https://barbezat-villetard.com

“Jellyfish”
Sculpture.

We used the Rojal Art Lab as an experimental place.

The importance of the sea, from a geographical and economical aspect, brought us to build something that can work with it. The artwork is an inflatable sculpture made of different sea elements and Latvian ornaments. The material used is typical from inflatables toys, but the function is to modify it from this first role.  At the end it creates an ephemera sculpture between a toy and an organic creature.

The Franco-Swiss art duo Barbezat-Villetard live and work between the Valais and Paris. For nearly ten years, the duo has been conducting experimental work on spaces and materials, drawing on both geometric minimalism and nature.

“Rest Stop for the Lost Souls”

Installation.

I have often felt that the soul is often in a rather precarious position.  Lacking the capacity to see to their own well-being, those who have left the world of the living are in a delicate state, to say the least.  Dependent upon the care of their survivors (which, if we are to be honest with ourselves, would make many an elderly family member nervous), wayward spirits occasionally fall through the cracks.  The need being clear, a solution presented itself in the form of a structure dedicated to easing the transition from this world to the next.  Providing a comprehensive service package (including: protection, food, bathing facilities and navigational aid), this facility offers needy souls a chance to find their way through the veil and enter the afterlife as equals.  Death, it seems, is only a transition.

www.treyhillstudio.com

“Jumis”*

The piece I built titled “Jumis” was influenced by local imagery as well as as well as imagery that I use commonly in my own work.  The ceramic tree is meant to be a symbol of support, the cast concrete element also represents support with in the piece. I was struck by the backing of the community for the Rojal Laboratory as well as the supportive nature of the community.  

Many classical Greek and Roman sculptures are built with a support, a carved stone element typically in the shape of a tree trunk that supports the weight of the figure and allows the sculpture to stand. The support is meant to be inconspicuous, unseen – yet it is instrumental to the form. In my current work I use the tree element as a metaphor for what goes unseen but is essential to our existence.”

Trey Hill is a professional sculptor and Associate Professor at The University of Montana where he teaches in both the ceramics and sculpture.

https://sergeiisupov.com/

https://ferrincontemporary.com/portfolio/kadri-parnamets

“Horizon”

Roja opened up for us the beautiful, long, horizon-line of sea. A contrast between the working environment with workers, and a resort with people having vacations. In our project, we tried to capture and meld together those different sides of life. Baroque-like figures on a crippled factory wall, frozen waves, two dimensional drawings growing to three dimensional sculptures brings up an illusional part of life.

http://daigakruze.com/

“Breezing. Seagull.” Mural.

Blinking rapidly,
one can breeze along.

“Roja Magnet”

Sculpture.

“Roja Magnet” is the sculptural object which was created analysing specifics of Roja town and place during Art Lab 2013. The structure of the sculpture, materials and the place, all of that was as a new experience for me and it was some kind of new creative experiment at the same time. The sculpture is interactive: the capsule with the inclusions of art laboratory participants were placed into the sculpture. The artists placed the symbolic elements into the capsule so the magnet could do its job magnetizing and attracting all the best things in to Roja. 

P.s. the phrase which is known everywhere is this: if you leave something in that place it mostly happens you would come back… 

http://www.benoitmaubrey.com

“Electronic Guy”
Performance.

Electroacoustic tuxedo jacket with sampler, electric guitar, radio receiver and solar cell. Originally built in 1987 for the mayor of Berlin, but now in Roja the jacket has a prerecorded cassette of me saying ”Roja ha, ha…” .

In 1995 I created the Electronic Guy wearing a similar Tuxedo that was equipped with guitar amp, radio receiver, and sampler. Sounds are sampled and then mixed through the jacket as a solo concert event. In 2011 redesigned it as a “Boom Jacket” complete with sampler, looping and pitching devices, radio, guitar amp and double light-to-frequency controller.

“Cinema. Art. Culture”
Photography.

I illegally got in one of the many abandon buildings in Roja and started to clean there.  My „entrance“ was at three meters high. Every time when I needed to change the water or take the rubbish away I needed to climb. I spent a lot of time there. Illegally cleaning the abandon building to make something for the RojaL I found three blue bags full of rubbish which were there before my intervention.

The RojaL festival colour is a blue, the key words are cinema, art and culture (in Latvian “Kino. Māksla. Kultūra”). Roja reflected to my activity for the RojaL art lab. The bags were already prepared with the right colour and quantity. I just needed to start what was already finished.

The result of my activity is a photo. I exposed it in one of the festival organizers workshop.

“Walking towards the light, crossing five bridges of breathing and chaos”

A performance that was created as a walk, in the Roja forest, with a small group of people who started in the night and ended in the morning. A collective togetherness was traveling from darkness towards the light. Five bridges were five performative moments, based on historical artifacts that were found in the forest and historical events which took place there during the Soviet era. A participatory performance invited people to make a connection with their memories, intuition, through walking in the night, together, relying on one’s own vision and senses.

Elīna Cērpa has studied film directing in Riga and Das Arts MA in Theatre Arts, and has directed productions at the New Riga Theatre, Valmiera Drama Theatre, etc. Her work has been described as a combination of (documentary) theatre, photography and politics.