In what way does art support empathy and make it easier to understand a difficult past? This is a question that curators of the “Difficult Pasts. Connected Worlds” exhibition at the Lasnamäe pavillion of the Tallinn Art Hall wish to answer. The exhibition can be visited from 9 August to 20 October 2024.
“Difficult Pasts. Connected Worlds” – the history of Europe as seen by artists
The exhibition “Difficult Pasts. Connected Worlds”, curated by Margaret Tali and Ieva Astahovska, delves into the topic of solidarity, empathy and historical trauma. The presented works refer to the rarely discussed past events that took place in the Baltic States and Europe and to the emotional burden through which the tragedies from the past are carried over to subsequent generations. The artists allude to, among others, the Holodomor, totalitarian regimes, mass deportations, exile in Syberia or colonial processes.
National histories presented in textbooks, with smoothened out and linear narrations, often skip pluralistic and chaotic microstories shared by family members or friends in everyday life. Difficult past has become topical again in recent years in the face of wars and threats experienced in the Central Europe. The artists are trying to answer the questions of precarious equillibrium between the methods of survival and cooperation and of the specificity of post-Soviet societies coping with the shadows of the past.
Zuzanna Hertzberg at the exhibition in Tallinn
The exhibition “Difficult Pasts. Connected Worlds” hosts artists from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands. Poland is represented by Zuzanna Hertzberg – an interdisciplinary artist, painter, performer and collagist. She will be there at the opening weekend with a verbal performance on 10 August at 17:30. The exhibition catalogue includes two of her works:
- Volunteers for Freedom – eight wooden boxes containing portaits and biographical collages commemorating Polish and Latvian women – Jews, warriors and volunteers who fought in the International Brigades against the soldiers of general Franco during the Spanish Civil War in the years 1936-1939.
- Nomadic memory – banners, a marble plaque, a tri-colour wreath and photographs making up a documentation of the intervention in public space that points to the similarities between the international batallions from the past and the Ukrainian fighters of now.
An exhibition in Estonia dealing with difficult experiences from the past
The invited artists also include:
- Lia Dostlieva and Andri Dostliev (UA/PL),
- Family Connection (NL/Curaçao),
- Vika Eksta (LV),
- Jaana Kokko (FI),
- Paulina Pukyte (LT),
- Yaniya Mikhalina (NO/ru),
- Eleonore de Montesquiou (FR/EE),
- Tanel Rander (EE).
The artists assembled at “Difficult Pasts. Connected Worlds” talk about difficult experiences through individual stories and through this they also examine methods of healing traumas that are inspired by the past. The exhibition was formerly displayed at the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga in 2020 and in the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius in 2022. The display at the Lasnamäe pavillion of the Tallinn Art Hall will continue from 9 August to 20 October 2024.
“Volunteers for Freedom” by Zuzanna Hertzberg
Photo: Gintarė Grigėnaitė
The Adam Mickiewicz Institute is a co-organiser of Zuzanna Hertzberg’s exhibition together with the Sihtasutus Kunstihoone foundation. The exhibition “Difficult Pasts. Connected Worlds” is supported by: the British Council, Department of Culture and Sport in Tallin, Nordic Culture Point, Lithuanian Council for Culture, Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Office for Contempoirary Art Norway, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Denmark Arts Council, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tallin, Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in the Republic of Estonia, Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Estonia.
All visitors are welcome!