The “Freedom Garden” was planted at Vidzemes Market. It is an aesthetically ecological research-oriented project aiming at creation of real urban garden at Vidzemes Market. Its main idea is to urge thinking about the idea of urban garden in the centre of town and returning to ground values, traditions and long-forgotten skills such as ability to grow edible and medicinal greens on window sills, balconies and terraces in the city. The project implemented by the interdisciplinary art group SERDE.

The idea of the project, which is part of the “Riga 2014” Programme, goes back to 2009. The Garden of Freedom at the Vidzeme Market have an autonomous irrigation system and various technical solutions adapted for gardening in the urban environment. Various vegetables and culinary herbs are growing in the garden.

On 6th of September during the contemporary culture forum “White Night” at Vidzemes Market will be “Freedom Garden” harvesting.

During the event audience is in invited to harvest and prepare the crops for the winter. Traditional cultural researchers Una Smilgaine, Ieva Vītola and Signe Pucena will shear with their recipes, practical consultations and degustation. In negotiations with architect Ivars Šmits will get to know worlds experience in urban gardening. Actor Varis Klausītajs and artist Kate Seržāne together whit audience will go through the path of vegetable life. After a while in Vidzemes Market Iveta Tāle will play some traditional musical instruments and Estonian artist Kadri Toom will do some attractive interventions.

To show the vegetables in other light not just in edible, Lithuanian artist Ruta Vitkauskaite will lead the vegetable instrument workshop were everyone will have a chance to create an instrument from some vegetable and to play in vegetable orchestra.

As an evening closing performance will be first performed the “Aronia M. Overture” which is collaboration project by tree artists: composer Ruta Vitkauskaite (LT/UK), sound artist Karl Heinz Jeron (GER) and artist Bartaku (BE)

The “Aronia M. Overture” is an attempt to assist the Aronia Melanocarpa (Chokeberry) in expressing its essence and the relations to its ambient environment: a former Soviet plantation on the edge of a Latvian village that since 1991 transformed from a monoculture into a more biodiverse ecosystem.

Since 2009 artist/researcher Bartaku annually explores and develops the narrative of the 1Ha Aronia M. Plantation (1HAMP) as part of his ongoing research “PhoEf: The Undisclosed Poésis of the Photovoltaic Effect”. In 2013 he met composer Ruta Vitkauskaite and sound artist Karl Heinz Jeron, and asked them if they would be interested in creating the Aronia M. Overture.

The reason of composition – to introduce Aronia M. making its qualities speak through musical gestures and musical expressions e.g. translate the astringency of the berry that dries out mouth and closes the throat (hence, chokeberry) through the use of extended singing techniques for the creation of dry sounds...

A key role is played by Karl Heinz’ Aronia Dripping Machine that makes use of contact and noncontact methods for measuring electric fields and the internal processes of the plants. The Aronia Sonification introduces a number of unspecified processes in the berries which create an orchestrated aletoric audio piece.