Physical Evidence Museum

Documentary exhibition

12–24 April 2026

An apartment at 34 Vienības Street, Daugavpils, Latvia

Physical Evidence Museum is a documentary exhibition in which everyday objects bear witness to domestic violence. A cup, a piece of clothing, a kitchen utensil or a childhood toy — things that usually appear neutral and familiar — become vessels for personal stories. They carry memories of fear and silence, but also of survival, healing and the courage to establish boundaries that no one has the right to cross.

These are not pieces of evidence in a legal sense. They are witnesses to violence: objects that were present during moments people are often unable or unwilling to speak about. Each is connected to a real, anonymously submitted account of emotional, physical, sexual or economic violence within a family or intimate relationship.

The exhibition is installed inside an apartment — the environment in which domestic violence is so often concealed from the outside world. Visitors move through the rooms and encounter objects within their familiar surroundings, yet the stories accompanying them transform their meaning. What is recognisable becomes unsettling, while the supposedly safe space of the home reveals itself as a place where control and violence can become embedded in everyday life.

This format does not allow the visitor to maintain the conventional distance of a museum. Rather than illustrating violence through generalised statistics or presenting it as an abstract social issue, the exhibition directs attention towards particular voices and experiences. The object makes it possible to speak about violence without exposing the identity of the person who experienced it, while giving an otherwise invisible experience a material presence.

Physical Evidence Museum was created in Riga in 2020 by Laura Stašāne and Jana Jacuka as part of the International Festival of Contemporary Theatre Homo Novus. It has since developed as both an evolving documentary exhibition and a digital platform through which women can anonymously share their experiences of violence by entrusting the museum with an object and its story. Locally created editions involving women from surrounding communities have also been presented in Tallinn, Warsaw and Bern.

Daugavpils Edition

In April 2026, Physical Evidence Museum was installed in an ordinary apartment at 34 Vienības Street in Daugavpils. The exhibition brought together materials from the museum’s existing collection with objects and stories submitted by people from Daugavpils and the wider Latgale region. This local layer made it possible to approach violence not as a distant or abstract problem, but as an experience that also exists within our own city and community.

The exhibition opened on 11 April with a four-hour public reading of testimonies. The artists and local activists lent their voices to anonymously submitted stories, transforming individual accounts into an act of collective presence and attentive listening.

During the exhibition, New East organised guided visits for several groups of school students. These were followed by conversations about recognising different forms of violence, understanding personal boundaries, the consequences of silence, shared responsibility and the possibility of seeking help. The encounters extended the project beyond its documentary display, turning the apartment into a space for dialogue and learning.

Physical Evidence Museum does not attempt to speak on behalf of survivors. It creates a space in which their stories can be heard and in which silence no longer has to mean isolation.

Artists and Production

Created by: Laura Stašāne and Jana Jacuka

Daugavpils exhibition organised and produced by: New East Culture Institute

Venue: an apartment at 34 Vienības Street, Daugavpils

The museum continues to operate as a digital platform at pieradijumumuzejs.lv.