With an exhibition, events’ programme and objects in the city contemporary art festival “Survival Kit 6” will look at the city as utopia – place that does not exist, but that one wishes to reach. Pointing out social, urban, political and economic aspects of utopias, festival will search for ideas and possibilities to design our city together.

Ryoji Ikeda performance

Date: 7 Sep. 2014
Venue:  Cinema Splendid Palace
Program: datamatics [ver 2.0]

Festival information

Date: 4-27 Sep. 2014
Venue: Vāgnera Hall (Vecriga) and former Boļševička Textile Factory (Ganību dambis 30, Riga)
Local organizer: Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA)　www.lcca.lv
*More details:   www.survivalkit.lv

Artist profile

Ryoji Ikeda
Ryoji Ikeda is a Japanese sound artist who lives and works in Paris. Ikeda’s music is concerned primarily with sound in a variety of “raw” states, such as sine tones and noise, often using frequencies at the edges of the range of human hearing. The conclusion of his album +/- features just such a tone; of it, Ikeda says “a high frequency sound is used that the listener becomes aware of only upon its disappearance” (from the CD booklet).
Rhythmically, Ikeda’s music is highly imaginative, exploiting beat patterns and, at times, using a variety of discrete tones and noise to create the semblance of a drum machine. His work also encroaches on the world of ambient music; many tracks on his albums are concerned with slowly evolving soundscapes, with little or no sense of pulse.

In addition to working as a solo artist, he has also collaborated with, among others, Carsten Nicolai (under the name “Cyclo.”) and the art collective Dumb Type. His work matrix won the Golden Nica Award in 2001.
www.ryojiikeda.com