On July 30th at 9 pm in Aizpute, by the Tebra riverside, with spectacular iron and fire show – process of melting and casting iron, will be the closing event of 7th International Cast Iron Art Symposium.

7th International Cast Iron Art Symposium will be held July 25-31, 2010 at the Residency and workshop centre SERDE in Aizpute. Old out-of-date cast iron radiators will be used during the cast iron art symposium. In the hands of professional artists they will be transformed in amazing masterpieces of art.

The participants of the symposium: Rick Batten (ASV), Kārlis Alainis, Ivars Miķelsons, Gunārs Dzelme, Arvīds Endziņš, Kristians Brekte, Edgars Ošs, Andris Landaus, Agita Šteinberga, Gundega Evelone, Asnāte Bočkis Renāte Alaine, Liene Medniece.

Saturday 27.3.2010, Kiasma Seminar Room, 13.00-16.45.

Herbologies/Foraging Networks Seminar

Featuring Ossi Kakko (FI), Sirpa Kurppa (FI), Malin Lindmark Vrijman and Mathieu Vrijman of Kultivator (SE), Nina Nordström (FI), Andrew Gryf Paterson (SCO/FI), Sinikka Piippo (FI), Signe Pucena (LV), Christina Stadlbauer (AT/BE) and Jessica Suni (FI).

Herbologies Workshops in Kaisaniemi Botanic Gardens

Date: 28th March, 2010, 12-17
Location: Kaisaniemi Botanic Gardens, Helsinki.

Two interactive workshops, ‘Herbal Tinctures’ and ‘Fermentation Sermon’, teach artistic and ‘hands-on’/practical skills, and give DIY -tools to prepare and enjoy wild vegetables and local herbs following traditional and contemporary procedures.

Signe Pucena, Ugis Pucens / The interdisciplinary art group SERDE (LV)
Workshop language: In English

The ‘Herbal Tinctures’ workshop is an artistic interpretation of creating alcoholic extracts of plant materials at home. The first part of the workshop will introduce the traditions of making tinctures for medicinal purposes, while the second part will refer to collecting herbs or other wild foods in Latvia.

Participants will be involved in making spirits homemade-style, using household dishes and plants grown in Windowfarms -installation. Using pre-prepared materials, participants would then learn how to ferment different food-stuffs, primarily fruit jam, from berries which can be foraged in gardens or fields. Following this process, they will add plants to the mix, which will create a tincture. During this process, Pucena will share Latvian stories and traditional knowledge behind the use of particular plants. She will also bring materials made already in Latvia.

More: http://www.pixelache.ac/helsinki/

From 20 March till 11 April creative group “Where dogs run” from Yekaterinburg, Russia will have an exhibition at the RIXC Gallery. Exhibition “Rest Hour” will showcase seven works – 6 optical devices “Antivirtual Helmets” and video “Road”.

„Kuda begut sobaki” have visited Latvia on several occasions – in June, 2009 “Kuda begut sobaki” were artists-in-residence at SERDE artist’s residency centre at Aizpute and during their stay they worked on the project “Mirror”. “Mirror” was exhibited at the 3rd Contemporary Art Biennale in Moscow and at the 8th Krasnojarsk Biennale.

Organized by SERDE

More info: www.kim.lv

During the Contemporary culture festival White Night 2009 SERDE offers Moonshine and Soap. The workshop will take place in Stabu street 14, at 7 pm.

MOONSHINE

Moonshine brewing workshop is an artistic interpretation of brewing your own liquor at home. The idea of the project came about when watching the creative approach of the nation to the development of technical solutions for homebrewing. Although the tradition is shrouded in mystery, in the recent years there has been research of this tradition and documentation of moonshine brewing in Latvia.

In the cultural and historical context homebrewing doubtlessly belongs to the intangible cultural heritage of the world. During this event the audience will be offered a chance to take a look at this tradition from a different point of view – not moralizing about moonshining as a social evil but revealing the inexhaustible inventive faculties of people in catering to their needs with limited resources. In the current situation every skill and ability is a virtue that gives you opportunities to use available resources. For example, moonshine can be excellently used to make herb tinctures both for internal use and external application.

SOAP

In Latvian there is a well-preserved and popular idiom “to make soap”, which means “to make a mess” and is usually used to refer to nasty cases of deliberate mischief. But the soap making tradition itself has died out. When asking this question to women of the older generation the answer you will most often get is that every household used to make their own soap, but few remember the whole process.

Making soap at home is not a usual thing to do. That is easily explained by the wide range of detergents available at stores, their low prices and also the lack of knowledge and skills of the people. Nowadays there are very few of those who know what ingredients are needed to make soap.

