Curator’s Tour of the Exhibition They Began to Talk
As a part of the finissage of the international contemporary art exhibition They Began to Talk, curator Ann Mirjam Vaikla will lead a guided tour of the exhibition. The exhibition takes the intertwinement of the body and the environment as its point of departure, in an era marked by rapid environmental change and inequality.
Sudden changes in the physical environment, often caused by human activity, can evoke mental suffering in land-based communities. Stored in the body, this trauma is passed on to future generations, who perceive it as an interruption in their relationship with their surroundings. The exhibition brings together the practices of artists working in this region with those from indigenous communities in the Nordic countries, exploring the possibility of recovering and cultivating a sense of connection.
Vaikla writes in the essay Beyond the Death-Driven Imaginary, published in the exhibition catalogue:
/…/ Environmental trauma, or body-land trauma, goes beyond a one-off event in the past: it can become a centuries-long process, manifested in the silence that prevails over entire communities, and in their inability to face the challenges of the present moment. The trauma that surfaces through repetition prompts a search to understand what our pain-ridden bodies might talk about. /…/
They Began to Talk continues the Kumu Contemporary Art Gallery’s programme of exhibitions on environmental themes, which began in 2023 with Art in the Age of the Anthropocene.
This is an international group exhibition featuring artworks by the following 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 Curator’s Tour is a part of the public programme of the exhibition They Began to Talk.
