On August 15 from 8:00 PM, Baltic Analog Lab invites everyone to its annual Courtyard Festival at the association's courtyard at Lienes Street 19a. The event marks the beginning of the celebration of Baltic Analog Lab's 10th anniversary, while also celebrating the in-between year of the Process Festival, with film screenings and expanded cinema audiovisual performances by international guest artists.

This year Baltic Analog Lab celebrates its 10th anniversary. Throughout the year, we are marking the occasion with a series of events leading up to the main anniversary celebration in November. During the Courtyard Festival, we will screen a selection of rarely shown, earlier works by Baltic Analog Lab members in both their original analogue formats and digital versions. The expanded cinema programme will feature Dutch artist Esther Urlus, performing with four 16mm film projectors and their optical soundtracks, followed by a performance by Finland-based artist Marek Pluciennik using a modified 35mm film projector, in collaboration with Italian musician Francesco Carella.

Drinks will be available from the Nurme pop-up bar, and a barbecue will be set up for visitors to grill brought snacks.

Programme

20:00 Nurme bar

20:00 Kinetic sound performance by Erik Alalooga (EE)

Erik Alalooga is a performance director, performer, sound artist, teacher and cultural manager living in Tallinn, Estonia who as taken part in our BAL and Skaņu mežs residency this year. He is mostly known by exploration and application of DIY analog-technological solutions in his artworks. Since 2005 his focus has been on immediate relationships between human and machine. His music can be described as psychedelic noise, pseudoshamanism, neo-industrial, using weird mechanical instruments.

21:30 Film programme of BAL members

Darkness. Inese Tīkmane, Laima Vainiņa (2017), 4’29, super8

Ieva & Dainis crack the code. Lāsma Bērtule (2018), 4’, super8

Factory of Collision. Ieva Balode (2021), 4’, 16mm

lost fps… Sintija Andersone (2023), 5’ 16mm

Bonds of Time. Henrijs Laķis (2021), 16’ 16mm-HD

Teacup, pt. 1. Artūrs Lūriņš (2023), 4’30, 35mm - HD

Thickness of Glass. Kei Sendak(2023), 4’30, 16mm - HD

Searching. Ieva Ozoliņa (2024), 3’, 16mm - HD

Rainbow Vision Spectral Express. Ieva Aleksa, Artūrs Lūriņš, Elīna Matvejeva, Sintija Andersone, Dāvis Gauja, Andrejs Strokins, Mersedes Margoit, Kei Sendak, (2023) ’12, 16mm

22:30

Until the Darkness Goes

Esther Urlus (NL)

16mm film performance, 30 min, 2024

“It is in the twilight, between the clear visibility of things and their total extinction in darkness, when the concreteness of appearance merges with a half-realized, half-disconcerted vision, that the mind seems to disengage itself from matter to envelop it in a mystery of soul-suggestion.”

In a ‘dark’ toned 16mm film performance, a sonorous poem of twilight, indistinctness and suggestiveness, I’m trying to make visible the darkness of a depressed mind. The suffering of adolescent, my daughter. Inspired on the famous and unique photograph ‘The Pond – Moonlight’ by Steichen (1904) and the Nocturne paintings by Whistler (1870’).

23:00

“Somatic Fields”

35mm film,color, live audio, 30m

Francesco Carella, improvised sound

Marek Pluciennik, hand cranked modified 35mm  projector

This project proposes a road film of miniature landscapes that are perpetually underfoot. By employing hand-cranked cameras, macro photography, and experimental techniques, I explore the intricate, unseen worlds of the meadow and forest floor—an experience of texture, rhythm, and light. Live sound improvised by Francesco Carella will be relayed from Italy.

Free entry

There will be Nurme pop-up bar

The event is supported by the Riga City Council and the State Cultural Capital Foundation