New exhibition honors seminal Latvian poet Veidenbaums

Take note – story published 1 year ago

On the 155th birthday of Eduards Veidenbaums, on October 3, at 11:30, a new permanent exhibition “More Light!” will be opened at the Eduards Veidenbaums Memorial Museum, Kalāči, located between Cēsis and Valmiera in northern Latvia.

The exhibition and its associated educational programs will invite visitors to explore the dreams and aspirations of the first modernist of Latvian poetry, his troubled relationships with family and friends, fragile health, idealistic ideas of democracy and equality, and, of course, his innovative poetry.

The exhibition team brings together representatives from different fields to fully explore the different facets of Veidenbaums’s legacy: Inga Surgunte, project manager and curator; Andra Ķīse, museum director; Marians Rižijs, literary scholar; Dace Džeriņa, artist; Andris Akmentiņš, writer; Nils Konstantinovs, psychotherapist for teenagers and young people; Laura Dzelzkalēja, nature researcher; Liene Ozoliņa, sociologist; Baiba Roze, youth affairs specialist and museum educator.

Eduards Veidenbaums exhibition "More Light!"
Eduards Veidenbaums exhibition "More Light!"

Young people from Cēsis municipality have also actively participated in the development of the content of the exhibition.

"In 2022, the Eduards Veidenbaums Memorial Museum Kalāči has embarked on a major transformation. By highlighting previously less illuminated parts of the collection, the museum is becoming a place to explore one’s personal mental health and learn how to build harmonious relationships with others. To do this, alongside a thorough and up-to-date analysis of Eduard Veidenbaums’s poetry and views, the museum will also tell more than ever before about the state-protected monument – the Kalāči farmstead – and the Veidenbaums family who farmed it, about their work and mutual relationships,"' say organizers.

According to the Latvian Literature platform: "Eduards Veidenbaums (1867–1892) is a celebrated Latvian poet and translator whose body of work has greatly influenced contemporary authors, despite most of his original writing being published only as manuscripts or posthumously. Both the form and content of Veidenbaum's poetry are still relevant, and his harsh, at times angry expressiveness is often present in Latvian literature of the 21st century."

More information is available on the Eduard Veidenbaums Memorial Museum Kalāči Facebook page and Instagram account.

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