Life after Death. Remembrance Practices and the Museum
Exhibition
01.03.2024. - 15.09.2024.
Not every day goes down in history and not all fame is forever. As we browse and re-examine the historical evidence stored away in the museum’s depository and see the artefacts starting to fade and disintegrate just like memories, the process has given rise to an exhibition entitled ‘Life after Death. Remembrance Practices and the Museum’. The subject we have chosen deals with generational change in Latvian museums. It is based on an assumption that history museums founded during the Soviet occupation suffer from post-traumatic disorders of memory function or perhaps were created to serve another purpose altogether – remembrance as an ideologized form of honouring.
The requiem-esque story about life after death is narrated in the exhibition by various utilitarian objects that have ended up at the museum by virtue of belonging to some deceased person or other that was deemed significant by the previous generations. Fountain pens that no longer write; a yellowed cigarette holder; spectacles in tattered leatherette cases. Funeral wreaths and mourning ribbons, too. As museum exhibits, these mementos are tasked with a mission borrowed from religious practices – maintaining a link with the idea of immortality in a secular society. The extent to which a science museum is able to perform this task can be judged by examining the body of exhibits inherited by the Medicine History Museum from the ‘eternal memory’ tradition with its hero immortality cult and dignitary celebration rituals practiced by the Soviet regime – now displayed back-to-back with the mortal remains of saints in exquisitely adorned reliquaries.
The context of the war started by Russia in Ukraine is an essential background to this exhibition. Public calls for celebrating heroism currently co-exist with heated discussions about relocating monuments and burials and appeals for historical justice in the area of cultural legacy. Founded and developed during the first decades of the Soviet occupation, Medicine History Museum is a ‘war-time child’ by whose cradle stood a number of top echelon general-rank military physicians. They shared an alma mater with the founder of the museum Professor Pauls Stradiņš, the Military Medical Academy in St Petersburg. The characteristic features of the time when the museum was born – systemic violence; cultural paradigm shift; destitution; social insecurity – have left their impact on its institutional DNA. Conceived as part of the museum’s self-reinvention process, the exhibition hopes to transform it.
During the process of mounting the exhibition, we have tried to unravel a tangle of half-truths regarding the origins of the museum’s collection, focusing on the fate of private collections destroyed during the postwar years. Borrowing the approach of depth psychology, the exhibition provides an insight into the basement of the museum, still featuring fragments of the 1950s permanent display, as well as an opportunity to find out if ‘everything is alright up there’ for the museum or perhaps there are ‘bats in the attic’: based on old minutes of meetings and advisory sittings discovered there, a film on the creation of the museum was made by Toms Harjo and Zane Zajančkauska. Through reconstruction of past memories erased by the post-traumatic stress disorder, the museum speaks not just of itself but rather of the healing of the society as a whole, urging to replace afterlife with regeneration.
Accessibility at the exhibition
The exhibition is set on the first (ground) and third floors and on the basement floor. Wheelchair users are able to access the exhibition rooms located on the first floor of the building. The exhibition comprises manuscripts, printed publications, photographs, large-scale installations, artworks and audiovisual works. The film ‘Advisory Council Meeting’ by Toms Harjo screened as part of the exhibition is in Latvian with subtitles in Latvian and English. The length of the film is 42 minutes. A number of videos in Latvian and Russian without subtitles are also shown at the exhibition, as well as a video without sound. The room where the film is screened is on the first (ground) floor of the building. The room has a bench for the viewers to sit while watching the film. There are also several chairs in front of the TV screens and the large showcase in the basement. In order to create the necessary ambience, there is only limited lighting in some of the exhibition rooms. Visitors with pronounced sensory sensitivity should be advised that rooms in the basement part of the exhibition are poorly lit and confined, which may provoke unpleasant sensations or anxiety, particularly when a larger number of people are present. You should plan for an approximately an hour-and-a-half-visit to view the exhibition.
The Team:
Curators: Kristīne Liniņa, Kaspars Vanags
Research support: Zane Zajančkauska, Inga Vigdorčika, Vineta Blitsone, Zane Alika, Dita Kļaviņa-Lauberte, Signe Irbe, Daina Auziņa, Antra Skripste, Elīna Kalniņa, Evita Bukonte
Education: Elīna Pekšēna
Public communication: Ilze Sirmā, Māris Šteinbergs
Exhibition design and architecture: Rihards Funts and Gaiss Architecture Studio (Arnita Melzoba, Kārlis Melzobs)
Graphic design: Kirils Kirasirovs
Restoration: Alnis Kubilis, Signe Lāce
Project manager: Gerda Čevere-Veinberga
Technical installation of the exhibition: Artileria, Bonuss W, FinePrint, VPT Group, Reklāmu Darbnīca PLUS, Romāns Medvedevs, Magnum NT, Posmaster, Riga Prints, Reinis Hofmanis
The ‘Advisory Council Meeting’ film:
Directed and edited by Toms Harjo
Idea and screenplay by Zane Zajančkauska
Cast: Rūdolfs Sprukulis, Meinards Liepiņš, Evelīna Priede, Ričards Murāns, Rihards Zelezņevs, Elīna Bartkeviča
Loans from memory institutions and private collections:
Aizpute Museum of Local History, Andrejs Grants, Andris Vasiļevskis, Ieva Ose, Latvian War Museum, Latvian National Museum of Art, Latvian Academic Library, the parish of Liepāja Cathedral of Saint Joseph, Zuseum Centre for Art, Literature and Music Museum, Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation, Rundāle Palace Museum, Latvian State Archive of Audiovisual Documents
Support by:
State Culture Capital Foundation, Riga City Council, MHM Support Foundation Society, Valmiermuiža beer
Informative support:
JCDecaux
Technological support:
Samsung
