DO YOU REMEMBER HOW YOUR GRANDMOTHER WAS BORN?

“If my grandmother wrote it, that means she wanted someone to know about it. I felt I had to tell it,” says actress Ieva Puķe, who, in the spirit of her milestone birthday, invites us to leaf through the life story of her grandmother, hydrobiologist Velta Bodniece (1914–1983).

Ieva Puķe points out that her grandmother’s biography is typical for many Latvians in the 20th century, and yet Velta Bodniece’s testimony is a different, more unusual view of the Latvians’ journey through the twists and turns of history. The little blue book was originally written in Russian. Born in Riga, she spent the first 30 years of her life in Soviet Russia, experienced Stalin’s repressions and exile to Siberia firsthand, and returned to Latvia in 1945.

Through creating the visual image of the reading, the plait of the family women will also be weaved by Ieva Puķe’s daughter, Katrīna Puķe, who is graduating from the Visual Communication Department of the Latvian Academy of Art this year.

A small exhibition of family photographs and memorabilia will also help to deepen the connection with the world of Velta Bodniece’s diary and to see the featured personalities.