Riga Techical University International Summer School
Cesis, Latvia
Role: Instructor (With Nina Shen-Poblete)
2012
The workshop, ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’, was inspired by the story of a local man in Cesis, who raised his pet rabbit on Pioneer Square, in order to slaughter it and eat it. Using a storytelling device, the workshop set out to explore the conditions of Cesis, a city with a shrinking population, and to make speculations on an urban landscape in a not so distant future, where rabbits and men fight for territories.
The narrative and the installation of a feast table and rabbit killing machine on Pioneer Square demonstrate the fragility of the human condition, and heighten the conflict between the manmade environment and nature. At the same time, the underlying message celebrates the importance of solidarity and community, represented by the ritual of the rabbit feast, an event that sustains a sense of continuity between the past, the present, and the future.
Participants: Martin Abbott, Mirjam Herald, Jaanus Kaasik, Anna Korcz, Ulrike Kuhnert, Nansy Mass, Sophia Mueller, Sini Parikka, Suvi Saatamoinen, Robert-Maximillian Sand