Conference “The Aesthetics of Protest and Legal Mobilization”
Focusing on the aesthetic, moral, legal, and social dimensions of contemporary protest, the international conference “The Aesthetics of Protest and Legal Mobilization” will take place in Riga on May 28–29, organized by the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia in collaboration with the Latvian Centre for Performance Art.
The conference places particular emphasis on the aesthetics of protest: the symbols, gestures, images, and performative practices through which civic demands are expressed. Contemporary protest movements generate a global visual imagination and aesthetic forms that travel across borders, becoming instantly recognizable shorthand for dissent and solidarity.
The conference will bring together researchers and artists from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Iran, Portugal, Mexico, and Argentina.
The conference will take place at the Art Academy of Latvia, K-2, 13 O. Kalpaka Boulevard, Riga.
The conference is held in dialogue with the Riga Performance Festival “Starptelpa” and its 2026 theme “Sonic Vibrations,” which explores performance as a mode of communication, transmission, and embodied agency. These questions resonate closely with the conference’s focus on protest aesthetics, legal mobilization, and the performative dimensions of civic action. The festival’s main venue will be St. Saviour’s Anglican Church in Riga — a site with a rich cultural history that, particularly during the Soviet occupation period, served as a space for event-based art practices. The festival’s research program will also feature a masterclass by Canadian artist John G. Boehme on May 27.