The Keys ep15 Art Days in Soviet Latvia - a gift to Lenin
In the 1970s and 80s, the Art Days was one of the top cultural events in Latvia, despite starting out as a mass ideological manipulation tool of the totalitarian state.
The organizer of the Art Days in Latvia was (and still is) the Artists’ Union, instituted in 1941 for purposes of controlling and regulating the artists.
The events of the Art Days were always packed; for artists they offered an opportunity to express themselves in a new way, to speak to the visitors in allegory and convey ideas that could not be openly discussed under the Soviet regime. But was it a true creative freedom? Or just a smart game of hide-and-seek with the prison guards?
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