Activities
2023
MNEMUS in Vabamu
From June 9, 2023, as a part of our project’s public outreach, a new audio journey opened at Museum of Occupations and Freedom Vabamu’s permanent exhibition titled From “such people” to LGBT activism. Stories from sexual and gender minorities in the 20th century Estonia. The curator of the new audio journey is Rebeka Põldsam, a doctoral student in ethnology at the University of Tartu. The new audio guide layer guides the exhibition visitor through the Vabamu permanent exhibition, drawing attention to some new and some old objects that help understand Estonia’s LGBT history.
Conference Post/Socialist Memory Cultures in Transition
On Sept 20-23, 2023 the international conference Post-Socialist Memory Cultures in Transition took place in Tallinn, co-organized by our project team.
The aim of the conference was to study the changes in post-socialist, especially Eastern, Central and South-East European memory cultures, which have emerged as a result of transnational, regional, national and local tensions and interactions, and have received a new direction since Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. One of the common themes of the conference was “Mnemonic pluralism and critical dialogue in museums”. In five panels discussing museum and memory work, researchers and museum workers from Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Estonia presented their research. A separate panel was devoted to the vulnerability and preservation of Ukrainian cultural heritage in war conditions. One of the plenary speakers at the conference was Erica Lehrer from Concordia University.
As the final event of the conference we initiated a discussion centred around Vabamu’s new audio journey “From ‘Such People’ to LGBT Activism”. Rebeka Põldsam and Kirsti Jõesalu introduced project and making of the audio journey, and lead the discussion around intervention .
The other organizers of the conference are Tallinn University Project Translated Memory: Eastern European Past on the Global Arena (ERC, Eneken Laanes) and the Working Group for Post-Socialist and Comparative Memory Studies (PoSoCoMeS).
Presentations in 2023
Ene Kõresaar, “Revisiting the Use of Life Stories in the Museum: a Baltic Perspective”, keynote presentation at the international seminar Oral histories, life stories and analysing significance in museums October 5-7, 2023, University of Turku (project Nordic voices: The use of oral history and personal memories in public history settings (2022-2024)).
Linara Dovydaitytė, “Collecting and Mediating Memories in the Museum:The Baltic case,” presentation at the 2nd PoSoCoMeS conference “Post-Socialist Memory Culture in Transition“, Tallinn University.
Ene Kõresaar, “Museum Memories after Post-Communism: Representing Soviet-time Collaboration in Baltic History Museums”, presentation at the 2nd PoSoCoMeS conference “Post-Socialist Memory Culture in Transition“, Sept 20-23, Tallinn University.
Kirsti Jõesalu & Ene Kõresaar, “Past migration – present communities: re-presenting the post-WWII migration and Russophone minority in Baltic history museums”, The Memory Studies Association Conference “Communities & Change”, July 3-7, 2023, Newcastle University UK.
On 15-17 June 2023 CBSE Turning Points: Values and Conflicting Futures in the Baltics took place in Kaunas, Lithuania. MNEMUS presented our work in the panel “Museum Practices as Memory Work” (June 17th):
- Linara Dovydaityte, How to Remember? Memory Mediation in Baltic Museums
- Margaret Comer, Dark Heritage in Tallinn: Memory Narratives at Museums of Soviet and Nazi Repression
- Ene Kõresaar, Curator as a Mnemonic Agent: How Baltic Curators Position Themselves in the Field of Remembering
- Jana Reidla, The Position and Practice of Baltic History Museums in the Collecting Work
2022
Fieldwork in 2022
On August 14-19, 2022, the MNEMUS working group conducted fieldwork in the Latvia to document and analyze the collection and exhibition activities of museums in reflecting the history of the 20th century. We visited several exhibitions both with and without a guide, documented certain exhibitions, and interviewed the staff managing collections and exhibitions, also heads of the museums. We were kindly welcomed at the Latvian Ethnographic Open Air Museum, Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, Tukums Museum, National History Museum, Latvian War Museum and Latvians Abroad – museum and research center.
