PHOTO: several hundred works sent to the campaign “Paint and take pictures of your mailbox”

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Residents of Jelgava, Liepāja and Tukums counties took the most active part in the campaign.

The next mailbox was made in the Russian Federation by Ilona Saveras, a teacher of Latvian language and cultural history. In turn, a model of mailboxes was created at the Latvian weekend school in Brussels.

Various techniques have been used to create the works – painting, decoupage, crochet, collage making, even wood carving and forging. The themes were also varied – from black and white geometric and abstract depictions to colorful images of wildlife and landscapes. They are created both for themselves and as heartfelt gifts for relatives and friends.

Tija Auziņa, the director of the festival “BILDES”: “The participants of the campaign have renewed the old ones, made the usual ones bought in the store more interesting and colorful, as well as made brand new, functional mailboxes.

I sincerely rejoice in the performance of each participant in the art, artisticizing their mailboxes! Now each of them has such a mailbox – cherished, dreamed, dressed in favorite colors… It is an original work, a message to yourself, friends and relatives and also to passers-by. These mailboxes have become home business cards and unique environmental objects. The stories of creating mailboxes were also touching, thoughtful and philosophical, fun and family warm. The main thing is that it was all done with love. ”

After viewing the photo gallery of mailboxes sent to the campaign, the director of the Latvian National Cultural Center, Signe Pujāte, expresses her joy about the results of the campaign: “A wonderful trip around Latvia, common living space tidier, more colorful. Mailboxes can be an essential element in people’s lives and in the Latvian cultural landscape! ”

The representative of the jury of the campaign, metal artist Arvīds Endziņš: “The door, the end of the road, the mailbox are the first we see when visiting or returning home. Each thing has its own task and function. Of course, the main thing for a good thing is to comfortably serve the owner, but in addition to things, we also have other values. One of them – the joy of creating together with family, friends, neighbors. It’s nice if the postman brings the newspapers to the mailbox with a cat, a pigeon, apple blossoms or Winnie the Pooh. In Latvian, however, we say – a mailbox, not a mailbox. It’s warm and sweet. ”

In the course of the campaign, both private and shared mailboxes of apartment houses were painted. The residents of more than one house have worked collectively to refresh and make the staircase of their home happier.

20 institutions and companies, including 7 libraries, several educational institutions, municipal administrations, tourist attractions, etc., also received artistic mailboxes.

Thinking about the difficult time during which the campaign took place, Augusts Zilberts, the communication manager of the National Library of Latvia, says: “We all really need a hopeful and positive view of everyday life, and painted mailboxes will provide it in the long run, I am really pleased that libraries also responded to the campaign, once again proving how creative and versatile library staff are. “

In Latvian schools, the campaign activation event “If I had a mailbox” took place. They invited children to imagine their dream mailbox and create a model of it. During distance learning, as well as summer internships, students of general education and art schools in Aizkraukle, Baldone, Krāslava, Krimulda, Mērsrags, Rīga, Priekule, Vecumnieki, as well as children from other interest and educational institutions took part in the campaign. Jelgava Spidola State Gymnasium and art teacher Dace Lejēja were especially active, whose students prepared 143 mailboxes and 218 mailbox layouts: “Creating mailbox designs remotely during the first wave of Covid-19 quarantine was a challenge for all of us. It was a project for 2.5 months – from a sketch of ideas to a finished design object. It’s nice that the parents of the students trusted their children’s artistic activities and allowed them to design their home mailboxes, which now decorate the fence gates and house walls. Many mailboxes also went to the students’ grandparents and now warm the hearts of the elderly. ”

Municipalities and houses of culture also called on locals to paint mailboxes. At the mailbox painting event “We for our Briežuciems”, the locals renovated and artisticized the mailbox complex at the former post office building, as well as several apartment houses and private mailboxes. Mailbox painting events also took place in Ceraukste, Zemīte, Penkule, Tume, Pope parishes, Līgatne, Jūrkalne and elsewhere. At the opening of the event “Ogre Travels”, mailboxes were painted by musicians Antra Stafecka, Alex, Toms Kalderauskis and Gunārs Meijers at the Ogre Region Culture Center.

During the plein air of the Liepāja Karosta Festival, the artists painted mailboxes, which now decorate various companies in the city. Liepaja residents also painted their mailboxes on Ābeļu Street, gathering at their street festivities and opening their mailbox gallery.

Sniedze Sproģe, Counselor for Rural Development of the Union of Local Governments of Latvia, commented on the course of the campaign: The campaign of Ābeļu Street in Liepāja is so sympathetic! Not only beautiful mailboxes, but also bringing neighbors together, tasting apple snacks. Glad that Sēme roses are now blooming at the parish administration building on the mailbox! ”

The results of the campaign are praised by Zane Grigoroviča, Assistant Professor of Art History at the Latvian Academy of Culture, a street art researcher: that drawing and painting can bring joy to yourself and your family. It is commendable that they have the courage to exhibit their work in an incomprehensibly large “exhibition hall”, placing a painted mailbox at the end of the road, by a fence or in a staircase, thus creating joy for many.

Recently, many European cities have also attracted tourists with street art. Tourist guides highlight places where you can see painted houses, sometimes supplemented with clever inscriptions.

It is very possible that when traveling in Latvia, someone will choose to look at the mailboxes created during the campaign. ”

Taking into account the situation in the country, the festival “BILDES” has moved its 35th anniversary celebrations to the next year. Therefore, there will be no face-to-face meeting with the authors of the works, but the participants will receive prizes and colorful thanks from the organizers and supporters of the campaign through their renovated, artistic mailboxes through SJSC Latvijas Pasts.