On Saturday, 19 August at 16:00, the banks of the Ālande River in Grobiņa will come alive with the opening of the new environmental art trail “Face to Face with the Natural”, created by the Liepāja 2027 Foundation as part of the European Capital of Culture programme.
This riverside route brings together three contemporary artworks that explore the fragile and complex entanglement between humankind and the natural world, serving as a meeting point between history and futurity. Here, in one of the most distinctive ecosystems of the Baltic coast, visitors are invited to walk, listen, observe, and reckon with nature not as a resource, but as a thinking, breathing co-author of our shared world. The creations will remain in place until the end of 2027, acting as cultural waymarks for a new era.
Curated by Anna Priedola, the project features new site-specific works by Ieva Viese, Krista Dintere and Rihards Vītols.
“This art trail is both a visual journey and a philosophical meditation. It calls on us not only to walk through nature but to face it, to listen to its murmurings, and to ask: how can we live with, rather than above, the natural world? Ieva Viese will trace the imprint of ancient fossil creatures through sculptural forms, offering a tactile bridge between prehistory and today’s cultural landscape. Krista Dintere will compose sonic dialogues between humans and insects, celebrating play as a tool of inter-species cooperation and healing. Meanwhile, Rihards Vītols projects us into the terrain of a post-human ecology, where nature and technology merge into a shared evolutionary process through augmented reality,” says exhibition curator Anna Priedola.
Ieva Viese’s multimedia installation “Triality. The Ālande Phase” draws a link between deep time and contemporary presence. Cast-iron trilobites – once real, now fossilised sea creatures that roamed the ocean floors hundreds of millions of years ago, are reintroduced into today’s landscape not as relics, but as messengers from a time beyond memory. Placed along the riverbank, they symbolically ‘dock’ the ancient into the everyday.
Rihards Vītols’s installation “Plastic Universe” envisions a future where the boundary between nature and technology dissolves into a bold new alliance with the help of augmented reality, expanding viewer’s perception – hybrid trees and evolving biosphere emerge not as intrusions, but as co-authors of life.
Krista Dintere’s interactive installation “Parkšķi” transforms the quiet poetry of Kurzeme’s wetlands into a tactile and immersive experience. Specially crafted instruments that echo the calls of the protected Eastern tree frog will invite visitors not only to listen, but to join in. As participants engage in rhythmic dialogue with these amphibian voices, the boundary between human and animal perception begins to blur.
The opening of the art trail takes place on August 19 at 16:00 by the Ālande River in Grobiņa. Visitors are welcome to bring a smartphone to fully experience the augmented reality elements. All three artworks will remain open to the public until the end of 2027.
Zita Lazdāne
Liepāja 2027 Foundation
Head of Public Relations and Marketing Department
Phone: + 371 22 017 277
E-mail: zita.lazdane@liepaja2027.lv
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