Kumu’s exhibition They Began to Talk explores the connection between the body and the environment

From 7 February, the Kumu Art Museum’s Contemporary Art Gallery will host the international group exhibition They Began to Talk. The exhibition brings together the practices of artists working in Estonia and other Baltic countries with those from Indigenous communities in the Nordic countries, exploring the possibility of recovering and cultivating a sense of reconnection between body and land.

The exhibition continues the Kumu Contemporary Art Gallery’s programme of exhibitions on environmental themes, which began in 2023 with the exhibition Art in the Age of the Anthropocene. The opening of the exhibition coincides with Sámi National Day on 6 February.

They Began to Talk brings together over 15 artists, thinkers and writers. They include one of the first postcolonial women artists, the Inuit-Danish artist Pia Arke, whose works are on loan for the exhibition from the Moderna Museet collection, and the acclaimed Estonian printmaker Vive Tolli, whose work Death of a Nightingale is part of the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia.

The curators were intrigued by how experiences and knowledge migrate across generations, and how the current generation remembers, when what has been passed on to us is silence. “The central theme of the exhibition is to convey the silent voice that lingers in the aftermath of displacement,” says the curator, Hanna Laura Kaljo. “We may call it the speech of the body. Displacement, the condition of being torn out of context, can be caused by emigration, but it can also be caused by a sudden change in the environment in which one dwells, resulting in the place no longer reflecting one’s belonging. These themes are explored in the works of Pia Arke, the Sami artist Outi Pieski and the Estonian artist Mia Tamme.”

“The exhibition invites us to reflect on environmental changes resulting from human activity through the lens of colonial history and its lasting impact. The exhibition ends a deafening silence by giving voice to the more-than-human world: the forms and ways of life that have endured colonial catastrophes. This theme is central to the works of the contemporary artists Eglė Budvytytė, Merike Estna and Sasha Tishkov,” says the curator, Ann Mirjam Vaikla. Two of the participating artists, Merike Estna and Eglė Budvytytė, represent Estonia and Lithuania, respectively, at the next Venice Art Biennale.

Like the exhibition, the public programme explores how art enables us to talk about reconnecting with our surroundings. Focusing on somatic, or embodied, experience, dance and visual artists will collaborate with the audience to explore the role of somatic perception and imagination in this process. On 8 February, the programme will feature guided tours led by the curators and a participatory performance by John Grzinich, Audioswarm Geofractions, as well as a panel discussion on belonging, environmental change and cultural resilience. The discussion will bring together the curators, the artist Ruth Maclennan, and the environmental sociologist Outi Autti.

The dance performance Choreographies of Hugging: Variations, by Eline Selgis and Sofia Filippou, and eco-somatic tours led by Joanna Kalm will take place throughout the exhibition period. On 19 May, in collaboration with the Estonian Academy of Arts, a public lecture by the writer and researcher Macarena Gómez-Barris will focus on decolonising practices in art.

The exhibition features video works, performances, paintings, photographs, space and sound installations and sculptures.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a book with contributions from the curators, the Finnish environmental sociologist Outi Autti and the Estonian writer and translator Mirjam Parve.

Participating artists: Pia Arke, Eglė Budvytytė, Merike Estna, Sofia Filippou & Eline Selgis, John Grzinich, Joanna Kalm, Johann Köler, Ruth Maclennan, Outi Pieski & Biret Haarla Pieski & Gáddjá Haarla Pieski, Mia Tamme, Sasha Tishkov and Vive Tolli.

The exhibition will be on view in the Kumu Art Museum’s 5th-floor Contemporary Art Gallery from 7 February to 3 August 2025.

Exhibition team:
Curators: Ann Mirjam Vaikla and Hanna Laura Kaljo
Exhibition design: Kaarel Eelma
Graphic design: Tuuli Aule
Installation manager: Siim Hiis
Technical assistant: Mati Schönberg
Exhibition coordinator: Anastassia Langinen