Artis Ostups and Kārlis Vērdiņš participate in conference on European avant-garde and modernism

Researchers Artis Ostups and Kārlis Vērdiņš from the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia (ILFA) will participate in The 10th International Conference of the European Network for Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies which will take place at Stockholm University from 2 to 4 September.

Both researchers will present their papers as part of the panel “Avant-garde in Baltic Poetry: Migration of People and Ideas” alongside their Lithuanian colleagues Gitana Vanagaitė and Dalia Satkauskytė.

Artis Ostups’s paper “Berlin Experience in Latvian Interwar Poetry and the Political Aesthetics of Speed” focuses on poems by Linards Laicens and Arnolds Grants that offer a politicised perspective on the rapid pace of life and social inequality in the capital of the Weimar Republic.

Kārlis Vērdiņš’s paper “Folkloristic Surrealism in Latvian Exile Poetry: The Hell’s Kitchen Group” explores modifications of Surrealism in the works of poets associated with the group, with particular attention to Mudīte Austriņa’s baletiņi.

The conference programme is available HERE.

Artis Ostups’s and Kārlis Vērdiņš’s participation in the conference is supported by the project “Latvian Literature as Belonging: Personalities, Poetics, and the Public Space (LITBEL)” (VPP-IZM-Letonika-2025/1-0006).

^{Photo: The interior of station Stadion, on the way to the university, in Stockholm metro. (c) Anton Kudelin / Mostphoto}