As part of the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art's (LCCA) 25th-anniversary celebration, titled "Time, Dawn, or a Passing Train," we are thrilled to invite you to a day filled with insightful discussions and presentations on August 7. This event is part of the LCCA Summer School program and belongs to a series of performative walks and events that began on May 31 and will continue through October 2025.
Since its founding in 2000, the LCCA has played a vital role in shaping contemporary art in Latvia, providing a dynamic platform for artistic expression and enhancing the international profile of Latvian contemporary art. As we celebrate our anniversary this year, we have taken time to reflect deeply on our history and regional developments. Therefore, as part of our annual summer school, we have invited our close collaborators - those with whom we share not only a common history but also knowledge and strategies on how art institutions can influence the development of public space and art history.
To foster the exchange of ideas on rethinking institutional and shared histories, we invite you to join us on a day-long journey. We will explore the pathways of institutional history, weaving together rediscovered archives, collective memories, and marginalized narratives. This exploration highlights the importance of acknowledging the intrinsic authority of regional knowledge systems in interpreting complex geographical and cultural landscapes.
PROGRAMME
Venue: Alūksne Art School, Ojāra Vācieša Street 2, Alūksne
Session times will be announced soon!
Working language: English
Participation is free of charge
We will begin the day with a talk by Paul O’Neill:
Beyond Care: Curatorial Para-hosting, Institutional Flip-Flopping
Paul O’Neill, an esteemed Irish curator, artist, writer, and educator, will explore the potential for contemporary art museums and institutions to learn from contemporary art curating, small-scale organizations, and debates around hosting, escape, and publicness. He will introduce the concept of para-hosting as a methodology of institutional support through self-organization without absorption, offering transformative possibilities for museums to operate beyond existing power structures.
Afternoon Session: Karolina Łabowicz-Dymanus - The Soros Centers for Contemporary Art and the Shaping of Institutional Modernity in Eastern Europe
Dr. Karolina Łabowicz-Dymanus will lead a seminar focusing on the Soros Centers for Contemporary Art (SCCA) and their pivotal role in reshaping the contemporary art field in Eastern Europe during the 1990s. The discussion will address the SCCA's impact on local art institutions, the promotion of new artistic canons, and the support of selected forms of artistic practice. Key topics will include the implementation of standardized institutional models, the visual language of institutional transformation, and the idea of “modernization” as applied to artistic institutions and practices.
Late Afternoon Session: Marika Agu and Sten Ojavee -The Archive and Soros Realism Revisited
Marika Agu and Sten Ojavee will offer insights into the history and current work of the archive at the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art. They will trace its organizational principles from its inception and explain their influence on generative archival practices. The presentation will also revisit the role of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art in Estonia, examining its impact on the local art scene during the 1990s and the critical discourse around “Soros Realism.”
Evening Session: Lolita Jablonskienė - SCCA-CAIC-NGA-Lithuania: Continuity, Ruptures, Returns
Lolita Jablonskienė will examine the history of the SCCA network in Eastern and Central Europe, focusing on the work of SCCA-Lithuania, the Contemporary Art Information Center, and the National Gallery of Art. She will trace the continuities, ruptures, and eventual returns in their activities, drawing from both professional experience and personal memory.
For any questions, please contact Andra Silapētere: silapetere@lcca.lv
The LCCA Summer School is organised by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art in cooperation with the Alūksne Municipality and supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation and Cewood and Goethe-Institut Riga.
The LCCA project “Time, Dawn, or a Passing Train” is supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers' Culture and Art Programme, the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, the Alūksne Municipality Council, the Alūksne Art School, and the company Cewood.