Riga Performance Festival STARPTELPA

A table waits at the centre. We come to it carrying hunger, manners, old prohibitions, and the faces we have learned to wear. Here, under the gaze of others, the smallest gesture can betray us: a hand reaching too eagerly, a voice arriving at the wrong moment, a silence held for too long. The table remembers. Each performance leaves something upon its surface - a stain, a confession, an overturned ritual, the warmth of a body that has already departed. Layer by layer, it becomes a palimpsest of our attempts to belong. Around it, bodies assemble and disperse. A feast becomes a trial; an intimate gathering slips into spectacle; a carefully composed tableau vivant begins to tremble and come undone.

The 2027 festival theme “The Fine Art of Losing Face” enters the tender, volatile space between exposure and concealment. What happens when the face we offer to others can no longer be sustained? When shame changes hands, changes shape, or refuses to remain hidden? Perhaps losing face is not a disappearance. Perhaps it is the moment another face becomes possible.

Artists are invited to apply to STARPTELPA 2027 with performances and artistic proposals that respond to this theme and engage with the table as the festival’s shared scenographic element. Please email your proposal to starptelpa@rigaperformance.lv by 15 December 2026.