The research project, initiated and organised by the Art Museum of Estonia, is a starting point and first stage of a broader goal of reactivating interdisciplinary research and networks regarding Estonian art in the first half of the 20th century. The project is meant to function as an active meeting space for researchers from Estonia, Norway, Latvia, Finland, Sweden etc. One of the aims of the project is to activate cross-disciplinary cooperation between different institutions, such as museums and universities.
Focusing on the relations between Scandinavia and Baltic countries, we see the project as a process of building up the research network, led by moderators of research groups, with the meetings, discussions, lectures etc. held in different institutions in Estonia and Norway. For further cooperation, joint research and curatorial initiatives, the research and network project aims to bring together topics and themes that are currently being worked on or are up-coming among the researchers of the period.
Nowadays, from the Estonian point of view, examining the contexts and developments in Scandinavian and Estonian culture during the period of modernisation and nation building requires a systematic and interdisciplinary approach, highlighting new views, comparisons and topics, as well as goals for further research.
The main goal of the project is to encourage studies of the entire period. The researchers are expected to take an interdisciplinary approach and focus on themes that lead to comparative analysis between Scandinavia and Baltic countries. Particular importance should be given to topics that draw connections between studies in art history and other relevant and important fields, such as history, sociology, the history of ideas, gender, cultural nationalism, critical theory and ecocriticism.
Expected focus topics: visual culture and the construction of national identities (e.g. transnational nationalism, and the role of folk culture and folklore), women, ethnic and racial minorities, the body, gender and sexuality, migration, war, class and visual culture, the environment and ecocriticism, relationships with place and location, and landscape experience.
Project coordinator:
Liis Pählapuu
In collaboration with:
Lillehammer Art Museum, Estonian Academy of Arts and Tartu University
