Description
Imaginary Boyfriend
Writing Workshop with Krišjānis Elviks
Imaginary Boyfriend is a playful, poetic creative writing workshop that opens an honest (and self‑ironic) conversation about loneliness, desire, and fantasy. Moving between performance and writing, participants explore “rescue fantasies” from pop culture and art, then use automatic writing to imagine an ideal boyfriend—his traits, gestures, contradictions.
The workshop ends with a collective “Frankenstein” concrete poem: everyone’s words are assembled into a shared text that can become an interactive installation, inviting others to add, rearrange, and question what we look for in others—and what we offer in return.
It unfolds in three phases:
Performative presentation
A short performative talk introducing “rescue fantasy” through references from art history and pop culture, alongside a few critical perspectives—especially how these narratives resurface in the context of contemporary loneliness.
Individual writing
Participants do guided automatic-writing exercises, writing without filtering or overthinking. The focus question is simple: what characteristics does my imaginary boyfriend have?
Collective concrete poem
The group builds a shared “Frankenstein” concrete poem by assembling everyone’s words into one collective text—mapping desires while also asking: how could I be someone else’s imaginary boyfriend?
The workshop can culminate in an interactive installation, where viewers are invited to add, rearrange, and “construct/deconstruct” the Imaginary Boyfriend together.
This workshop takes place as part of the exhibition at Instinct Berlin and is part of the accompanying program for exchange and encounter. More information: https://www.instinct.berlin/
Krišjānis Elviks is a Latvian interdisciplinary artist based in Berlin. His work explores the relationship between body, space, and social infrastructure, with a focus on urban rhythms, interaction, and the politics of coexistence. He works across scenography, video, installation, performance, and text, developing immersive environments that open conversations around identity, power, queerness, and collective transformation. He graduated from the Art Academy of Latvia’s Scenography Department in 2019 and completed MA POST in 2023.
General Information
Level: No previous experience is necessary.
Language: While the group is primarily conducted in English, you are welcome to write in any language you feel comfortable with.
Cost: this event is free of charge.