Recently a large part of the society has started paying increasingly more attention to traditions and nature-friendly products and technologies. The aim of soap making workshop is to activate this tradition and turn the attention of the modern people to the extensive heritage of intangible cultural heritage and encourage them to use traditional skills in a modern context. There has also been some research of this phenomenon on a larger scale – field research, documenting the making of soap, the context of the tradition (like soap and detergents during war) and recording related verbal evidence. The audience of the event will be introduced to the traditional process of making soap, using economical and ecological resources – ashes and lard.

www.baltanakts.lv

22th of August at the Riga Festival program

“The Tree of Good Intentions” is an installation that will be created by the residents of the city with the assistance of artists, making use of empty PET bottles throughout the day.

The installation will be made of recyclable material, representing a tree as a visual symbol of clean environment. Every PET bottle brought by a resident or guest of Riga will be attached to the trunk of the symbolic tree and given its own special place. Everybody who takes part in the happening will symbolically vote for a rational development of the environment on our planet, in our country and city.

The happening is organized by the Interdisciplinary Art Group SERDE - Uģis Pucens, Jānis Zvirgzds – Zvirgzdiņš, Jānis Kalniņš, Māris Grosbahs. The visitors of the Riga Festival will be encouraged to take part in the making of the tree by the representatives of “Latvijas Zaļais punkts” (The Green Dot Latvia).

Sponsored by: Culture Department of the Riga City Council and “Latvijas Zaļais punkts.”

The Sixth International Cast Iron Art Symposium will be held August 3 – 9, 2009 at the residency and workshop centre of the Interdisciplinary Art Group SERDE in Aizpute. Melting and casting iron will be open to the general public and all interested audiences during the symposium days at the artists residency centre SERDE 9, Atmodas Street, and at night by the Tebra riverside on August 8th at 9 pm in Aizpute.

The Cast Iron Art Symposium at the residency and workshop centre SERDE will launch the series of art and ecology events in coming years. Artists are invited to use diverse raw materials and supplies for recycling and creating art works. This year old out-of-date cast iron radiators will be used during the cast iron art symposium. In the hands of professional artists they will be transformed in amazing masterpieces of art.

The participants of the symposium – Rick Batten (USA), Kārlis Alainis and Ivars Miķelsons, Asnate Bočkis, Marts Erdmanis (Latvia, Rīga), Uldis Kurzemnieks (Latvia, Pāvilosta)

The students of the Art Academy of Latvia – Edgars Ošs, Gundega  Evelone, Krists Pudzēns, Aigars Tavkins.

Project Curator:

Kārlis Alainis

Phone: +371 29430797

Project administration: Interdisciplinary Art Group SERDE

Phone: +371 29817180

Project is supported by the Kurzeme Program of the State Culture Endowment Foundation, The Culture Department of Liepaja City Council, Aveido Ltd, Hidrolats ČL Ltd.

Call for proposals deadline: June 8, 2009

Symposium for ART AND RENEWABLE TECHNOLOGIES

August 13-16 in Aizpute (Latvia)

The 4-day symposium gathering together artists, activists, technologists, scientists and researchers, to share their ideas and explorations which deal with renewable energy resources, alternative ecological use of technologies, and other sustainability related issues.

Themes:

[bio]   

Environmental science and ecology - Ecosystem research - Permaculture and biosystem design - Biomass as renewable energy resource - Critical and alternative approaches to biotechnology

[solar]

Sunlight as constant energy resource - Process of photosynthesis - Solar energy technologies

[open source]

Sustainability using open source/information approaches: in art and grassroots culture, ecology, architecture and environmental design

[myths & legends]

Historical traditions and modern alternative solutions - Speculations - Critical, utopian or scientific visions of future terrestrial energy

Location:

The symposium will take place at our artists residency center SERDE in Aizpute, a small town in Kurzeme region of Latvia. SERDE is located in old wooden historical building (that also will be used as a specific case for which alternative and ecological approach in developing sustainable systems and renewable energy technologies can be explored and applied).

Call:

For this symposium, we invite those interested to send their proposals in relation to above mentioned themes, to the following email address: <2009 AT rixc.lv> (and/or <rasa AT rixc.lv>)

!!!!!!! Deadline: June 8, 2009

Participation:

Travel and accommodation/subsistence will be covered for 10 participants from Baltic and Nordic countries, and for 2 participants from EU countries.

For others, participation costs include:

1) admission - free

2) travel (to Riga) - has to be covered by participants (local transportation from Riga to Aizpute will be provided by organisers)

3) accommodation - 10-25 eur per night

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The outcomes of the symposium - new projects, artworks, co-productions - will be presented during the international art and science conference ENERGY that will take place in the framework of Art+Communication festival in Riga, October 15-17, 2009.

The symposium is organised by RIXC (http://rixc.lv), the center for new media culture with the support of Nordic Culture Fund.

SERDE residencies program is open for residents from 1st of May until 1st of October.

To apply for residencies you have to send the project proposal and CV to e-mail address pucena (@) gmail.com