In the symposium, various threads from the festival came together, met and continued to flow in many other directions. With lectures, artist talks and discussions we brought the entanglements between art and esoteric practices, occultism and acupuncture, geometry and politics, fauna and the end of the world, as well as many more, to the fore to open up our thinking about the history and present day of art.
Participants: Ph.D. Elita Ansone (art historian and curator, Latvia), Hannah Klaubert (environmental researcher, Netherlands) & Simon van der Weele (writer and researcher, Netherlands), Pádraic E. Moore (art historian and curator, Ireland), Lea Porsager (artist, Denmark)
Lecture "The Mushroom at the End of the World and Beyond"
With Simon van der Weele and Hannah Klaubert
The figure of the mushroom is inextricably bound with the end of the world, but also with its regeneration. Nuclear bombs leave a mushroom-shaped cloud, but “preppers” waiting for the apocalypse in their home-made bunkers practise their mushroom foraging skills to survive in whatever comes “after”. Magic mushrooms inducing holy visions from the beyond teach us about whatever comes “after”, too. But their powers are now used for surviving the present: they enhance our happiness and efficiency in a practice called “microdosing”. In the mushroom life, death, money, power and spirituality form an intricate web, like endless threads of underground mycelium, the “roots” from which the mushroom springs.
In this interactive lecture, we wanted to look at mushrooms from all sides, examine their shapes and stories and colours. We invited the participants to follow us to the end of the world (and beyond), a mushroom growing kit as our only luggage.
Artist talk "Needles needed, needy needles"
With Lea Porsager
More information about the artist here.
Lecture "Experiment with the Invisible World"
With Elita Ansone
Four Latvian artists were examined in this presentation. The first artist was Jānis Viņķelis, who in his visual images demonstrated an interest in the afterlife, evolution, humanoids, ghosts and science fiction. A continuation of Viņķelis’ ideas can be observed in the artwork of Miķelis Fišers, whose art is driven by psychedelic aesthetics and visionarism, playing with UFOs and conspiracy theories, “power trips”, channelling and experience gained through shamanistic practices. Aleksandrs Busse’s creative activities in art have taken place in synergy with Eastern spiritual practices, which also marked a radical turning point in the artist’s biography and career – since 2001 he has been practising as a healer. Henrijs Preiss, for his part, constructs the world as a geometric model assembling it from the symbols of the Cabala, mandalas, scared architecture and Freemasonry.
Lecture "Investigations Into the Super-physical"
With Padraic E. Moore
In response to the theme of this year’s Survival Kit, Moore discussed some of his recent projects, focusing specifically upon his research into Mazdaznan. This religious movement flourished in the early years of the Bauhaus under Johannes Itten and promulgated vegetarianism, intestinal care and breathing exercises.