The Kumu courtyard fills with Latin American music, food and stories

On Saturday, 31 August, the Kumu Art Museum is hosting a Latin American-themed Courtyard Festival, in collaboration with the Latin American community in Estonia. The event is linked to the current exhibition of Latin American art in Kumu’s Great Hall, and seeks to highlight the cultural richness and diversity of this vast and fascinating region.

“Kumu’s exhibitions are always accompanied by thematic events. With the Latin American exhibition, we knew right away that a festival-like event would be a perfect addition to the exhibition programme, especially in cooperation with the local Latin American community. The Estonian Latin American community is very active and vibrant, and was a great help in putting together the festival programme,” said Maria Lota Lumiste, the curator of Kumu’s public programmes and initiator of the courtyard festival.

In addition to food and music, the festival will feature various workshops and activities, and, of course, everyone is invited to see the impressive Latin American art exhibition. In the workshops, you can learn different techniques of braiding yarn, make yourself a small piñata with the instructor, Merari, and take a crash course in Mexican cuisine with the archaeologist and Mayan food culture researcher, Lisseth Pedroza. Together, we will break open a giant piñata and play loteria bingo.

Throughout the day, there will be short presentations and guided tours of the exhibition History and Mystery: Latin American Art and Europe and the accompanying exhibition of works by Leonora Carrington. In addition, you are invited to a talk on the TV series The Wild Rose, which captivated the Estonian audience in the early 1990s and sparked a significant wave of Latin American soap operas. The discussion will be led by Liis Nimik and Kristen Aigro, the producer and the director, respectively, of a new documentary exploring the phenomenon of The Wild Rose. In the Kumu auditorium, you can watch the documentary Los Exóticos (2013) about lucha libre wrestling, where competitors perform in drag. At 7 pm. everyone will be able to test their knowledge and learn something new in a Latin American-themed quiz led by Siim Boikov.

Music will be playing in the Kumu courtyard all day. DJ Jorge Hinojosa will kick the day off, setting the mood and teaching people how to dance to Latin rhythms. At 6 pm. Timuti 8, an international group of musicians based in Estonia, will take the stage. Active for the past three years, they blend Latin, funk and folk rhythms in improvisational jam sessions. The evening will conclude with sets by DJ Tropical Tallinn and DJ Tumbaco.

Local Latin American caterers will also gather in the Kumu courtyard, offering a variety of authentic flavours. The Secret Mexican Society will serve traditional Mexican tacos, while Bueno Gourmet will feature North and South American street food, Viva Latin Food will be cooking Venezuelan arepas, empanadas and tequeños, and Cachina Market will offer Latin American snacks and sauces. For those with a sweet tooth, Sugar Bliss Cakes will provide Brazilian sweets. Drinks will be available from the Hulkur travelling bar.

The festival day will run from 12 noon to 9 pm, and the exhibition of Latin American art in the Kumu Great Hall will also be open until 9 pm. The events in the courtyard and the museum’s atrium are free of charge. A museum ticket is required to visit the exhibitions and take part in the guided tours, and there is a separate entrance fee for workshops.

The exhibition History and Mystery: Latin American Art and Europe and the accompanying display of Leonora Carrington’s works mark the first time that Latin American art has been shown on such a large scale in Estonia. The exhibition includes works from two different periods: 17th-19th century paintings from the Spanish colonial period, and 20th century modernist artists from Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela. The exhibition was organised in collaboration with The Phoebus Foundation in Antwerp and is open until 3 November.

More information about the Kumu Courtyard Festival is available on the event website.