Latvia has led the world against coronavirus pandemic and achieved record low infection rates. Now the people of the Northern European nation want to lead the world again by expressing gratitude to doctors and nurses who were on the frontline of fighting Covid.
The people of Latvia are thankful to the medics in Latvia and all over the world for their selfless service during the COVID-19 pandemic and have put up a monument by a famous Latvian artist to health care personnel, supported by donations of almost 20 local companies.
The six-meter-high sculpture «Medics to the World» shows a female medical staff who has just come out of the treatment room and is getting ready for the next shift. She has closed her eyes and is flexing her back. The figure is put up in a way that allows the visitors can come up to her and try to reach up and touch her hands. In this way the grown-ups can feel like small children for a moment when they’re looking up to their parents who are their caretakers and life preservers.
«The three-month long lockdown period and fear for their life made the people change their perspective towards doctors, nurses and other medical staff. Many just now for the first time in their lives realized the vital importance of the medical staff,» says the artist and author of the idea, professor at the Art Academy of Latvia Aigars Bikše. He is one of the most prominent sculptors in Latvia today. His main fields of interest are public spaces and art as a form of communication.
There is a strong opinion in the country that the close synergies between health experts and the society in general helped prevent a large outbreak of the coronavirus. With its “Test, Track, Isolate” mantra Latvia is one of the success stories of the world since the nation of two million tested only one thousand positive cases and achieved less than 30 fatalities.
«The main heroes of the pandemic are the medical staff who risked their lives for us in order to preserve the health of the humanity. The wellbeing of the society requires concerted and responsible action. It means that everyone follows expert advice – maintaining social distance washing hands, and while medical staff take care of the infected. I am pleased that the Latvian people are aware of this responsibility and I am pleased to see that the people have appreciated our work,» says the president of Latvian Nurses Association Dita Raiska.
But Latvians monitored the situation elsewhere in the world and therefore are even more thankful to their doctors. That is why so many companies did not hesitate to respond to the artists call to erect a sculpture for the medical staff «When Aigars told us the idea we didn’t think too much. The sculpture is the least we can do to express our gratitude to the doctors and nurses for their work,» says the manager of the creative project factory YesWeCan Jānis Miķelsons, who was one of the first supporters of the artists idea. His active involvement made it possible to realize this idea. The sculpture itself was made in the premises of YesWeCan.
Source: The Baltic Times