IDEUM Conference Concluded

Final Conference of the Project “Landscapes of Identities: History, Culture, and Environment” Held at the Art Academy of Latvia

On December 5–6, 2024, the Art Academy of Latvia hosted the final conference of the national research programme “Letonika for the Development of a Latvian and European Society”, project “Landscapes of Identities: History, Culture, and Environment.”

Project researchers presented both theoretical and methodological insights as well as a wide range of empirical materials: archaeological and field studies in Latvia and abroad, surveys on perceptions of ordered environments, interviews with experts, and observations conducted in Jewish cemeteries and the lake areas around Baltinava. Archival research included the analysis of Latgalian press (1920–1934) and émigré publications. Topics addressed included hillfort landscapes, eco-theatrical and literary space formations, spatial representations in 20th-century literature, and issues of home, belonging, and liminality across generations, social, and ethnic groups.

Keynote speakers included:

• Laura Luise Schultz, Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen, with the lecture Transgressing Borders, Transgressing Identities: On Madame Nielsen’s Wandering;

• Rose-Anne Gush, Lecturer at the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Graz, with the lecture Landscapes of Abstraction, Between Violence and Reciprocity.

The conference was organized by the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia in cooperation with the Institute of Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture of the Art Academy of Latvia, and project partners: the Latvian Academy of Culture, Rezekne Academy of Technologies, and RTU Liepaja Academy.

The project was implemented within the national research programme “Letonika for the Development of a Latvian and European Society” (Project No. VPP-LETONIKA-2021/1-0008).

Photo: Anna Maskava