VV Foundation is proud to support composer Ernests Valts Circenis with a scholarship, enabling the presentation of his music in the new experimental music theatre production Ummis and Lobelia, created by Evarts Melnalksnis, Ernests Valts Circenis, and Katrīna Neiburga (Latvia).

The rare Dortmann’s Lobelia, a plant listed in the Red Data Book, requires exceptionally pure conditions to survive. In Latvia, it grows only in Lake Ummis, the country’s clearest body of water, surrounded by coastal forests. To preserve its fragile ecosystem, swimming in the lake is strictly prohibited during the summer months.

The production Ummis and Lobelia is a poetic dedication to the unequal opposition between nature’s autonomy and the pressures of civilisation. It also reflects on the mirroring of human psychological states in natural processes, on border situations that force us to look into the abyss of consciousness, and on hope — fragile as the lobelia flower — that sometimes rises above the darkness of the mind.

The performance incorporates material from the research of Ādaži lakes by Uvis Suško (Lakes of the Coastal Nature Park and their Biological Characteristics, 2019), fragments from Vizma Belševica’s poetry cycle By the Lakes of Šakarva, and concepts from Astrida Neimanis’ essay Hydrofeminism, or Becoming a Body of Water (Tvērums. Body, 2024, translated by Sofija Kozlova and Toms Babincevs). It also features insights and photographs by researcher Līva Zolneroviča on the historical hippie community in the Ādaži area.

To avoid disturbing Lake Ummis’ ecosystem, the swimming scenes shown in the video material were filmed in the Bolderāja quarry. The creative team has sought to minimise environmental impact by using reusable scenographic elements; most costumes and set pieces will be returned to their owners or repurposed after the production.

The production premiered on September 5, 2025, as a part of Homo Novus festival.

More info: homonovus.lv/lv/event/ummis-un-lobelija/