Māra Gaņģe

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"Triad - the Random and Necessary in Artwork" is an artistic research project based on the practices of myself and choreographer Santa Grīnfelde. It combines authentic movement method and puppetry, exploring new kinds of relationships between the animator and the object, the notion of physical and creative impulse, as well as between the observer and the performer.

After its presentation at the Nordic Summer University in Denmark in 2024, my part of the project, which focuses more on puppetry, took a contextual turn toward more material-based explorations, both in practice and theory, leading to ongoing research.

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* Photo: Santa Grīnfelde

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"Second Self Battle - Conversations with Benjamin Button" is a reflection of a one year creative journey, in which I returned to the puppet from my very first performance and explored the materiality and identity of the puppet—its creation, authorship, and the notion of referencing. For me, the creation of the puppet is first a tactile and then an intrapersonal experience. In the end it took shape of a video work followed by a live performance.

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"The Third Self Battle" is this performance piece that, using the same puppet, explored uncertainty, the intuitive, and impulse led performative interactions with the puppet, the space, and the audience. The continuation of this performance is the artistic research project "Triad - the Random and Necessary in Artwork".

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Idea and realisation: Māra Gaņģe

Camera: Théo Poncet

Mentor: Santa Grīnfelde

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Both the video and performance was presented at the performance art festival “Starptelpa”  in June 2023.

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*photo: Kristaps Dublāns and Théo Poncet

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Created in 2017 as an experimental theatre class at the afterschool centre Annas 2 in Riga, the Laboratory of Visual Theatre ("Vizuālā teātra laboratorija") has become my longest-running creative process. I am creating content, building context, and facilitating the creative process for young people of different age groups (from primary school to age 25) using tools from visual theatre and other contemporary theatre forms.

With the older group (aged 16 to 25), I act less as a teacher and more as a mentor, an outside eye, and a dramaturg for their individual artistic propositions, which lead to their solo performances or performative experiments.

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"Soundless recording studio" ("Bezskaņas ierakstu studija") is a nonverbal theatre performance.

Two women aged 21 and 71 meets in a place between language. Performance based on research of communication between generations. As actors are two women, several tape rocordings, a speaker, a radio, a fan, a lamp, a table and a quite a lot of silence. 

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Directing: Māra Gaņģe
Performers: Līga Liepiņa and Marija Luīze Meļķe
Dramaturg: Anna Zvaigzne
Movement consultations: Agnese Bordjukova
Producer: Laine Pole

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Premiered 2019.

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* Photo: Alvins Bijons and Oskars Upenieks

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"Leap second" ("Liekā sekunde") is a performance made in collaboration with artist Kate Krolle that reflects upon relationships of time – lifespan and different practices of repairing, fixing and improving.

It is a site-specific performance made in used furniture store, where performers are actual clock repairers and a piano tuner. 

In this project a different kind of care preserved. Care about time, care for objects, care for silences.

Leap second started as an idea of looking for comunities of repairers. And we found out that there arent that many clock/watch repairers in Riga. Visual artist Kate Krolle and me, we visited many of them. We wached them repairing the watches, we entered their working places, listened their stories. And then a piano tuner entered my home and he felt very much belonging to this process.

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Idea and realisation: Māra Gaņģe, Kate Krolle
With Uldis Ēlerts, Kaspars Brokāns, Natālija Bakanova, Maksims Vēzis-Veiss
Light designer: Jūlija Bondarenko
Sound designer: Reinis Semēvics, Augusts Zariņš
Dramaturgy consultant: Thomas Frank
Production: Laura Stašāne, Katrīna Dūka, New Theatre Institute of Latvia
Developed at the residency programme of the international platform Magic Carpets

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* Leap second is an extra second added to clocks worldwide every few years since 1972. In reality it means that clocks are effectively stopped for a second to give Earth the opportunity to catch up since the velocity of it’s rotation does not match the speed of atomic time. Its a tiny bit too slow and it keeps slowing down. Atomic clocks, however, tick away at pretty much the same speed over millions of years. What do we acknowledge more – the perfection or the natural path? 

“Circle” is a perormance that explores natural and performative time – how we perceive it, what it means to us, and as how it relates to our own mortality. Plants in various stages of their lives, soil, watter and shared space slowly transforming and opening up. 

Created during the Next generation workspace residencies 2017.-2018.

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Authors and performers: Māra Gaņģe and Ksenia Ravvina

Production: Starke Stücke festival and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm.

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Direction and Dramaturgy: Māra Gaņģe, Ksenia Ravvina
Puppet design and making: Māra Gaņģe
Performers: Agnese Borjukova, Līga Ūbele, Emīls Krūmiņš

Set Design: Anda Skrējāne, Edgars Karlsons

Lighting Designer: Edgars Karlsons

Costume Designers: Laima Ūdre, Anete Agate Krišjanova

Sound: Maksims Šenteļevs

Premiered 2017 at Dirty Deal Teatro in Riga, Latvia.

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"Cannot stop" ("Nevar apstāties") is a theatre performance without text in which I explored the marionette, both its physical and symbolic qualities. Drawing inspiration from Brian Eno’s idea that ambient music is like a field open for the listener to wander in, I wanted to approach the performance similarly—where the gaze of the audience is not directed by the creator, but instead, the performance invites the audience to explore and wander within it.

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Objects, as well as puppets, have their own internal movement. At the same time, countless external movements and forces act upon us. Should a person seek to control these forces? We live in a world where we are expected to maintain control—over things, events, and even ourselves—never letting go, not even for a moment.

The musician Brian Eno often speaks about "surrender"—the act of letting go, which stands in opposition to total control. How much do we truly want to surrender? And how much are we able to? Does letting go of the reins equate to giving up? And everything I cannot control—does it hinder or liberate me?

Directing, set and puppet making: Māra Gaņģe

Puppet Animation: Agnese Bordjukova, Linda Krūmiņa, and Alise Putniņa

Sound Animator: Maksims Šenteļevs

Lighting Designer: Edgars Karlsons

Costumes: Laima Ūdre

Dramaturgy Consultant: Ivo Briedis
Poster design: Evija Ābele
Master's Thesis Supervisor: Zane Kreicberga

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Premiered 2017.

Performed also at Alternative Chamber music festival "Sansusī" and  festival "LMTA Theatre Days" in Vilnius, Lithuania

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*Photo credits: Joana Suslavičiūtė

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"Self battle" ("Vienkauja") is a theatre performance that questions our identity: how our lives and relationships affect our sense of self, how multiple alter egos exist within a single person, and how we transform over time. It is a 30 minute solo performance featuring one actor, one puppet, and one mask. It is a text-free performance, relying solely on movement and puppetry.

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Directing, set design, puppet design, puppet making: Māra Gaņģe
Performer: Artūrs Putniņš
Live sound desing: Mārtiņš Jurjāns, Otto Andreļūns
Poster design: Evija Ābele

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Premiered 2016.

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*Photos from a video by Oskars Upenieks