Liminal Practices in Contemporary Academia: Between Artistic Research and Research in the Arts
From 5 to 7 November 2026, the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and the Latvian Academy of Culture, in collaboration with the Culture Crossroads conference, will host the Baltic Drama Forum international academic conference “Liminal Practices in Contemporary Academia: Between Artistic Research and Research in the Arts.”
The conference will feature keynote presentations by Jelena Novak (Portugal), curator and researcher in contemporary opera; Diāna Zandberga, Vice-Rector of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, pianist and researcher; and Piersandra di Matteo (Italy), curator, dramaturg and researcher.
The conference will explore the changing relationship between academic research on the arts and artistic research, examining how contemporary cultural contexts challenge, expand and reshape established understandings of research and knowledge in the performing arts. The programme will also include a dramaturgs’ discussion entitled “No Time for Drama”, exploring the trajectories and challenges of developing and realising contemporary dramaturgy.
BALTIC DRAMA FORUM
International Conference
Liminal Practices in Contemporary Academia: Between Artistic Research and Research in the Arts
November 5.-7. in Riga
PROGRAMME
NOVEMBER 5 in Organ Hall, Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music
10.00 OPENING
10.15.-11.15. KEYNOTE 1
JELENA NOVAK (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Becoming Elastic: Curating Knowledge in the Garden of Academia and Beyond
(Moderator: Lauma Mellēna-Bartkeviča)
11.15.-11.30 Cofee break
11.30 – 12.50 SESSION 1 LIMINALITIES: KNOWLEDGE THROUGH PRACTICE
(Moderator: Lauma Mellēna-Bartkeviča)
11.30 – 11.50 Ineta Kivle — Silent Liminality: From the ‘Not Yet’ to Performance
11.50 – 12.10 Ramunė Balevičiūtė — What Does Artistic Research Do? Practice, Knowledge, and Academic Recognition
12.10 – 12.30 Heli Reimann — Investigating Improvisation through Artistic Research
12.30 – 12.50 Kerttu Piliste — Intuition and Creativity in Academic Research and Theatre Practice: A Double Perspective
12.50 - 14.00 LUNCH BREAK
14.00 KEYNOTE 2
DIĀNA ZANDBERGA
Challenges of the Choreomusical Performance: The relationships between music and dance at the performance of one artist
(Moderator: Lauma Mellēna-Bartkeviča)
15.00 Coffee break
15.20 – 17.00 SESSION 2 METHODS AND PERSPECTIVES BETWEEN RESEARCH AND PERFORMANCE (Moderator Ramune Balevičiute)
15.20 – 15.40 Helen Kannus — An Encounter with the Unknown: Performers’ Perspectives on Interactive Theatre in Every Brilliant Thing
15.40 – 16.00 Vēsma Lēvalde — Staging Political Memory: Reviewing The President through Practice-as-Research and Research-Creation
16.00 – 16.20 Edgars Raginskis — The Censor Within: A Composer-Researcher’s Negotiations in the Music Theatre Work Alfas
16.20 – 16.40 Roberto Fausti — Clustering as a Method of Artistic Research: Algorithmic Abstraction and the Reconfiguration of Sonic Material
NOVEMBER 6 in Karamazovi hall, Theatre House Zirgu Pasts
10.00 – 11.20 SESSION 3 RESEARCH AND PERFORMING ARTS: EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE (Moderator Zane Radzobe)
10.00 – 10.20 Lyu Wen — Walking, Standing, Sitting, and Lying as Research: Embodied Knowledge and the Hybrid Researcher...
10.20 – 10.40 Angelo Romagnoli — The Three Spaces of the Actor: A Metaframework for Spatial Knowledge in Performance
10.40. – 11.00 Javier Cárcel Hidalgo-Saavedra — The Golden Cage: Artistic Identity, Sedimentation and Practices of Interference
11.00 – 11.20 Yeaeun (Jena) Jang — Contemporary Art of Healing: Body-Based Self-Healing in Live Art and Audiovisual
11.20 – 11. 30 Coffee break
11.30 – 12.30 KEYNOTE 3
PIERSANDRA DI MATTEO
Viscous Traffic: Art, Theory, and Sweaty Concepts Under Institutional Demands
(Moderator Zane Radzobe)
12.30 – 13.30 LUNCH BREAK
13.30 – 14.50 SESSION 4 BEYOND ACADEMIC CONVENTIONS: DIALOGUES, PRACTICES AND NARRATIVES OF RESEARCH (Moderator Jurgita Staniškyte)
13.30 – 13.50 Heili Einasto — What Happens to Research Knowledge When a Study Is Written as a Dialogue, a Narrative, or a Mystery?
13.50 -14.10 Monika Klimaitė-Daunienė — Artistic research: practicing the practice
14.10 – 14.30 Lauma Mellēna-Bartkeviča & Zane Radzobe — Challenges of Art criticism polyphonic mindset. Public dialogue of two critics and scholars
14.30 – 15.00 Coffee break
15.00 – 17.00 DISCUSSION “NO TIME FOR DRAMA”
NOVEMBER 7 in Karamazovi hall, Theatre House Zirgu Pasts
10.00 – 11.30 RESEARCH IN ARTS: LIMINAL APPROACHES (Moderator Lauma Mellēna-Bartkeviča)
10.00 – 10.20 Giuseppe Christian DiStefano: When Historical Phonology Speaks: Performing Dante through Historically Informed Florentine Pronunciation
10.20 – 10.50 Lauma Inovska — Won’t Agree to an Interview? Create a Conversation
10.50 – 11.10 Karmen Juhkam — What Do We Mean When We Talk About Composite Bodies?
11.10 – 11.30 Liping Jiang (Hannah) — Embodied Translation: Care, Reflexivity and Situated Bodies in
11.30 – 12.00 Coffee break
12.00 – 13.30 DISCUSSION Mapping Artistic Research in Latvia: Understandings and Practices
Moderators: Katrīna Dūka, Evarts Melnalksnis;
Participants:
Artist-researcher prof. Dr. Sc. soc. Rasa Šmite | new media art;
Artist-researcher Rute Marta Jansone | performance and visual art;
Artist-researcher Ģirts Estere Dubults | contemporary choreography, performance art
SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION
SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION