Impressive August

During August I lived plenty of experiences. Work and live in an art center has good and bad things. On the one hand you can be part of different activities, discover new methodologies to create art, meet international artists but, on the other hand, everyone needs a private space and some personal time.

 At the begging of the month, we went trekking across the beach for three days. It was wonderful and exhausting. It seems that it happened a long time ago. Here the time flows in a different speed, they had warned me about that fact. The long journey across the virgin beach allowed me to have such a long conversations with other volunteer Jessica and to know her better.

After that short trip, I went to a music festival in the other part of Latvia as a volunteer. I felt very grateful to participate in the event where I met new people and I discovered different types of Latvian music.

The day after I came back from the festival it started an iron cast symposium in SERDE. It was an intense week when I worked in my piece. Fortunately, the people who came to participate were art students from Riga. I had the chance to make some new friends. Sometimes I felt a little bit swamped but I knew that I was learning a lot. The zenith of that week was the casting of the pieces during the local festivities. It’s the most spectacular moment that I’ve seen since I’ve moved to Aizpute.

After the celebrations, Jessica and I could enjoy a calmer week.  We went back to our projects, programming new events and hosting newcomers. We started to work out and cooked together. These little changes were significant positives to my daily routine. I had a little problem with an artist unhappy with the organization. I felt so furious at the moment but thanks to my work colleagues we could manage it.

Recently my parents and brother came to visit me. We enjoyed some vacation days together when we traveled a little bit, we ate, we drank, etc.

Nowadays I had the feeling that I’m in Aizpute since a long time ago but I arrived two months ago. It means that I’m maximizing the time. I consider that I have to approach more to the local and space more often from my comfort zone.

In a couple of weeks, we’re celebrating the summer closing event when I’m setting up a workshop.

Aitor Climent

Strategic EVS project “Corners of Europe” is financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union that in Latvia is administrated by Agency for International Programs for Youth.
This publication reflects only the viewpoint of the author.