Bogeyman in the Woods: Private Collection of Mart Erik
The exhibition Bogeyman in the Woods introduces Mart Erik’s art collection to the public and offers unique insights into the conflict-ridden topic of forests, through both art and the lens of a forester. The cultural intelligentsia and forestry entrepreneurs tend to be on opposing sides of the conflict, yet this exhibition builds a surprising bridge between them and creates opportunities to understand both sides.
Mart Erik is a third-generation forester. His art collection is like the Estonian forest: it boasts a few magnificent oaks growing among sturdy but ordinary birches, spruces and pine trees, and the remainder of the forest space is filled with shrubs and weeds. In nature, nothing is superfluous and everything has a role to play, and that is how Erik’s art collection should be viewed: as an ecosystem made complete by the more modest works that complement the brilliant masterpieces.
The whole emerges through an interplay between the artworks and the stories: texts written by the art collector about single works or thematic blocks are an integral part of the exhibition. How else would a viewer be able to associate a chubby dog with Estonian history or a ghostly choir with public forest disputes?
The display is ushered in by Raul Rajangu’s masculine Umwelt, in which the forest has invaded the artificial world via Christmas trees and a portrait of the young Erik, with Toomas Vint’s nude providing some extra eye candy. Viewers can then acquaint themselves with three generations of foresters, after which they are guided into the past through landscapes altered by time. The most copious group of works deals with the aesthetic and natural values of the forest and its secondary use, i.e. everything outside the scope of forest harvesting.
From there we move on to the topic of forest management, which is something that many of us do not like, yet the outputs of which we all use. There are historical reasons for how forests are managed, and the next group of works, Traces of History, provide some insights into those. Wood is chopped, chips fly and political battles take place: the latter are represented in the next to last block, Mind and Power. Finally, the exhibition makes a full circle back to the environment of Rajangu’s works: their festive mood helps viewers calm down after all the vivid impressions and flood of information.
Erik himself considers Valdur Ohakas’s In the Prison Camp to be the most valuable work in his collection, but is its value material or artistic? Neither; it is primarily historical: it lies in the story of the painting, evolving over time. Thus, the entire exhibition happens in the spacetime of the Mikkel Museum. Stories link works by famous art classics and those by unknown amateurs into an opus on the history of the Estonian forest as experienced by Mart Erik.
Art collectors are usually capable of appreciating art as an investment, too. Erik says that his collection is mainly a result of emotional spending: he does not think about future profit when buying artworks. Several works have been given to him as presents, and he himself has given some away as presents, but he has never sold any of them.
Although the collection features works of art whose value has multiplied over the years, for Erik the increase in value has never been the reason for buying works. His collection can be regarded as virtual wealth, much like a growing forest: in the balance sheet of an enterprise, it is a biological asset, but it will take a while before it can be used to buy bread.
Collecting art is often a status symbol, and Erik does not deny that aspect: he admits that he feels proud to be asked to display his collection in a museum.
The third and most widespread point of acquiring art is decorating and enlivening interiors. Quite a few of the works on display usually embellish the home of the collector and cover the walls of his office. He alters the display in the latter from time to time, giving all forest stories a chance to be retold and leaving nothing to gather dust on the shelves of the storage room.
A whole range of artists have taken part in retelling the story of the forest. If a picture depicts a topic that Erik relates to, it does not matter whether it was painted by a star of the art world or an unknown artist. A conspicuous part of the collection is made up of works by Raul Rajangu, and in addition to the stories they contain, Mart Erik is also Rajangu’s friend and patron.
Other well-known names are not included because of their fame: they are represented only thanks to their place in the narrative. Ülo Sooster’s self-portrait crowns the theme of prison camps. Ilmar Kruusamäe’s work focuses on biodiversity as an important aspect of forestry disputes. Kaljo Põllu is represented in the collection because he painted the portrait of the great nature protection figure Jaan Eilart. Representatives of the Pallas Art School, Alfred Kongo, Esther Roode, Henn Roode and Konstantin Süvalo, are included not thanks to their highly appreciated sense of colour, but because of the forest motifs they chose to depict.
The collection also includes quite a few works by unknown artists. Their role is to fill the gaps in the forest narrative, and no one can claim that they are artistically completely irrelevant.
The exhibition Bogeyman in the Woods opens on the tenth year of ongoing forest wars in the Estonian society. Forestry, which used to be regarded as the most nature-friendly branch of the economy and which provided the impetus for the field of nature protection, is now being blamed for the most savage destruction of nature. The cultural intelligentsia have usually positioned themselves as the opposing camp to foresters. Hopefully, these insights into the story of the Estonian forest, based on an artistic dialogue, will at least facilitate movement towards solving this conflict.
Team
Curator: Mari Kartau
Exhibition design: Villu Plink
Graphic design: Norman Orro
Educational programme: Eneli Raal