Re-enchanting the world in Madona

From August 6 to 10, 2026, the summer school “Re-Enchanted Worlds: Contemporary Practices and Traditional Knowledge”, organised by the UNART team from ILFA and the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, took place in Madona. Its participants - artists, curators and traditional knowledge carriers from different places in the world - attended lectures on theory, participated in diverse workshops and created collective works of art.

The theoretical part of the summer school opened with the lecture Keys to the Underworld by ILFA’s researchers Toms Ķencis and Jana Kukaine, in which they presented initial UNART findings. Philosopher Juhan Hellerma in his talk Matches Struck in the Dark. Wonder and Resonance in a Disenchanted World, and philosopher Anne Sauka in the lecture Re-enchantment of the World: Philosophical Contexts discussed the different understandings of the term “re-enchantment”, as well as its potential to drive changes in thought and action. Curator Marta Kudelska introduced a fictional character, Ernesta Thot, and her innovative approach to researching the history of art, while Vaim Sarv, in the artist talk Oral Frictions: Sounding the Remainder, Listening for Medicine, questioned the relationship between everyday traditional knowledge and folklorists’ assumptions. In the practical workshops, artist Liene Rumpe, dance and movement therapist Simona Orinska, as well as artists Gundega Evelone and Eva Vēvere, delineated their methods of artistic practice and offered to try out these approaches in a practical, embodied form, finding connections between ideas and viewpoints, body and dreams, as well as exploring the contradictory nature of the characters from Latvian mythology.

The summer school brought together participants from various walks of life from Latvia, various European countries, as well as Georgia, Argentina, China, and Taiwan, confirming the wide resonance of the school’s theme. The blend of cutting-edge theory with lively, eclectic worldviews created a microcosm of the camp, characterised by mutual respect, interest in colleagues’ ideas, and openness to diverse experiences. The summer school demonstrated a renewed interest in traditional knowledge and folklore, revealing them not as distant fields, but as well-known, sometimes even taken-for-granted elements of everyday life. Traditional culture was enlivened as a continuously reinterpreted, inspiring, and rich environment for artistic practices.

UNART team is grateful for the cooperation with LCCA and Madona Local History and Art Museum. Financial support has been received within the framework of the “Vidzeme Cultural Programme 2025,” implemented by the Vidzeme Planning Region as part of the State Culture Capital Foundation target programme “Development Programme of Latvian Historical Lands” and the State Culture Capital Foundation.

Supported by the Latvian Council of Science FLPP project “Contemporary Art and Folklore: Unlocking the Underworld (UNART)” (lzp-2024/1-0479).

^{Photo: Māris Stiprais}