
If you have any questions regarding the application process, please contact Andris Freibergs (andris@lcca.lv) or Andra Silapētere (silapetere@lcca.lv).
The LCCA Summer School is organised in cooperation with the Valmiera Municipality and supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation, Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Latvia, Goethe-Institut Riga, Contemporary Art Space "Kurtuve", Museum of Valmiera and Valmiera Gauja bank secondary school - development center.
Image: Reinis Dzudzilo. Drawing.
