Elīza
Māra

Which place do you currently call home and where do you work on your projects?

I live in Riga (Latvia) particularly in microdistrict Mezciems – but my studio currently is in Adazi, right outside Riga.

Do you have a favourite place in your area where you like to relax and linger?

Mezciems is surrounded from 3 sides with forests. Right across my street I have Bikernieki race track, which makes the best place for a stroll when there are no races. It also has a lake inside the track where you can sit for a picnic or feed the ducks, a great recreation area all around.

Are there any urgent political issues or problems in your region?

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the conflict between the Russian and Latvian populations and cultural differences has been the most pressing issue. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Latvia has been unofficially bilingual, with the majority of the population speaking Latvian and Russian. Since Russia’s war in Ukraine, the issue of eliminating the Russian language has been a heated topic, actively affecting the Soviet cultural heritage, which is something I am directly affected by.

In your opinion, what has developed well in the last 5 years – and what has not?

I think our culture and art scene is quite of quality. Definitely for such a small city we have quite a lot to offer, but for the worst – sorry to be political, but I have to say the divide between russian and latvian speaking population. It has been radicalised politically to point, where there is hard to find empathy for the other side no matter on which one you are.

Do you know a hidden gem when it comes to local manufacturers – whether it’s arts and crafts, sustainable products or food?

Riga is a small city and Mezciems even smaller, so I will answer this about Riga in total. For coffee my favourites are Kalve coffee shops, for handicraft I love Madara Keidza jewellry and the best food is at Central market.

Is there anything particularly innovative in your region? Also in comparison to other places you have already visited?

I love that Riga is small, but big enough. Living in Mezciems is different because of the race track, which gives a noisy ambiance from early spring until the end of autumn each weekend. Mezciems is one of the smallest and newest Soviet built microdistricts and has a pedestrian street in between the blockhouses. Riga has many microdistricts and each of them have their own identity as the buildings are different across the districts, like different personalities.

Do you have a secret restaurant tip that you would like to share with us?

Mezciems has a well-known shashlik place called Vilavi. Like most of these places, they don’t pride themselves on particularly good customer service, but the food is very, very good. There is a “network” in Riga of these shashlik places that have withstood the test of time and usually carries a certain Post-Soviet / early 2000s vibe with them in their interior design, customer service, menu, and style of plating the food.

Is there a local shop whose products are only available in your region?

Not really, I mean Central market can be a good place, but it offers more from Latvias countryside not particularly Riga.

What are your 3 favourite apps that you use every day and couldn’t live without?

Ugh, this is very plain, must be Instagram, Pinterest and Tiktok.

Do you have any favourite newspapers or online magazines? And how do you keep up to date with politics or social and cultural issues?

I really enjoy Satori.lv, they always have insightful opinions and articles on current culture, I am a fan of Latvian Radio, their content is very contemporary and very diverse for such traditional media.

Imagine you could be mayor for a year – what would you change?

This is a very loaded question. I say this without taking responsibility what this choice would do to our city’s budget, but I would want to focus on microdistricts. They are often overlooked and carry a lot of issues not only as dissonant heritage, but there is systematic bureaucracy that is an obstacle for developing the area. I would fund developing appropriate renovation guidelines for all blockhouses in Mezciems to have the visual character they once had when freshly built, so the district has some cohesiveness and is less hectic visually (I’m an aesthete at heart, can’t help that). Then I would streamline renovating all blockhouses in Mezciems according to the new guidelines and fix structural issues, after that I would commission a heritage interpretation for Mezciems to develop it for it’s current dwellers depending on their needs and wants. To fix the pedestrian streets, to create dog parks, playgrounds, fix the driveways, essentially to bring back the glory to the district so the dwellers can be proud of where they live and want to spend their time on weekends there as well – not to escape outside due to the depressive state of it.

One last question: If you could choose another place to live – regardless of financial or time constrains – which one would you choose?

Oh, this is a question I find myself finding answers to all the time. I would want to stay in Mezciems. Either a house, small one, or to live in the new build blockhouse which has all the energy efficiency standards met. Ideally, I’d love the penthouse of the newbuild overlooking the race track, but a penthouse in the old blockhouse wouldn’t be bad either. The amount of light that comes in, the depth of distance of how far you can see from there, the forest, the nature, the scale of the district – it is the perfect place to live.