Materials and methodologies

The workshop invited students to explore the traditions of agitprop, socialist realism, and countercultural street aesthetics through the creation of site-specific protest objects including banners, signs, and sculptural installations, culminating in a live, performative action. By resisting elitist and hierarchical models of knowledge production, the workshop foregrounded bottom-up narratives, empowering participants to ignite new possibilities for artistic research. Through thematic exploration and experimental practice, students were encouraged to embrace innovative approaches and critical creativity, challenging established frameworks and expanding the role of sculpture as a socially engaged medium.

Results and observations

One of the workshop’s culminating moments was a performative street action staged in and around Kuldīga’s historic 1905 Park. Participants enacted a collective walk-out, carrying handmade protest signs that activated the park’s public space as a site of symbolic and embodied resistance. This action drew attention not only to the messages conveyed, but also to their visual form, spatial positioning, and material presence—transforming artistic production into a powerful act of civic engagement. Another key intervention unfolded at the Venta Rapid, the widest natural waterfall in Europe, where participants engaged in a performative action in the river landscape—a site as compelling as the pages of an artist’s sketchbook, canvas, or lens. Here, movement, body, and environment merged in a temporal dialogue, resulting in a series of time-based media artworks that captured the flow between gesture, nature, and resistance.