Culture and art programme
The cultural programme’s structure is based on understanding how language is constructed and the objectives for which it is used. Accordingly, the whole cultural programme is arranged in five thematic lines:
LETTERS AND SYLLABLES - small cooperation projects that highlight contrast, unique and individual attributes. Each letter is important and special, it represents its linguistic body and is its very foundation.
WORDS - small and medium-sized cooperation projects, whose subject can be formulated in one word, but whose solutions offer various understandings of this word. They compare contrasts and common features, looking at one thing from various perspectives.
SENTENCES - medium-sized cooperation projects that study what it means to be a person in Europe and a European person.
STORIES - medium-sized and large cooperation projects, centred on stories about personalities and events that illuminate the search for and problems creating a common language in the past, present and future.
PUNCTUATION programmes:
This is a contemplative art programme, the events that make up Create for Silence focus on mental health problems and how they affect quality of life, analyse the coexistence of opposing value systems, interfaith cooperation and the role of faith in building an inclusive society, introducing people to contemporary contemplative practices and the arts as a mental health tool.
CREATE FOR THE SUN AND WORLD - a traditional cultural programme in non-traditional form. Creating a common language by exploring similarities and differences in national and ethnic traditions.
Modern urban ways of living provide us with physical comfort, but at the same time can create alienation from nature, self-doubt based upon images of an ‘ideal’ life, and loneliness even in the middle of all-pervading communication culture. The digital divide imposed by the pandemic has created even greater challenges to people’s mental health and has shown that being in nature and being with others can help.
CREATE FOR ROTHKO is an interdisciplinary art programme. Finding a common language between various fields of art means surprising creative works.
The programme includes works inspired by the ideas of the Daugavpils-born world famous artist Mark Rothko. The programme accents the co-creativity of jazz, visual art and contemporary dance in cooperation with artists from Portugal and other European countries. Creativity – form, space and colour manifested in the most diverse ways are this programme’s keywords.
CREATE FOR NATURE - a contemporary art programme in a natural environment, which is about creating and speaking a common language with nature
People are created by nature. This means that nature is greater, that nature is an asset in itself and exists not only to meet human needs. The ecosphere, where all the Earth’s ecosystems, air water and dry land function in a uniform rhythm, is the source of the preservation of life. We – human beings – are part of this infinite, self-regulating system that is in a state of perpetual development. We are one of the species that calls the Earth its home and natural resources as the foundation for the preservation of our life and wellbeing. We are mutually connected to other species, and with our conduct can influence local and global processes in nature of which the depletion of natural resources, diversity of species and climate changes are the most concerning.
CREATE FOR THE CITY - an urban location-centric creative, environmental art and design programme, about creating a common language between different urban communities to humanize the living environment and build a european urban consciousness.
A humane urban environment encouraging cooperation and green-thinking is one of the preconditions for 21st century society. Within the framework of this project, we want to promote urban localization, cultural history research and community cooperation by supporting and promoting neighbourhood initiatives in cooperation with artists, who want to collaborate creatively in an urban environment. Urban location-centric creative programmes will be implemented in Daugavpils, Rēzekne and other cities in Latgale.
CREATE FOR LATGALE - an interdisciplinary programme, dedicated to Latgale’s contemporary art and culture in Latgalian. Finding and speaking a common language means appreciating the unique sound of latgalians.
The unique culture and identity of the region is based on the Latgalian language, which belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and to the Baltic group of languages as a special form of the Latvian language. At present, about 9% of the population in Latvia speaks Latgalian on a daily basis. However, its status remains in a state of flux. Although Latgalian is used not only in traditional but also in contemporary cultural processes – theatre performances, books, radio, popular music, etc., it does not have the status of an official state language and its users can still feel some discrimination and stigma attached to it by others.
CREATE FOR GROWTH is an interdisciplinary art, education and social programme to promote cooperation between young people and senior citizens. Creating a common language between different generations.
In this project, we want to give a voice to the young people of Daugavpils and Europe, so that they can talk about important topics at a wide-ranging festival in an urban environment, involving different subcultures and providing stages for various artistic expressions and dialogues. Street culture will be the focus of this project. However, unlike other youth festivals, which focus solely on youth themes and subculture, we want to consciously pay attention to conversations with people of other generations. The programme will not distinguish between different experiences, but create an opportunity for them to meet and combine.
CREATE FOR THE FUTURE - contemporary art, science and cutting edge technology cooperation programme. A common language between science and art to build a common nature- and human-friendly future.
The focus of this project is the synthesis of art, science and the latest technologies to build a future in which they all work together to create a bio-diverse and a human-friendly ecosystem. Under the auspices of the programme, artists and scientists will work together to tackle issues regarding the place of human beings within the ecosystem, the balance between human beings and the ecosystem, and the use of cutting edge technologies in creating this balance.
CREATE FOR PEOPLE is a programme of involvement in storytelling and different artistic genres. The search for a common language to share experience, expression and understanding.
To promote empathy and understanding at the individual level, this programme will include events and processes that draw attention to people’s life experiences and, on the basis of these, create involving and inclusive works of art in different forms and genres. The programme’s main subject focuses on individual experiences and stories of acceptance and non-acceptance, inclusion or non-inclusion, with a special focus on groups at risk of social exclusion.
CREATE FOR A LINGUA FRANCA is a conversation and debating programme. Creating and speaking a common language to build respect and trust.
The objective of Create for a Lingua Franca is to reduce stereotypes and prejudices, reveal new perspectives, and to nurture critical thinking and debating culture skills. Lingua Franca conversations will be integrated into each of the ECoC programme projects, fostering the development of debating culture and critical thinking. Daugavpils and Latgale are home to a distinctive society made up of two communities that speak different languages. This is the reason why in Latgale one can observe not only positive differences from the rest of Latvia. We want to foster the development of a critically thinking society in which people are able to justify their judgments with facts, analyse what they hear, speak respectfully, listen and hear, value and evaluate.