Accompanying Programme to the Exhibition
Ghosts of Impossible Present
08.03.2026. - 19.04.2026.
The public programme expands the dialogue initiated by the exhibition between the works of six Baltic women artists and objects from the MHM collection, leading further among the ghosts of the Soviet past. By synthesizing the ideologically, economically, and ecologically heavy legacy with contemporary concerns about planetary health, we will turn to ecofeminism and decolonization as prisms through which to revisit questions of climate change, related social challenges, colonial pasts, and the traces they have left behind.
The accompanying programme consists of three curator-led tours of the exhibition, three “Ghost Tea Rooms” – thematic reading evenings on ecofeminism and decolonization led by Ieva Astahovska and Jana Kukaine, the performance/interactive workshop “Which Mushroom Are You?” led by Jana Kukaine and Anne Sauka, and the performance “Do You Remember the First Time You Were Cold?” by Anna Maskava.
Ghost Tea Rooms
Each “Ghost Tea Room” will be dedicated to a single text that participants will receive and be invited to read prior to the event. The evening will begin with an introduction by a mediator—an academic working in the field—who will provide insight into the text and initiate a shared discussion. During the conversation, participants will have the opportunity to discuss the reading and gain a broader contextual understanding of the topic.
In addition to the central text, visitors will also receive a recommended reading list featuring academic sources related to the broader theme, allowing participants to deepen their knowledge either before or after the event.
No specific prior knowledge is required to participate in the tea rooms—everyone interested is welcome.
The registration form for participation and for receiving the texts is available here.
Reading Evening No. 1: Meat as Pornography
26 March, 18:00
Mediator: Jana Kukaine
Literature: Carol J. Adams’ essay from the collection The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist–Vegetarian Critical Theory (1990) and The Pornography of Meat (2002). Both works are considered foundational texts in feminist vegetarian criticism, addressing themes such as feminism, hunting, meat consumption, social inequality, and pornography. The discussion will explore whether and how Adams’ arguments can be applied in today’s context.
Reading Evening No. 2: Decolonialism and Literature in Times of War
9 April, 18:00
Mediator: Ieva Astahovska
Literature: Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary (2025) by Victoria Amelina. The wars, political upheavals, crises, and disasters we experience today compel us not only to reflect but also to resist, act, and engage in dismantling the power structures that underlie them. This position is closely related to the path of decolonial thinking. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine—now in its fifth year—Ukrainian writers, artists, and scholars have especially emphasized this as a necessary strategy of resistance. The book compiles diary entries, interviews, war reportage, and poetry documenting stories of war through women’s testimonies. It offers both a portrait of the invasion of Ukraine and a redefinition of the role of literature in times of war.
Reading Evening No. 3: From the Postcolonial to the Decolonial
16 April, 17:00
Mediator: Ieva Astahovska
Literature: We Who Have Changed (2024) by Daria Badior and Anastasiia Platonova. In this collection of essays, leading Ukrainian cultural figures write about their lives and experiences, documenting the transformations following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine—how it has radically reshaped Ukrainian identity, beliefs, ideas, and values. The authors emphasize the need to search for new words, forms, and models that would allow thinking itself to be decolonized.
Exhibition Tours
To explore the artworks, themes, and stories of the museum collection presented in the exhibition “Ghosts of Impossible Presents,” visitors are invited to tour the exhibition together with curator Solvita Krese and MHM researcher Ieva Salna.
26 March, 17:00 with Solvita Krese and Ieva Salna
9 April, 17:00 with Solvita Krese and Ieva Salna
19 April, 14:00 with Solvita Krese and Ieva Salna
Performances in the Exhibition
Two performances will take place at the closing of the exhibition on 19 April.
At 15:00 Jana Kukaine and Anne Sauka will lead the interactive workshop “Which Mushroom Are You?”, exploring examples from mushroom philosophy. The audience will be invited to determine their own mushroom type using the method of speculative fabulation. This method draws on ideas from contemporary feminism, posthumanism, and environmental humanities.
Finally, at 16:00 the artist Anna Maskava will present the performance “Do You Remember the First Time You Were Cold?”, engaging viewers in a collective process that foregrounds the human body as a carrier of experience and memory within ecological and collective contexts.
Education Programme
Today, technology is no longer merely a tool in our hands—it has entered nearly every process of our lives, becoming part of the body itself. Alongside fantastic and innovative solutions, darker future scenarios are also emerging, testing the limits of ethics. To explore these ideas, young people and adults are invited to the creative workshop “The Future Body,” taking place on Sundays, 8 March and 12 April, from 13:00 to 15:00 at the museum.
Stepping into the role of a curator, participants will create their own mini-exhibition about the evolution of the human body under the influence of technological, social, and environmental change. Together we will explore transhumanism and draw inspiration from cyberpunk and solarpunk movements.
During the workshop we will work with real objects from the museum collection—historical instruments, prostheses, moulages, and reproductions of artworks.
Tickets for the workshop are available only on the "Mobilly" platform.
The exhibition and its accompanying programme are organized by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art in cooperation with the Pauls Stradiņš Medicine History Museum. Supported by the Riga City Council, the State Culture Capital Foundation, and the Embassy of Estonia in Riga.
