Gian Maria Tosatti

My Heart Is A Void. The Void Is A Mirror. Riga Episode

Emerging artists: Gian Maria Tosatti (Italy)
Residency place: The New Theatre Institute of Latvia (Riga, Latvia)
Practice: Site-specific installation, sound art, theatre
Local artists: Kate Krolle, Māra Gaņģe, Krišjānis Elviks
Curated by: Katrīna Dūka

The New Theatre Institute of Latvia (NTIL) in Year 1 of MC Platform implemented an artistic and research residency with 5 artists from different fields in order to encourage interdisciplinary work and co-creation between visual art, sound art and performance art practitioners. The given topic of the residency was public space, which was interpreted by the artists in residence. The residency focused on researching the given topic, experimenting in public space, learning more about the local context and involving local people in the creative process. The emerging artists worked with different local communities: local activists/artivists, local musicians, clock repairmen and piano tuners and a Pakistani community. The work was different with each community – some helped the artists to understand local contexts and some even became performers and co-creators. After the research residency, two performative installations and one performance was produced for the International Festival of Contemporary Theatre “Homo Novus” in September 2018. Jon Law created a site-specific sound installation “Terrain Vague” that was located in 4 liminal spaces around Riga and focused on changing how the place is normally perceived. Gian Maria Tosatti took a story of the whole nation and created a mirror of the society in a performative large-scale installation “My Heart Is A Void. The Void Is A Mirror. Riga Episode” that took place in an abandoned factory. Kate Krolle and Māra Gaņģe created a performance “Leap Second” – an intimate situation in a second-hand furniture shop, where the performers were clock repairmen, piano tuners and movers.

Author of the text: Katrīna Dūka