State Secretary
Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to be present here today at the Museum of Decorative and Applied Art in Riga for the opening of the exhibition Crowns and Roses – The Living Tradition of Norwegian Folk Costume. This exhibition is part of the FOKUS BALTIKUM programme, which aims at strengthening the links of friendship and cooperation between Norway and the Baltic countries.

Every country has a need for unifying symbols, something that will define that nation and distinguish its people from everyone else. Norway’s folk costumes are one of our country’s strongest national symbols. These colourful and handsome clothes are an important part of our cultural heritage. But they are also very much part of our lives today. We all wear our national costumes with pride and pleasure on occasions such as Constitution Day, when they deepen and accentuate our sense of national community.

Every region in Norway has its own, characteristic dress. In consequence, we tend to see our national costumes as something specifically and particularly Norwegian. However, many countries have contributed to their development.

The exhibition also features a Latvian section, and as we can see, the folk costumes of our two countries have many features in common. This is due to international trade and commerce, which over the centuries brought the same European fashions and styles to our regions. In this way, our national costumes point to yet another area of longstanding contacts and interchanges between Latvia and Norway.

Norway’s folk costumes are not just an heirloom from the past. The tradition is a living one, undergoing changes and constantly being reinterpreted. In an interesting development over the past few decades, the costumes have become an important source of inspiration for modern Norwegian artists. This is also the case with their colleagues in Latvia, whose work is on show here. They, too, are renewing and reinventing their national heritage for our times.

In this exhibition, we have tried to give the public in Riga a sample of the wide variety of Norwegian and Latvian national costumes. We have also wished to throw light on the many different aspects of a strong and flourishing tradition.

I am glad to have this opportunity to thank all those, in Latvia and Norway, who have pooled their talents and energies to bring about this exhibition.

It is my pleasure to declare the Crowns and Roses exhibition open.