Laikmetīgās mākslas festivāls "Survival Kit 17"

The festival “Survival Kit”, organized by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, is one of the most important annual contemporary art events in the Baltics. Since 2009, the festival has been gathering artists, curators and art enthusiasts from Latvia and around the world in Riga every autumn. The venues of “Survival Kit” – often empty or unused buildings – are an integral part of the festival's identity.

The exhibition “Survival Kit 17”, announced with the title “The Wind Arrow: On Art and Healing”, will cover therapy, incantations and rituals, physical and mental health care and spiritual renewal, bringing together artists for whom art and healing are supporting forces and a practice of life.

Historically, Latvian healing traditions combined empirical knowledge of medicinal plants and natural remedies with magical techniques, ritual gestures and careful observation of seasonal changes. Fairy tales, folk songs and traditions of folk-created poetry continued these practices, preserving methods of divination, herbal wisdom and ritual proceedings. During the waves of Latvian migration in the 20th century, this ancestral and cultural knowledge became a source of sustaining strength – an important healing infrastructure for communities forced to move without guarantees of return. Cultural continuity became a form of survival.

The festival program can be found here.

Festival working hours:

M, Tu: closed

W-Sa: 12.00 - 20.00

Su: 12.00 - 18.00