Structuralist Art Education on Latvian Television

The SALIX-ALBA-LOGE (SAL) association, a so-called Druid table of the Swiss Druid Order based in Widnau, organized a project week with children and young people, including adult supervisors from Latvia, for the second time from June 11-16, 2012, as part of its social commitment.

As early as 2008, Pavel Narica, the grandson of the writer and Latvian dissident Michael Narica, contacted the Artistic Director of the Structuralist Center, Laila Capadrutt. This was the beginning of a lively exchange with numerous activities (for example, children and young people from the Structuralist Art School participated in the competitions of the “International Michael Narica Center” organization. Consequently, various Structuralist paintings are permanently exhibited in the museum there in Rezekne).

The ideals of SAL, of which Felix Stoffel, the founder of Structuralist Art, is a member, are very much in line with the goals of the Michael Narica Organization.

Accordingly, these project weeks aim to actively and sustainably promote mutual interest and understanding through cultural exchange. This time too, the group from Latvia had painting lessons every morning.

In addition to Laila Capadrutt and Sandra Zellweger (administrative director), Onna Rageth (exhibitions & sales) took great care of the training of the highly motivated Latvians. A particular challenge was the fact that a well-known artist from Latvia was present in the adult supervisor team, who studied the new Structuralist painting technique with great interest.

After lunch at Restaurant Engel in Au, excursions to several attractive places and visits to cultural sites in Eastern Switzerland were carried out.

All events were sponsored or led by the members of SAL. Special thanks go to Oskar and Marina Köppel, who once again made their beautiful home in Widnau available to the grateful visitors. And to Marcel Lenggenhager, who with his generous donation contributed greatly to ensuring that the week did not unduly burden the SAL club’s finances.

The children, teenagers, and adults from Latvia greatly appreciated this week. Accordingly, they reported on it on the Latvian TV channel LTV7 under the section “News from Regions“.

Furthermore, an article about it appeared in one of the country’s largest newspapers called “Westi Segodnja”.

STRUCTURALISM means future!

Interest in our revolutionary, socio-economically oriented art theory is growing every month. A good example of this is the so-called BARCAMP, an exciting cultural forum that is regularly organized by Nordkolleg Rendsburg. Felix Stoffel recently received an invitation to the north to explain the ideas, backgrounds, and intentions of STRUCTURALISM in a lecture there (in the brochure Barcamp Nordkolleg Rendsburg Kultur kreativ finanzieren, his explanations can be found on page 23).

With the general interest in our project, the practical demand for Structuralist paintings also increases. We are naturally very pleased about this, along with all Structuralists. This is precisely why international awareness is growing.

Structuralist paintings are therefore to this day not only found in the three-country region of Switzerland, Austria, and Germany, but also in more distant countries, such as Latvia, Poland, Finland, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Mexico, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, and the USA.

Even a well-known Indian artist named Rishikesh Deshmane, who received a scholarship from the renowned Swiss foundation FUTUR, recently participated in an intensive course with us under the supervision of his mentor, the renowned artist Hedi-K. Ernst-Schmid.

Now he is taking his painting with him to his hometown of Mumbai. It will not be long before Structuralist works are everywhere as ambassadors of a global community of creative and constructive people.