Zuzanna Hercerg, Volunteers for Freedom. 8 wooden boxes, mixed media. 2016–2020. In front: Tribute to Miriam Rudin and Bryna Rudin-Foss, Latvian Jewish doctors. Photo: Margarita
From 10 August to 20 October 2024, the exhibition "Difficult Pasts. Connected Worlds" will be on view at the Lasnamäe Pavilion of the Tallinn Art Hall. Curated by Margaret Tali and Ieva Astahovska, the exhibition focuses on the legacy of solidarity, empathy and historical trauma, as well as it questions recent history, and the impact that this past has had on the present-day realities of people in the Baltic region and its neighbouring countries.
"Inconvenient Pasts. Connected Worlds" is part of the international interdisciplinary project "Communicating Difficult Pasts" (2019-2024), in which participants address uncomfortable and often neglected aspects of history in the Baltics and its neighbouring countries. The exhibition was previously shown at the Latvian National Museum of Art (2020) and the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, Lithuania (2022) - both were co-organised by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA).
Curators Margareta Tali and Ieva Astahovska (LCCA) note that the aim of the exhibition is to think about how art can aid in highlighting the global connections of history, understanding minority perspectives and promoting empathy. The experiences depicted by artists are often forgotten or excluded from mainstream history - the exhibition will uncover them through individual stories, family histories and archival research, while also addressing collective cultural memory. Uncovering these experiences creates new geographical and temporal links between events and processes, and explores ways of healing that have been inspired by the past.
The artists featured in the exhibition come from the Baltic States, Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands: Lia Dostlieva & Andri Dostliev (UA/PL), Family Connection (NL/Curaçao), Vika Eksta (LV), Zuzanna Hertzberg (PL), Jaana Kokko (FI), Paulina Pukyte (LT), Yaniya Mikhalina (NO/ru), Eleonore de Montesquiou (FR/EE) and Tanel Rander (EE).
The opening of the exhibition will take place on 9 August 2024 at 6 pm, while on 10 August the visitors are invited to join the public programme of this exhibition: at 1 pm, a unique real-time film by video artist Joen Vedel will be screened, in which he revisits the decisive historical events of August 1991. At 4 pm, the curators and artists will lead a guided tour that is meant to give a deeper insight into the themes and processes of the exhibition, but at 5.30 pm, the spectators are invited to attend a performance by artist Zuzanna Herzberg, who will use archival material, autobiographies and memories of women who volunteered in the Spanish Civil War.
Exhibition supporters: British Council, Tallinn Culture & Sports Department, Nordic Culture Point, Lithuanian Culture Board, Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Danish Art Council, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tallinn, Embassy of the Republic of Latvia to the Republic of Estonia, Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Estonia.