In the album about Edgars Vērpe Dace Lamberga has systematically laid out all of Edgars Vērpe’s life and art together with groundings for changes, contemporary background and artistic context. The album is enriched with three Laima Slava's conversations with Edgars Vērpe (2000, 2002 and 2017).
"Most contemporaries will unambiguously answer the question “Who is Edgars Vērpe?” by stating that he is the director of the State Culture Capital Foundation, while others might mention that he was once the principal of the Janis Rozentāls Secondary School of Art, credited with securing a new building for the institution. Serious fishermen may recall he was the creator of the TV show “Cope” [Dangling a Line] and a producer at the VFS Films. However, although many years of work have left him bereft of his creative vocation, Edgars Vērpe considers himself to be first and foremost an artist.
Dace Lamberga
“However calm and unhurried he might appear on the first impression, Edgars Vērpe is also cagey and unpredictable. It seems to me that Edgars is not only an artist, teacher, culture manager and TV star; he is also a skilful stage director who regularly, quietly composes existential miseenscenes to surprise his contemporaries. And this can be disturbingly unexpected both in terms of changing point of leverage and artistic exploration. This impression is reinforced by the interviews he has given over the years and which I reread during the preparation of this book. At a new stage in life, the answers frame fresh horizons as well as offering memory fragments – even from childhood – which logically justify the new decisions. Moreover, after all this time, he has come to realize that nothing significant has changed regarding his interests in art and in the means of expression,” writes Laima Slava.
I just enjoy being in the studio and working with the materials. I experiment in many different ways and I do lots of things which end in the trashcan. I love working with substances and then I feel that the studio gives me a second wind. I come to the studio after work, and I can work for four or five hours feeling great. I only get my ideas through working. Those ideas you get while you’re not working – you can calmly chuck them away. But then there wouldn’t be a reason to go to the studio. You go to the studio because you have an idea, but then when you get going you realise nothing will come of it, and that’s when it all begins.
Edgars Vērpe