From 2019 onwards the longterm project HALL33 started shifting from a linear setup of iterations towards an asynchronous and poly-situated practice. HALL07 developed as a series of site-specific experiments in Kemzeke (BE), Wimbledon (UK), Akniste (LV) and Riga (LV). The two latter consolidated into the public presentation of a performative installation. HALL07 Akniste was presented at Festival Sansusi, in the rural commune of Akniste in southern Latvia. It was built from peat, sourced from a local peat field by an engaged community of festival volunteers. Participants were invited on a silent experience, together with a person whom they never met. The organic peat structures, mounted in between trees as a support structure, threw back participants to a primordial, almost animalistic experience of encountering a stranger in the woods. You can watch a walkthrough here https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/367098557 and interviews with the participants here https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/356722442.

Partners and contributors

Sansusi Festival, Ilona van den Brekel, Breg Horemans, Gert-Jan Stam