RIBOCA 2. Latvia. Theodore Zeldin’s Feast of Strangers

When was the last time you had a real conversation?

Dailes Theatre, Brīvības iela 75, Riga, Latvia

6.30pm, 7 October 2019

Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA2), together with historian and philosopher Theodore Zeldin, invite the city of Riga to engage in a meaningful conversation with a complete stranger for Feast of Strangers, an initiative of the Oxford Muse Foundation. Over the past 30 years and in nearly 20 countries, Zeldin has been experimenting and developing a way of conversing that encourages people to exchange their experiences and aspirations in order to improve understanding and trust.

At the Feast, guests will be invited to enjoy a 'Menu of Conversation' with a delicious supper opposite a total stranger. By working in pairs through a six-course menu of questions, they will reflect on how they are spending their lives, drawing new conclusions from their own experiences and gaining an understanding of one another. The questions in the Menu relate to problems everyone encounters in life and from which everyone has experiences to recount. The experience is not just about meeting someone new but about understanding something new about yourself.

Zeldin has been a pioneer in revealing how relationships and emotions such as love, fear, loneliness, friendship and ambition have evolved in different civilisations over the centuries and how they can be changed again today through this new kind of conversation. His method is not a training in persuading others, but a practice in discovering why others have different opinions, and how differences can be transformed to expand one another’s views.

Zeldin describes the experience: “Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits... When minds meet they don’t just exchange facts, they transform them... Conversation doesn’t just reshuffle the cards, it creates new cards, and it involves being willing to emerge a slightly different person.”

Ticket are on sale now, the link to which can be found on the RIBOCA website and social media, along with detailed information and updates. This event is organised by Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA) within the support of Dailes Theatre.

 The event will be held in Latvian, Russian and English. 

International PR

Pelham Communications

Alice Haguenauer or Lily Bryant

alice@pelhamcommunications.com; lily@pelhamcommunications.com 

+44 20 8969 3959

Baltic PR

Laura Adamovicha

Communications Department

Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA)

laura.adamovicha@rigabiennial.com

+371 26579378