Garden on the Grave / HOMO NOVUS 
Garden on the Grave / HOMO NOVUS
Show length (minutes)::60
Creative teamWAUHAUS (Finland)
Language:English, Latvian
Venue details:
The Great Cemetery (entrance from Mazā Klijānu Street), Mazā Klijānu street 1, Riga,Please bring a fully charged smartphone with an internet connection and a pair of headphones.
Description
Hide descriptionGarden on the Grave is a gathering, a guided group wandering and a slowly unfolding mirage. The site-sensitive audio performance invites the audience to an urban cemetery, a vibrant ‘living place’, where cultural and ecological processes are inseparably intertwined. The performance celebrates how the living and the dead are bound together in the constant processes of vital regeneration. It draws attention to our relations and interactions with the environment and gently questions notions of individuality, exceptionalism, and what we perceive as natural.
Garden on the Grave gives time and space for contemplation. The performance subtly guides the audience’s perception and invites the participants to engage in simple actions both alone and together. It is partly an audiowalk, partly a death meditation tape.
ABOUT ARTISTS
WAUHAUS is a Helsinki-based multidisciplinary arts collective that was founded in 2016. The collective’s works are situated between different genres of art and they take place at various venues, such as small black box theatres, urban sites, large stadiums, and the main stages of established theatre houses. The members of WAUHAUS are artists Laura Haapakangas, Juni Klein, Samuli Laine, Jussi Matikainen, Jarkko Partanen, Heidi Soidinsalo, producer Minttu-Maria Jäävuori and managing director Julia Hovi. WAUHAUS is known for their comprehensive audiovisual stage aesthetics and methods of shared authorship. The collective collaborates with other artists and institutions both in Finland and abroad.
CREDITS
Concept, Directing and Design: Samuli Laine and Jussi Matikainen / WAUHAUS
Performance Dramaturgy: Tuomas Laitinen
Voice-over: Elīna Vaska-Botere
Sound: Henriks Eliass Zēgners
Research Assistance and Translation: Agnese Krivade
Producer: Minttu-Maria Jäävuori and Julia Hovi / WAUHAUS
Local Producer: Ance Ancova (New Theatre Institute of Latvia)
The performance was created as part of the EU Creative Europe programme project Festival SPA. With financial support from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia. The New Theatre Institute of Latvia is responsible for the contents of the performance.
