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The 150th anniversary of the birth of Aspazija – poet, playwright, publicist and the mother of feminist ideas in Latvia – was marked on 16 March. Aspazija’s writings and social and political activity influenced not only the development of Latvian literature, but also the evolution of thinking and intellectual discussion in Latvia.
At the age of 20, Aspazija burst onto the Latvian literary scene. Already in her first poems and plays she started to fight for the emancipation of women and to criticise outdated beliefs. Her works were characterised by romantic fervour, inner fire and turbulence. At the same time she indicated that the creative spirit can become destructive if it is used wrongly.
Shooting of the #mindpower episode. Photo: Jura Podnieka studija
In the 10th episode of the #mindpower project, François Valentiny reads the poem “Creative Spirit” by Aspazija from the poetry collection “The Wings Spread Wide” (1920). For both of them creativity is both hard work and a soul-inspiring song. François admits that creativity is not simple – for example, the architect has to be a poet, an artist, a scientist and an economist all at the same time.
François Valentiny was born in 1953 in Remerschen, Luxembourg. He studied architecture in France and Austria. He has worked on public buildings such as concert halls and museums, as well as residential and administrative buildings, restaurants, kindergartens and parks in Austria, Luxembourg and Germany, and as far afield as Azerbaijan, Brazil and China. Since 2002 he has also been the publisher of Luxembourg's first architecture magazine Adato. He has been awarded the Gold Medal of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria and has received the Luxembourg Architecture Prize.
François Valentiny. Photo: Jura Podnieka studija
The #mindpower (#domasspēks in Latvian) project features a collection of 29 short films in which celebrities from all the EU Member States read excerpts from the works of Rainis and Aspazija in their native language and clothe them in images of their culture. The project is a part of the Presidency cultural programme.
Each week a new video is released on the Presidency’s website EU2015.LV. You can also watch the episodes on the Presidency’s official Youtube channel and on the project's Facebook page.
