32.1 THE SUN

The sun symbolizes unity, connection, a shared beginning and attraction.

The project is about bringing people together. The image of the sun on the building’s wall and passers-by combine to form a single image on the wall, using the principles of shadow theatre. The installation’s interactive nature helps festival visitors and passers-by to experience both a sense of unity and connection with one another, and a sense of belonging to the festival. The music playing in the background encourages people to move and relax.

Every evening at 7:00 p.m., the installation will host the dance performance “Saules gaismas ēnas” (“Shadows of Sunlight”), creatively exploring the interplay of light and darkness as two inseparable parts of human life. Through bodily movement, visual imagery and motifs from familiar works of art, the dancers travel from light to darkness and back.

This is a light artwork in the student programme of the Latvian College of Culture of the Latvian Academy of Culture. The exhibition of light artworks created by students of the Latvian College of Culture of the Latvian Academy of Culture has been developed in collaboration with 47 students from nine universities in the ACE2EU European University Alliance representing Austria, Germany, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Spain, Portugal, North Macedonia and Latvia. During creative workshops in early September the students developed ideas for light artworks. The exhibition is located within the Ave Sol route of light and creates a connection with the Viesturdārzs route of light.