International Festival of Contemporary Theatre
Programme
Book of Riga
07.09. 14:00, Festival Centre | Free entry
The Book of Riga is a guidebook created by 150 local school children aged 8-11 in collaboration with artists Andy Field and Beckie Darlington.
Part fictional imagining, part actual guidebook invites its predominantly adult audience to see the city through the eyes of its youngest inhabitants. Whether you are a visitor or a local resident, this project is a way of expanding what you think you know about a place and an invitation to participate in a conversation about the very different values and meanings that adults and children ascribe to the things they encounter in the world around them. The Book of Riga is an opportunity to see the sights that children deem important, to follow both their favourite walks and to reconsider the narratives of importance that shape our perception of that place. Who decides what is or isn’t worth seeing? Who makes decisions about what places are worth preserving and who tells the stories that define the identity of our city?
The project culminates in a live book launch during festival Homo Novus that will be hosted by the book’s young authors where they will read their favourite passages, ask questions of the adult residents of the city and offer attendees the chance to have their copy of the guidebook signed by the authors.
About artists
Andy Field and Beckie Darlington are artists who collaborate with children and young people on creative projects that initiate new and different kinds of conversations between children and adults. These conversations explore how we live together and the roles we are all able to play within the life of our communities.
Their work is based on performance but has taken a range of forms. Some things Andy & Beckie have done recently include collaborating with the children of internal migrant workers in Beijing to imagine a different future for their city, creating a social action collective with primary school children in St Helens, and working remotely with children across the Australia and New Zealand to make an audio-walk that takes place in the rain, exploring their experience of connection, localness and distance during the coronavirus pandemic.
Central to all their work is the aim of creating playful and innovative new ways for adults and children to talk, think and imagine together. Spaces of compassion where new kinds of futures can be imagined.
“Our work has taught us how helpful for everyone it can be to have children be a part of these big complex conversations. We believe that children are much better than adults at applying simple principles like fairness and justice to difficult issues in the real world, and are equally good at holding adults to account when they fail to do the same. By trusting children to play a meaningful part in our social and political discourse, we are able to make better, braver decisions that benefit us all.”
Credits
Concept: Andy Field and Beckie Darlington
Making: The Book of Riga was created by children from Fricis Brīvzemnieks Primary School, Riga French Lycée, Riga Waldorf School, Riga Centre Primary school of Applied Arts, Latgale Suburb Music and Art School in collaboration with artists Andy Field and Beckie Darlington
Editors: Anna Frederika Baumane, Anna Martinsone, Sofija Lea Krievkalne, Rūdolfs Krustiņš, Teodors Krebs, Eižens Freimanis, Madara Agloniete, Sofija Vaļuka, Kārlis Keisters.
Illustrations: Vivianna Maria Staņislavska
Graphic Design: Will Brady
Translation and editorial support: Santa Remere, Andrejs Vīksna
Production: Santa Remere and Ieva Briede for Homo Novus Festival
Commissioned by: Homo Novus Festival
7
September
Book Launch 14:00
