The number of works submitted for the 2022 competition is indeed a considerable total of 439
paintings and drawings for all age groups. Undoubtedly, students, teachers, including parents,
who have promoted the involvement of children and young people, go deep into the difficult
topics of Latvia’s history. In the continuous and inexhaustible flow of information, it is important
that someone is able to speak more deeply. Looking at the works of children and young people,
it is impossible not to think about the reality that we are all “breathing in the back of our head”
today, in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its consequences. It remains
almost physically unfortunate, noticing a frighteningly similar episode, a situation embedded in
the drawing that seems to have just been seen in one of the current news channels.
Even as adults, it is impossible for us to step out to distance ourselves and try to grasp what is
happening so fast. What happens to children, in the minds of very young people, when they
begin to notice a certain “repetition of history” in a geographical area close to them, we can
only guess. The members of the jury are also just people. People who are most addressed in
children’s work by direct emotionality, a confident handwriting and a composition whose
persuasiveness lies in the true desire to tell the “Siberian story” more clearly. When evaluating
the works not for the first year, it must be repeatedly admitted that the works submitted by the
youngest and middle group children are the most disarming. There, the participant has not yet
been overwhelmed by the paralyzing fear of drawing a “wrong” hand, foot or nose, but the main
thing is to feel the “skin” of the event, which opens a living expression. A child’s talent (and
well, if delicately guided by a skilled teacher) then allows for stroke dynamics, saturated active
or restrained coloring – depending on intent. Imaginations created by the imagination of events
that
have come to this day through the stories of eyewitnesses. The children of the older group,
who are naturally expected to have both a more thorough understanding of history and a more
mature focus on the technical performance of their work, can no longer “get through” with thenaive directness of childhood. Painting and graphics also demonstrate not only the
management of means of expression but also thinking. Therefore, the jury is pleased to find a
rather rare, but noteworthy, original view of the topic each time.
The competition is a competition, it highlights the brightest examples, but it should be borne in
mind that behind each of the other works there is a certain young person who has for some
time hindered his or her thoughts on a topic important to the Latvian nation. Probably thinking
about where we come from and where we go.Ieva Jurjāne, artist
2022 essay competition for students
“Children of Siberia 1941/1949 – Children of Exile 1944”
RESULTS
Winners of the 2022 composition competition
Group 1
1st place. Nellija Tiesnese
2nd place. Elizabete Mieze
3rd place. Elizabeth Vasilyeva
Group 2
1st place. Linda Kalniņa
2nd place. Marianna Laime-Babre
3rd place. Paula Bička
Group 3
1st place. Denise Marta Medinika
2nd place. Klaudija Dembovska
3rd place. Anna Jansone
Special awards
Dzintra Geka-Vaska – Gabriela Misiņa, Emīlija Gūtmane
Ina Druviete – Ilya Alexeyenko
Kaspars Pūce – Amanda Blūma, Līga Zaremba, Evelīna Paula Ķerķe
Aivars Ozoliņš – Ance Luīze Bumbiere, Dita Hadaņonoka
Elita Veidemane – Rēzija Romanovska, Elīza Kurcalte
Valdis Lūriņš – Emīls Zandersons, Loreta Lazdiņa
Undine Adamaite – Eva Evelina Klavina
Liveta Sprūde-Kalme – Everita Lapeško, Alina Maškovska