The exhibition “Who Was Scared of Šliūpas?”, based on Miglė Anušauskaitė’s comic book, has opened in Palanga. The exhibition, which tells the tale of the colourful life of the first Mayor of Palanga, is located near the Jonas Šliūpas Museum – right next to the garden of his former home, where this historical personality used to wander around smoking a pipe and pondering various controversial ideas that were not common at the time.  

How should you tell the story of a man whose activities spanned entire decades of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (major turning points in Lithuania’s history), and yet were so inconsistent that they remained misunderstood by his contemporaries and aroused not only anger but fear as well? 

Although the works of Dr J. Šliūpas, the first Mayor of Palanga, are significant and intriguing, actions have been taken to avoid the glamorisation of this controversial personality and his contentious ideas that were unfitting for his time. That’s why, the stories chosen for the exhibition are from Miglė Anušauskaitė’s comic strip, which offers an ironic look at the colourful life of Jonas Šliūpas and reveals his human characteristics in a charming way. 

“We want the Jonas Šliūpas Museum to be a place where a dialogue between history and the modern day can be established, where visitors not only from different generations but also those looking for different things in museums can find common ground. That’s why we are constantly looking for co-creation with other creators. The story we tell must be moving, reflect the visitor’s personal experience, and be presented in a way they can understand. We hope that this solution will be interesting for the guests of Palanga and the visitors of the museum,” says Nijolė Laužikienė, Head of the National Museum of Lithuania in Palanga, about the exhibition. 

Miglė Anušauskaitė, the author of the comics, says that she first learned about Šliūpas’ life in school, when she visited the Jonas Šliūpas Museum. “Later, I saw his ‘Writings’ in the library and took to reading it; I didn’t expect it to be so interesting. I was very taken by the encroachments on Šliūpas and the part when Basanavičius persuaded him to go and get his photo taken; Šliūpas recalls that, ‘Basanavičius, as always, came out beautifully, and I came out like an ogre’. Šliūpas was quite similar to me in his practical simplicity, his grounded nature, and his very controversial libertarian ideas at the time,” says M. Anušauskaitė. 

The exhibition reveals the life, ideas and works of Dr J. Šliūpas – a Lithuanian politician, public figure, cultural activist, philosopher, member of  „Aušra“, doctor – in a cheerful way without trying to embellish reality. The not always “comfortable” J. Šliūpas is presented, drawing attention to the progressiveness of his activities at the time and the relevance of his work today. 

“I had quite a lot of freedom when I was drawing, and I didn’t want to do a completely chronological narrative, so the connecting link of the plot was the Šliūpas’ ideas, with the addition of contextual explanations for the modern reader. The comic strip “Who Was Scared of Šliūpas?” was one of the projects that I did purely out of love, and I’m very happy with the result. In fact, I heard that an acquaintance’s child was surprised when, in one of the comic’s scenes, one of the headhunters slit the throat of another. Well, that’s just how the story goes; if everything was clean and nice, a lot of the interest would be lost,” she laughed. 

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

The creation of the exhibition was partially funded by Palanga City Municipality.