Abstract
The main museums in Estonia and Latvia have lately staged new exhibitions that proceed from a contemporary museological approach and reflect the results of historical research. The article compares three cases which present alternative but complementary interpretations of the Soviet period. The authors pay special attention to the application of the biographical method prominent in contemporary cultural research, and the museological method of multivocality. They conclude that in the case of multivocality, effectively addressing different visitor groups is a great challenge to curators. There is a risk that the simplified mediation of contradictory memories and views will leave a gap for visitors with less prior knowledge about the subject of the exhibition. In large exhibition teams, the curator has a crucial role to play in negotiating with team members to prevent the concept from dispersing. In the cases studied, it is possible to observe the curators’ views and detect a similar attempt to interpret complex topics through biographies. The analysis concludes that in the context of contemporary museological approaches, the voice of the curator remains essential, especially when mediating exhibits, for they cannot speak for themselves.
Highlights
Before the recent centenaries of the independent states, some new large-scale exhibitions opened in Estonia and Latvia in which the treatment of Soviet-period history took a fresh approach, in accordance with some aspects of the modern museology discourse
The main museums in Estonia and Latvia have lately staged new exhibitions that proceed from a contemporary museological approach and reflect the results of historical research
We were more aware of the reviews and interviews published in the Estonian press, so in the case of Latvia we interviewed the curators ourselves and relied on the extensive catalogue
Summary
Before the recent centenaries of the independent states, some new large-scale exhibitions opened in Estonia and Latvia in which the treatment of Soviet-period history took a fresh approach, in accordance with some aspects of the modern museology discourse. More professional and research-based exhibitions in central state museums, which focused on aspects related to everyday life in the Soviet period: design, food and youth culture.. The main research issue is the comparison of how the Soviet period as a topical and contested field of research in post-socialist societies is displayed From this viewpoint, museum exhibitions were studied incomprehensively, and mainly from the point of view of political history and consumption.. Ten experienced museum researchers discussed all the essential issues jointly, but one of them participated in all the meetings devoted to sub-topics (for example, with designers), in order to keep the focus on the initial concept, and edited texts for the exhibition. The chief curator was the exhibitions manager of the museum, and, in addition, the team involved three younger-generation historians with doctoral degrees, a dramaturgist, and a communications expert.. The chief curator was the exhibitions manager of the museum, and, in addition, the team involved three younger-generation historians with doctoral degrees, a dramaturgist, and a communications expert. The new permanent exhibition was meant to express the reinterpretation of the museum, with the aim of attracting younger audiences and highlighting contemporary socially relevant topics, instead of looking back to the past. The building of the museum was still new and modern, but the exhibition was redesigned, and with the extension of the displays to the basement floor, the exhibition space doubled
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