In Palanga – an outdoor exhibition about J. Šliūpas: the life of a historical figure was revived in comics Culture

How to tell about a person whose activities span the entire 19th century. late 20th century decades of the beginning of Lithuania’s turning point, but was so inconsistent that it remained misunderstood by contemporaries and caused not only anger, but also fear?

Although the first mayor of Palanga, dr. The works of J. Šliūpas are significant and interesting, it is avoided to heroize this controversial personality and to retouch his controversial ideas that were not adapted at the time. Therefore, stories from Miglė Anušauskaitė’s comic were chosen for the narration of the exhibition, which allows us to look at the colorful life of Jonas Šliūpas with irony and charmingly reveals his human qualities.

“We aim for the Jonas Šliūpas Museum to be a place where a dialogue between history and today is woven, where visitors from different generations, but also those looking for different things in museums, can find a common language. Therefore, we are constantly looking for co-creation with other developers. The story told must excite, respond to the visitor’s personal experience, and be presented in a language he understands. We hope that such a decision will be interesting for Palanga’s guests and museum visitors,” Nijolė Laužikienė, head of the Palanga-based Lithuanian National Museum branch, says about the exhibition.

Silvester Samson’s photo/Miglė Anušauskaitė

Comic book author Miglė Anušauskaitė says that she first learned about the life of J. Šliūpas when she was still at school, visiting the Jonas Šliūpas museum. “Later, I saw his “Writings” in the library and took it to read – I didn’t expect it to be so interesting. The attempts on Šliūpas and the episode of Basanavičius persuading him to go take a photo really stuck, and Šliūpas remembers that “Basanavičius, as always, came out beautifully, and I was like a “cookie”.” “Sliūpas seemed close to me with its practical simplicity, firm standing on the ground, as well as with the very controversial “liberalist” ideas at the time,” says M. Anušauskaitė.

The exhibition cheerfully and without trying to beautify reality reveals Dr. The life, ideas and works of J. Šliūpa – Lithuanian political, social, and cultural figure, philosopher, evangelist, doctor. The not always “comfortable” J. Šliūpas is presented, attention is drawn to the progressiveness of his activities back then and the relevance of his work today.

Photo of the organizers/Fragment of Miglė Anušauskaitė’s comic book “Kas izigandi Šliūpo”.

“I had quite a lot of freedom while drawing, and I didn’t want to do a completely chronological story, so the connecting link of the plot was Sliup’s ideas, interspersed with contextual explanations for the modern reader. The comic book “Who’s Afraid of Sliupos?” was one of those projects for me to do purely out of love, and I’m personally happy with the result. True, I heard that the child of an acquaintance was surprised when in one scene of the comic one assassin cut the throat of another. Well, that’s the story – if everything was clean and beautiful, a large part of the fun would disappear,” laughs the author.

Ieva Žubrienė’s photo/Outdoor exhibition “Who Scared Šliūpa” in the Jonas Šliūpa Museum.

The exhibition is located at the entrance to the museum and is always open to Palangi residents and city guests. It will help you get to know Mr. Šliūpa’s personality and activities in more detail, until a permanent exhibition is installed in the museum. The exhibition’s creative team believes that there will be those who will hear about J. Šliūpas for the first time and thus “encounter” him right on the street – right next to the garden of his former home, where the first mayor of Palanga used to spend his free time smoking a pipe.

The creation of the exhibition was partially financed by Palanga city municipality.