"Wedding Rug. Alo and Jaak" (2023)
Installation: one rug and three framed screenprints
The installation "Wedding Rug. Alo and Jaak" is one of three rugs and accompanying screenprints installed across the festival Survival Kit 14 and its sister exhibitions Kaunas Biennial and Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts. Inspired by a traditional Estonian wedding custom of wedding dowry rug that portrays a couple alongside significant objects and events in their lives, Samma has created new queer interpretations of the tradition. This particular rug is a tribute to Riga-born poet Kristjan Jaak Peterson and his male lover Alo. Peterson is widely recognized as the first Estonian poet, marking the inception of Estonian national literature. Within his literary works, the writer mentioned Alo as his beloved in four poems, praising his beauty and describing moments of tenderness.
By highlighting queer stories the wedding rugs installed across the three cities are also commenting on the marriage inequality across most of the Eastern European countries. After widespread societal discussions, Estonia became the first post-Soviet country to allow same-sex couples to register their marriage, while in Latvia same-sex couples can only register their partnership through courts.
Jaanus Samma is a visual artist whose current fields of interest include history, ethnography and museology as well as the narratives used at the intersection of the three.
/ Photo credit: Kristīne Madjare / Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art