The aim of the "re:public" project is to support the development of a contemporary cultural zone outside the narrow boundaries of the Riga centre and draw the attention of creative people to the routine bound environment of the peripheries. "re:public" will be staged in the city space, mainly in the Riga outskirts and suburbs.
Invited to take part in the Riga "re:public" have been Latvian and foreign artists, curators and creative groups. In the space of a month, they will disrupt the everyday rhythm of life in the suburbs with interventions and actions, forming centres of free thinking and creative activity and involving local residents in the events of "re:public". Over the month of September 2003, "re:public" manifestations will follow or overlay each other creating an intensity in the cultural space of the already existing infrastructure of the suburbs (Imanta, Plavnieki, Zolitude, Jugla, Ulbroka and the Latgale district and so on).

The project authors hope to draw attention to the diversity of the Riga cultural environment, how different and separate the social communities are and how weak the infrastructure is for their intercommunication.
Many contemporary art projects are characteristic for their ability to serve a community as an independent means of communication, primarily among its own members.

By stirring the most passive city districts into cultural life, "re:public" aims to use the arsenal of art as an opportunity to make local residents into co-authors of the project thus raising their self-awareness and giving them a "vote" in the regeneration processes of their local social environment.
How to organise autonomous public zones for social discussions that would be spontaneous, among themselves and without "co-management" from above? Such "autonomous zones" may be both situations and specific places.

"re:public" will exist as an alternative to the suburban everyday. It can take place in private and public space, occupying apartments and streets, transport and walls of houses, letter boxes and shops, wood sheds and cellars. In contrast with the representative nature of exhibitions, the "re:public" project will use less obvious interventions and integration strategies. They will mainly tend to create an interesting event especially for the residents although many actions could also attract the interest of visitors and spectators.
We hope to run at least a part of the project together with local government cultural institutions and independent creative groups. This would ensure that the idea of "re:public" would continue after the project had ended too.