Riga Performance Festival Starptelpa 2025

27 May - 01 June 2025

Location: ZUZEUM and K. K. Fon Stricka Villa

Theme: More Than Human

More Than Human

The theme of the Riga Performance Festival STARPTELPA 2025 was More Than Human. The festival explored the multifaceted layers of interaction between humans and nonhumans, focusing on interspecies reciprocity and the dynamic relationships between the natural and material worlds. Although performance art has traditionally centered on the human body, shaping its forms, materials, and meanings around anthropocentric frameworks, the 2025 festival challenged this notion.

Artists were invited to create works that conceptually decentered the human as a dominant entity, highlighting the capacities of other species, objects, and materials. By framing these works within the philosophical lens of posthumanism, the festival emphasized ideas such as bioperformativity and the More Than Human paradigm, encouraging artists to engage with themes that transcend the human centric perspective.

Participating artists

Leena Kela (FI), Peter Baren (NL), Maipelo Gabang (ZA/SE), Gim Gwang Cheol (KR), Simona Orinska BUTŌ Lab (LV), Timo Viialainen (FI), Michael Portnoy (US), Aman Askarizad (FI), Anna Maskava (LV), Parsa Kamehkhosh (FI), Hanna Ijäs (FI), Noah Crandell (US), Ewan Hindes (GB), Annija Sprīvule (LV), Ekidna Collective (PT), Charlotte Østergaard (DK), Sanita Duka (LV), Elīza Eikerte (LV), Rocky Meaney (IE), Māra Gaņģe (LV), Michelle Lacombe (CA), Maria Lepisto (SE), Stephanie Felber (DE), Sarmīte Meja Kalniņa (LV), Sandris Mūriņš, Kot Juška, Santa Igaune, Helias Dzimoulakis (LV), ALEA(s) (BE), Roze Aleksa Bogdane (LV), Normal Babyy (LV), Yama Kowa (DE), Mailo Mēness & Grieta Butjankova (LV), Santa Igaune (LV), Ox Maló (AT), Ilze Mazpane (LV), Katrīna Tračuma, Elīne Buka, Jana Purmale & Uğis Zauerhagens (LV), Inese Bērziņa (LV), Justīne Nora Žilde (LV), Laura Jasmane (LV), Katrīna Albuže (LV), Andris Freibergs (LV), Ernests Valts Circenis (LV), Mark Tholander, Joana Öhlschläger, Laura Marie Madsen (DK), Park Kyeong Hwa (KR), The B.L.U.S.H. collective (CA), Riccardo Matlakas (IT/UK/DE), Chrystian Tamayo & Gabriela Alvarado (CO), Paul Regan (IE), Fran Orallo (ES), Non Grata (EST), Flávio Rodrigues (PT), Rita Marhaug (NO), Sarah Bild / Caroline Hayeur (CA), Rocky Meaney (IE), Inguna Audere (LV), MAx Provenzano (VE/PT), Ursula Maria Probst (AT), Reiko Shimizu (JP), Eva Vēvere & Gundega Evelone (LV), Đoàn Thanh Toàn & Naruebet Jaksusuwan (VN/TH)

Interactive programme – overview of activities and venues

Video performance programme

Live performance programme

Conference “Embodied visions: performativity, visuality, materiality (1960s–1980s)” programme

Google map with locations and venues