Kumu exhibition explores Estonians’ ties to Finno-Ugric Indigenous peoples

Kumu has opened Expedition, an exhibition examining Estonians’ relationships with Finno-Ugric Indigenous peoples, ERR reported. It brings together collections from the Estonian National Museum, ethnographic drawings and photographs made during student expeditions, and art, film and design inspired by Finno-Ugric heritage.

Works by Kaljo Põllu, Veljo Tormis and Lennart Meri are on display alongside artifacts reflecting the period. Curator Linda Kaljundi said a Sámi exhibition that opened at Kumu in September provides context for the show. In discussions with its creators, the curators considered how contemporary Sámi art, linked to political activism, could offer a framework for presenting Finno-Ugric heritage.

Artists Karl Joonas Alamaa and Jaanus Samma have created a photographic series in which objects from the Estonian National Museum’s collections are shown outside their usual context. Alamaa has also made an installation featuring nearly 100 Finno-Ugric dresses. He said the artists approached the collections from an artist’s perspective, which can reveal unexpected connections.

The curators do not aim to judge how Indigenous peoples’ heritage was handled in the 1970s and 1980s. Instead, they seek to examine the subject from a contemporary perspective, including why national identity became important during the energy crisis and the final years of the Soviet Union, and what it meant for ethnographic research among other peoples to become a central way of shaping that identity.

The exhibition will remain open at Kumu until February next year.