Time is full of emotions right now… / LR3 / / Latvijas Radio

In “Klasika” we speak with Jānis Šipkēvics, ie Shipsbecause tonight, November 15th at 19.00, in the “Zuzeum” art center, the fourth evening of the acoustic music series “The world in the living room” which he initiated, will take place.

As already during the Latvian holiday week, the game will be played in a patriotic vein. WWF Latvia reporter Kristīne Garklāva will help you look into your country’s history and share stories. Musical stories will be told by guitarist, soloist and songwriter Miķelis Putniņš from the band “Ezeri”, coklatist and ethnomusicologist Laima Jansone and concert program curator Jānis Šipkēvics (Shipsea).

Liene Jakovleva: How are you feeling this week, right now?

Jānis Šipkēvics: Currently the weather is full of emotions. Probably more this year than other years. We have to look at everything we have – at what surrounds us, at the land we live in, at the language in which we can express our thoughts and determine how we live in our land. Therefore, the feeling is deeper and more intense than in other years, starting from Lāčplēš day and looking forward to our country’s birthday celebration.

Together with your friends, you have already invited for the fourth time to the “Zuzeum” art center, and this time you focused on your home – Latvia. You have already visited Lithuania, Ukraine and Estonia.

It has already developed into a very inspiring tradition, which we started several months ago as we started getting to know countries and cultures.

We started from Ukraine and have now arrived in Latvia for two reasons: because it is a week of vacation and it is never superfluous to get to know your country and culture again and deeper.

Secondly, Lithuania and Estonia were the previous stops because the current exhibition of the “Zuzeum” art center is dedicated to the works of Baltic artists, and it was exhibited in the last week – that’s why, parallel to the art, in the living room of the “Zuzeum” on the second floor, we dealt with the glorification of the Baltic culture and meeting with Lithuanian and Estonian musicians.

Even today it will be possible to see this exhibition together with talks and music. But it will be up to you to craft the conversation and the music for tonight.

It is always a privilege and an honor for me to see those co-storytellers with whom we discover and celebrate each land and culture. This time it’s my associates who have never met in such a combination before. We played a lot together with Miķeli Putniņa and the band “Ezeri”. Miķelis is extremely Latvian, talented and at the same time very worldly. Laima Jansone, with whom we participated in both the “Skaņuisaite” program and the “Porta” festival, will also help Miķel. Lime is an absolutely organic element in this collaboration.

Perhaps a more unexpected addition to this mini-festival is Kristīne Garklāva, who is well known to us as a news moderator and nature journalist – she has a knack for using social networking much more meaningfully than usual. In this case Kristine will be the discoverer of this story, the teacher of the word: I really like how she sees our land, our country,

events and, of course, not only our country – also his narration about what has been happening in Ukraine since February somehow really inspired me to think that it would be an extremely powerful and very valuable addition to this evening.

What is the structure and essence of these evenings?

The basic idea behind its title “The World in the Living Room” is this: I imagine that, for example, someone has been traveling or is closely related to a place, and guests come to him, to which this narrator, is through music and also through words, he reveals something very important to him and shares it.

It’s completely different every time, different. Sometimes you actually look at the pictures and then it’s like a slideshow night, other times it’s a musical meditation with stories alongside, and other times it’s like you invite your family and loved ones together to tell them how you did, for example, on a trip around the world…

That’s how it’s intended, that’s how I imagine it, and it really demonstrates its different form that it was born in every time, and I’m very happy with that. How it will be this time, I really don’t know, but I think the “ingredients” are very powerful and intriguing. And I’m looking forward to this evening and the people to come. It is important that we choose music following exactly the same selection principle: we try to choose songs that mean a lot to us and that could tell the story of the specific land and culture.