Survival Kit 8

Edgars Zvirgzdins

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The eighth international contemporary art festival Survival Kit 8 took place from September 8 to 25, 2016.

In response to observations and current affairs, the festival focused on the acupuncture of society, viewing our modern-day society as a body and searching for and locating its most painful points.

In addition to the main exhibition, special attention was devoted to putting together a varied programme of events, which would offer meditation workshops and shamanistic performances led by artists, pseudo-religious film screenings and critical multidisciplinary discussions. The festival is organised by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art.

Inga Lāce, one of the exhibition curators, notes: “Acupuncture, as a metaphor for testing the sensitive societal zones, has not been selected randomly. During the last few years, our society has grown increasingly more interested in alternative medicine, esotericism and suggestion. Eastern spiritualism is becoming ever more present in today’s techno-utopian world. Could this interest be interpreted as an escape from reality, a new lifestyle accessory or a key to an alternative survival, all along knowing that the tools and methods currently at our disposal no longer offer the desired result?”