According to data compiled by the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF), by 2024, one in six children worldwide was living in areas affected by war, facing forced displacement, the loss of home or relatives, limited access to education, inadequate healthcare, deprivation, sexual violence, injury, or death.
The exhibition “A Child’s Mind” is dedicated to children’s experience in war. Its aim is to reveal the devastating reality of war through the prism of a child’s perception, showing how armed conflicts and the violence associated with them affect the emotional and psychological world of children, as well as their attempts to cope with, comprehend, and interpret what is happening. This multifaceted approach is contextualised within the historical processes of Latvia and Europe in the 20th–21st centuries, revealing the individual stories of six children – giving a voice to them. The elements of the exhibition create a symbolic world of play that contrasts with the cruelty of war, allowing the visitor not only to experience a child’s emotions, but also to gain a deeper understanding of the consequences brought about by war. This is achieved by emphasising the particularities of a child’s perception, such as play as the main mechanism of perceiving and discovering the world, as well as basic emotions – affects (joy, interest, fear, disgust, anger, and sadness), which help with survival and serve as the basis for the development of complex emotions. The exhibition invites us to think about childhood not only as an individual, but also as a historical and social phenomenon in the context of war.
The exhibition “A Child’s Mind” at the Latvian War Museum is an extensive collaboration between the museum, its partners, and the creative team, representing an unprecedented event within the museum’s space and its ongoing work with issues of societal relevance. Although it is natural to want to shield children and young people from such information, the presence of war in public communication is unavoidable. It is the responsibility of adults to initiate dialogue with children and answer their questions, as anything left unspoken or denied causes anxiety, fear, and uncertainty.
The exhibition will be a space where both adults and children, as well as young people, are invited to engage in honest and open conversation, in response to the question of what war is and what it takes from and does to those who experience it.
Exhibition creators:
Latvian War Museum, The Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Latvia
Historical research and texts: Klāvs Zariņš and Maija Meiere-Oša
Concept and texts: Kaspars Eglītis
Multimedia director Roberts Rubīns
Designers Ivars Veinbergs and Elīna Lībiete
IT specialist Rihards Vītols
Sound director Pēteris Pāss
Animators Pauls Poikāns and Dmitrijs Voloviks
Cameraman Aleksandrs Vasks
Child psychology consultant Ņikita Bezborodovs
Redaktore un tulkotāja Ieva Elsberga
Material selection Ainis Lociks, Dainis Poziņš, Jānis Tomaševskis and Viktors Kateriničs
Kuratores Elizabete Palasiosa and Marta Kontiņa
Donors:
Latvijas Finieris, Groglass