Picture Gallery of the Latvia’s Fieldwork
On June 27- July 1, 2022, Linara Dovydaityte, Kirsti Jõesalu and Terje Anepaio conducted fieldwork in Tallinn and Ida-Virumaa. They visited Estonian Open Air museum and Patarei prison museum, in Tallinn, and Sillamäe museum, Kohtla-Nõmme Mining Museum and Kreenholm factory in Ida-Virumaa.
On February 8-10, 2022, Ene Kõresaar and Kirsti Jõesalu conducted fieldwork in Vilnius, Lithuania. The main aim was to visit and document the Homo Sovieticus exhibition opened at the end of 2021 in the Tuskulenai Memorial Park in Vilnius.
Presentations in 2022
On 1-2 December 2022, the 8th international symposium of the Finnish Oral History Network (FOHN) – AFTER: Time, Place & (Dis)Connections in Oral History & Life Storying took place at the University of Helsinki. Terje Anepaio, Kirsti Jõesalu and Jana Reidla presented a paper “Distant and familiar: researching colleagues in the Baltic history museums” on 1 December in the session (Dis)connections in Oral History Interview: Thinking of Time, Language, and Intersubjectivity.
On 13-14 October 2022, the MSA Nordic 2022 Conference in collaboration with The Centre for Studies in Memory and Literature Explorations in Counter-Memory, Reykjavik, Iceland. Ene Kõresaar and Kirsti Jõesalu presented a paper “Counter-Memory as ‘Another Kind of Responsibility’: Baltic Museums’ Negotiations with the Post-Communist Memory Regime”. See the Programme here.
On 19-21 October 2022, the conference „Recent history and its untold stories in open-air museums” took place at the Estonian Open Air Museum in Tallinn. Ene Kõresaar delivered a keynote speech “Museum making memories with life stories: (How) Does it work?” on 20 October.
On September 2, 2022, Jana Reidla and Ene Kõresaar presented a paper “Between ‘Heritage’ and ‘Stuff’: On the Function of Auxiliary Collections in Estonian Museums” at the SIEF Museums and Material Culture Working Group webinar “(In-)significant stuff. Museums and the flipside of meaning making”.
On June 13-16, 2022 The Nordic Ethnology and Folklore Conference “RE:” took place in Reykjavik. Ene Kõresaar and Kirsti Jõesalu presented in the panel “Minority Memories and Heritages in (Re)imagining Nations and Multinational Communities”.
On June 12-18, 2022 Baltic Museology School „Dealing with Difficult Heritage in Museums“ took place in Telsiai, Lithuania. Ene Kõresaar presented a paper „Museum, memory and ontological security: the case of Estonian Museum of Occupations and Freedom Vabamu“ (Online, June 13).
On May 26, Professor of Oral History and Memory Studies Ene Kõresaar delivered an inaugural lecture “Life stories as a memory work” in the White Hall of the UT Museum. See the Picture Gallery.
On May 19-20, Ene Kõresaar and Kirsti Jõesalu presented a paper Diversification and Alternative Subjectivities in Estonian Museums: Memory of Soviet Complicity Revisited at an international conference “Cultural Memory of Past Dictatorships: Narratives of Implication in a Global Perspective” organized by the University College Cork, Ireland.
On May 10.-11, 2022 the international conference “Museums as spaces of cultural translation and transfer” took place in Tartu, co-organized by the UT College of World Languages and Cultures and the University of Ghent. Ene Kõresaar was a member of the Scientific Council of the conference.
On March 9, 2022, was presentation of the book Friction, Fragmentation, and Diversity, edited by Kirsti Salmi-Niklander, Sofia Laine, Päivi Salmesvuori, Ulla Savolainen, Riikka Taavetti, Friction, Fragmentation, and Diversity. Localized Politics of European Memories (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, Heritage and Memory Studies series). With a chapter of Jõesalu, Kirsti and Kõresaar, Ene. Mitigating the Difficult Past? On the Politics of Renaming the Estonian Museum of Occupations.
On March 8, 2022, at the research seminar of the Estonian National Museum, Ene Kõresaar and Kirsti Jõesalu talked on a topic Museum from the point of view of a memory researcher: contradictory subject positions in the exhibition. They introduced the MNEMUS project, discussed the possibility of analyzing the interpretation of 20th century in exhibitions in a combination of memory theories and the methodology of social positioning. As an example, they discussed the representations of the Soviet agricultural leader in Estonian and Lithuanian museums.
