COURAGE

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Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert was an example of an author affected by the communist regime, mainly after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Although he was a designated “National Artist”, and was awarded many state prizes, he was not allowed to publish, with some exceptions, especially during the 1970s. Thus, his poems were often illegally transcribed as a samizdat or published in exile. This was also the case of his collection of lyrical poems “Morový sloup” (The Plague monument) written in the late 1960s and early 1970s, thus at the beginning of the so-called “normalization”. The collection “Morový sloup”, which also reflected the actual political situation in Czechoslovakia, was published in Washington by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in 1980. This edition was illustrated by Czech artist Jiří Kolář and translated by American poet Lyn Coffin.

"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.