The new artworks are currently being created in three locations: on the 11 November Embankment, where the nine-sculpture ensemble "Witnesses of the River of Time" will be on display; in Doma Square, where the installation "Together at the Cathedral" will be on display; and in Līvu Square, where the environmental object "Pavilion" will be created.
They will all be functional, not just on display.
"Together at the Cathedral" is an interactive and socially inclusive object. You could call it art. But it balances on the border between architecture and building," says architect Toms Kampars. He is one of the members of Lightfoot, the international team that is implementing this urban object.
The object is located at the intersection of seven streets in Riga, and a very important aspect of it is that it will not be viewed from a distance, but will be inhabitable, a structure for everyone, explains Toms Kampars: "The main idea is about social inclusion. It's for people from all walks of life - a passer-by on their way to work who stops here unplanned, tourists, a younger audience - children, young people - we would love it if people saw it as a building for them."
The 11 November Embankment is slowly becoming inhabited by the sculpture ensemble "Witnesses of the River of Time" by artist Andris Eglītis. These are abstract objects, and the viewers are "free to imagine what these objects really are and let their vision take over".
The sculptures are located between the Akmens and the Vanšu Bridge.
The ensemble consists of nine sculptures in total - one made of concrete and soil and reminiscent of sandstone outcrops on a riverbank, another of various nets, evoking associations with fishing nets. The works are at the same time imaginative sights to see and at the same time inhabitable and of various practical uses, explains Andris Eglītis:
"You can lie down or sit down in these nets. The sculptures are also inhabitable. They can be sat on, climbed on, used as a picnic spot, and so on. When thinking about materiality, this aspect of habitability is taken into account. In the same way that various signs are scratched into sandstone cliffs by the river and left there, I suppose something like that could appear in these objects too, and perhaps it will just help to bring everything to life."
The third object in Līvu laukums, the Pavilion, is shaped like a tower and refers to elements of Riga's architecture.
The new environmental art objects will be unveiled on August 2 and will be on display in the Old Town until the end of September.
