The Homo Novus International Festival of Contemporary Theatre opens in Riga this September, presenting Sarah Vanhee’s performance Words Service, developed in part during her residency at PAiR in Pāvilosta with the support of VV Foundation.

For Words Service, Vanhee works alongside local word providers Estere Betija Grāvere and Marija Luīze Meļķe. Building on the artist’s longstanding practice of active and deep listening, the performance offers attention and human connection within a hectic society. It proposes an ethical, aesthetic, and symbolic alternative to the increasing digitalisation and automation of language, communication, and services.

About the artist

Sarah Vanhee is an artist, performer, researcher and author whose work has been presented over the past twenty years on national and international stages, as well as within the fields of visual arts, film, and literature. She is known for original artistic forms that manifest both within and beyond institutional frameworks. Her work is driven by radical imagination and social engagement. Rooted in a performative practice, Vanhee operates transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral, often through co-creation. Art is a tool for her to foreground underrepresented narratives and non-dominant voices and entities. Vanhee has worked in theatres, hospitals, libraries, community centers, prisons, private living rooms, open fields, corporate meeting rooms, and more. She has published numerous texts in both artistic and academic contexts. In 2022, she obtained her artistic PhD at ARIA and KCA. Vanhee is active as a public speaker, guest professor, advisor, dramaturge, and mentor. As a researcher, long-standing and recurring areas of interest include knowledge and knowledge-sharing, law and justice, corporeality and sexuality. Currently (2026-2027) Vanhee is conducting research on the artistic representation of gender-based violence.

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Further information and booking are available on the Homo Novus website.