One thing is clear: we are constantly rebuilding ourselves. The Riga Blackmarket undertakes an inventory of all the medical and cultural techniques currently being used to optimize our bodies. The experts are drawn from the professional fields of heart surgery, stem cell research, transplantation medicine, oncology, orthopedics, medical ethics and bioethics, and philosophy. On the other hand, experts versed in popular culture, sci-fi, cyborg theories, transhumanism, and robotics will try to answer the question – how many modifications can a body tolerate before we become strangers to ourselves? And last, but not least, the Blackmarket will also provide the opportunity to speak about the dead body, the always already present absence of the dead.

Video by Rimants Irzikevics. Riga, Latvia, 2014

5th of April 2014, Riga, Sapņu Fabrikā
A production by Mobile Academy Berlin and New Theatre Institute of Latvia