On February 3, 2022 Terje Anepaio participated in the discussion “Presentation of Everyday Life in the GDR and ESSR in Museums” organized by the Estonian Embassy in Berlin (via Zoom). The discussion partner was Sören Marotz, the exhibition director of the GDR Museum, Berlin. The discussion was moderated by Ene Kõresaar.
Defenses in 2022
On January 27, 2022 Eliis Vaino defended the applied anthropological master’s project “Autistic child as a museum visitor on the example of the University of Tartu Museum”, supervisor Kirsti Jõesalu. The master’s project was completed in cooperation with the University of Tartu Museum. As part of a master’s project, Eliis Vaino presented recommendations to the museum on how to better organize a museum visit for autistic pupils. See photo here.
2021
Fieldwork in 2021
On September 3-9, 2021, the MNEMUS working group conducted fieldwork in Lithuania: in the museums of Vilnius and Kaunas. The main aim was to document and analyze the collection and exhibition activities of museums in reflecting the history of the 20th century. So, we visited several exhibitions both with and without a guide, we interviewed the members of the exhibition teams, the collection keepers and the leading staff of the museums.
We are grateful to the museums where we were kindly welcomed: Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fight, National Museum of Lithuania (including Old Arsenal, New Arsenal, House of Signatories, House of Histories), Vilnius Museum, Civic Education Centre, Kaunas City Museum (Mikas and Kipras Petrauskai Museum), Kaunas 9th Fort Museum, M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art (especially the community platform “Backup stories” at the Kaunas Picture Gallery, Great War Museum.
Picture Gallery of the Lithuania’s fieldwork
Conference presentations in 2021
December 6-7, 2021. Conference “Participation and Public Interpretations: How to Navigate Multiple Historical Narratives in Museums?“. Ene Kõresaar and Kirsti Jõesalu made presentation “Diversification of mnemonic discourses on Russophone minority in Estonian museums: is agonistic memory possible?”
July 5-9, 2021. Memory Studies Association (MSA) 5th conference ‘Convergences’; Warsaw (online). Ene Kõresaar and Kirsti Jõesalu made presentation “On museological representation of communism in Estonia: the role of Soviet collaborator”.
June 19-24, 2021. SIEF 15th Congress, Helsinki (online). Kirsti Jõesalu participated at the roundtable “In difficult heritage: whose rules, which community?”
June 15, 2021. Nordic Culture Point project’s Nordic Baltic Network of Life Writing webinar. Ene Kõresaar made presentation “Notes on the use of life stories in the museum: observations from Estonia and Latvia”.
June 3-4, 2021. ERC “Translating memories” workshop “Victims, Perpetrators and Implicated Subjects in Central and Eastern Europe”, Tallinn. Ene Kõresaar and Kirsti Jõesalu made presentation “Diversification and alternative subject positions. On museological representation of communism in Estonia”.
March 24-27, 2021. European Social Science History Conference (ESSCH), Leiden (online). Presentations: Kirsti Jõesalu “Oral History and NGOs-activism: educating and commemorating about 20th century history”; Ene Kõresaar “Revisiting the Use of Life Stories in the Museum: a Baltic Perspective”; Terje Anepaio “Let our stories be in the museum, too! Collecting memories of Russian speaking miners in Estonia”.
Meeting of the International Advisory Board in Tartu and Tallinn 17.-19. August 2021
The first meeting of the Council included joint seminars and museum visits. MNEMUS project leader Ene Kõresaar introduced the project to the Advisory Board. Member of the MNEMUS project Jana Reidla, presented her doctoral dissertation on museum research, which was to be defended on August 27. The board members visited the new permanent exhibitions of the University of Tartu Museum, the Estonian National Museum, the Museum of Occupations and Freedom (Vabamu), and the Estonian History Museum with in-depth guided tours by the leading curators of the respective museums. At the final seminar, the members of the Board gave valuable feedback comparing the recent shifts in museums in Baltic countries. It was agreed to hold the next Board seminar in spring 2023.
