Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art Summer School "Art, Agency and Institutional Transformation"
Location: Alūksne
Dates: August 6–11, 2025
The public lecture programme of the Summer School is available here
This year, the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA) is hosting its 12th Summer School. For the first time, the event will take place in Alūksne, a city on Latvia's eastern border celebrated for its rich historical and cultural heritage. The 2025 program, titled "Art, Agency and Institutional Transformation" is scheduled for August 6 to 11. It will concentrate on the theme of institutional critique and explore its various contexts within the Baltics and Eastern Europe.
The application period for the LCCA Summer School closed on June 22. However, all interested individuals are invited to attend the public program of The LCCA Summer School 2025.
The public program of our school is open to all who are interested in attending lectures and workshops led by researchers, curators, artists and activists. Together, we will explore the similarities and regional variations in institutional critique within the art and culture of the Baltics and Eastern Europe, while also considering the broader global landscape. Our discussions will focus on how external and local factors have influenced and reconfigured regional processes and what kinds of institutional practices have shaped the dialectic of arts in the Baltics and Eastern Europe.
The program aims to rethink how institutional critique post-1989 has conceptualized the position and role of CEE on the global stage. We will examine whether the dichotomies of the latter half of the twentieth century, such as East versus West, continue to influence these discussions.
We will also reconsider questions related to art criticism and cultural reflection, and how they influence and shape the cultural scene. Our exploration extends to the concepts of inclusion and sustainability, and how to ensure they do not merely become institutional policies or protocols for practitioners in the fields of art and culture. Additionally, we will consider strategies to prevent the instrumentalization of culture and art for addressing issues such as education, healthcare, and sustainability, which often occurs through policies and grants.
Key topics and speakers include:
• Paul O’Neill will explore the concept of "Para-hosting" as a cooperative methodology for institutions to engage with publicness without absorption, proposing "Institutional Flip-flopping" as a transformative approach to challenge existing paradigms in art institutions.
• Karolina Łabowicz-Dymanus will examine the role of the Soros Centers for Contemporary Art (SCCA) in reconfiguring the contemporary art field in Eastern Europe during the 1990s, discussing the implications for traditional artists and institutions.
• Marika Agu and Sten Ojavee will present on the history and contemporary work of the archive at the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art, exploring how archival material can generate new ideas and contribute to cultural discussions.
• Lolita Jablonskienė will analyze the history of the SCCA network in Eastern and Central Europe, tracing the continuity, ruptures, and returns in the work of SCCA-Lithuania.
• Yana Foqué will discuss institutional critique through notions of collaboration and authorship, and the social, political, and historical structures that shape them.
• Alexei Gordin will focus on his art practice over the past 10 years, characterized by a friendly mocking of the art world and its institutions, reflecting on the main contradictions of the art world and self-doubts of being a professional artist.
• Inga Surgunte will explore the mutual benefits and instrumentalization of culture and health, advocating for a balanced collaboration that respects cultural integrity.
• FABULA: Tīna Alise Drupa and Rūta Jumīte will lead a workshop on seasonal relations mapping, offering a counter-practice to dominant, extractive ways of knowing a place.
• Liba Bērziņa and Māra Žeikare will leading a workshop discussing concepts of inclusion and sustainability.
• Inesa Brašiškė - case studies dealing with the institutional critique from the Lithuanian art scene.
• Santa Hirša will lecture on the role of art criticism in the circumstances of the institutionalization of critique, mapping the location of art criticism within the system of power relations in art.
Detailed program and full timetable will be announced in the upcoming days!
If you have any questions regarding attendance at the public programme events, please contact Andra Silapētere (silapetere@lcca.lv).
The programme of the Summer School is created by Andra Silapētere, Mārīte Lempa, and Andris Freibergs.
The LCCA Summer School is organised in cooperation with the Alūksne Municipality and supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation and Cewood and Goethe-Institut Riga.
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Graphic design: Rūta Jumīte