COURAGE

connecting collections

"Morový sloup", a collection of poetry by Jaroslav Seifert, was published in the samizdat edition Edice Petlici in 1973. The book is supplemented with illustrations by Jan Bauch. Inside is the dedication by the author to Ludvík Vaculík, who was the founder and organizer of Edice Petlici. And in 1986 he made another dedication, "Transforming into the National Archives", referring to the newly-exiled Czechoslovak Documentation Center of Independent Literature, founded by historian Vilém Prečan together with other personalities of Czechoslovak exile. In the seventies, the collection was published several times abroad, and in Bohemia for the first time in 1981.

The series of actions Walk to Bolderāja was performed by Hardijs Lediņš and Juris Boiko from 1980 to 1987 every year in a different month. The distance was seven kilometres, from Lediņš' home in Imanta to Bolderāja (both are suburbs of Riga) along a railway line. Each walk had specific rituals or rules, and was documented in photographs, drawings, and sound and video recordings. The walks were personal events, without the participation of a broader audience: the participants were Hardijs Lediņš, Juris Boiko, and sometimes other friends: Imants Žodžiks and Inguna Černova. ‘These actions revealed interests that were important in other works by the NSRD, the processes of time and nature, the periphery, and the importance of personal feelings’ (Ieva Astahovska, Māra Žeikare, 2016, 'The Workshop for the Restoration of Unfelt Feelings: Juris Boiko and Hardijs Lediņš'. Rīga: Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, p. 137). In 1987, a wider circle of people took part in the walk. The walks were popularized internationally at the 1988 exhibition ‘Riga-Latvian Avant-Garde’ in Berlin, where photographic and video material from all seven walks were presented. The art curator Barbara Straka from Germany praised the walks as a phenomenon of Latvian art, but Lediņš said: ‘They were not intended either as art or phenomena’ (Māra Žeikare [29.06.2015]. Bolderājas stils mākslā. Satori - www.satori.lv/article/bolderajas-stils-maksla). In 2002, to mark the 20th anniversary of the NSRD, Hardijs Lediņš and his friends organized a walk again. Since 2007, some of his friends have resumed the walks, paying tribute to Lediņš and Boiko.

The German journalist and writer Jürgen Serke (b. 1938) dealt with persecuted and silenced artists. At the beginning of the 1980s, he was researching a book about life and work of Polish, Russian, East German, and Czechoslovak poets and writers living in exile. Thus, Jürgen Serke, accompanied by photographer Wilfried Bauer and Czech poet in exile, Jiří Gruša, visited Blatný in Ipswich in October 1981. Then, Serke wrote a report about Blatný and his life in exile entitled “Escape to the Madhouse” (Flucht ins Irrenhaus), which was published in the West German magazine Stern in December 1981. The following year, Serke’s book “Expelled Poets” (Die verbannten Dichter), which also included the report about Ivan Blatný, was issued. Serke’s article about Ivan Blatný in Stern found an echo. After its publication, Ivan Blatný received many letters and gifts, mainly from Czechoslovak emigrants. Some people also came to Ipswich to visit Blatný personally. Then, in 1982, British and Norwegian televisions made a documentary film about Ivan Blatný. Hence, Jürgen Serke, or specifically his article, “Escape to the Madhouse”, significantly contributed to the rediscovery of this almost forgotten exiled poet.