Abstract
This article reflects on the current explanatory value of concepts such as postsocialism and Eastern Europe by exploring how they are represented in contemporary art projects in Estonia. Through an overview of recent exhibitions in which I collaborated with local artists and curators, the research considers generational differences in relation to cultural discourses of the postsocialist experience. Methodologically, artists and curators were not simply my informants in the field, but makers of analytical knowledge themselves in their practice. Exhibitions were also approached as contact zones, whereby new cultural forms are simultaneously reflected and constructed. Critically, this inquiry gathers new ways of representing and conceptualising cultural changes in Estonia and novel perspectives of interpreting the relations to the Soviet past. The focus is put on art practice because of its capacity of bringing together global and local frames of reference simultaneously. The research also draws attention to the inbetweenness of the first post-Soviet generation (those born near the time of the breakup of the USSR); they are revising established cultural forms as well as historical representations through mixing practices, and therefore updating traditional ideas of identity and attachment to places.
Highlights
This article reflects on the current explanatory value of concepts such as postsocialism and Eastern Europe by exploring how they are represented in contemporary art projects in Estonia
What is the actual content of the term ‘postsocialism’ in Estonia? We can even ask if Eastern Europe and postsocialism remain as generative concepts to be retained; if they brought any theoretical advance whatsoever (Hann 2006); and how these categories are nowadays used by the local population, paying attention to how the natives of postsocialism analyse their own condition (Verdery 2002)
The research draws on the assumption that both media discourses and academic analyses of postsocialism have put most of the emphasis on discussing the responsibility of the younger generations towards the past, and too little attention has been given to matters of agency regarding how analytical concepts and the interpretation of the Soviet past can be updated by them
Summary
What is the actual content of the term ‘postsocialism’ in Estonia? We can even ask if Eastern Europe and postsocialism remain as generative concepts to be retained; if they brought any theoretical advance whatsoever (Hann 2006); and how these categories are nowadays used by the local population, paying attention to how the natives of postsocialism analyse their own condition (Verdery 2002). This article deals with the issue of revising current understandings of post-socialism. It builds on the existing literature on the topic adding generational and artistic dimensions to the discussion. This article tries to fill such a lack, examining how young people reshape the global influences and cultural products in the local context while updating existing concepts and representations. It demonstrates that urban young people in Estonia show a rich ability to mix cultural forms and move between different communities. As noted by curator Anders Härm (2018), art practice became a bottom-up platform through which new ideas were made felt (with meaningful exhibitionary narratives), as well as an institutional device of ideological interpellation supported through political, financial and cultural infrastructures (i.e., the Soros Centre for Contemporary Arts)
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