They Began to Talk

They Began to Talk is an international group exhibition opening at the Kumu Art Museum on February 7, 2025. It takes the intertwinement of the body and the environment as its point of departure to observe how experiences, cultural knowledge, and skills migrate across generations, amid rapid environmental change and inequality. Through the work of contemporary artists and exhibits from the museum’s collection, the exhibition asks: How do we remember, as the current generation, when what has been passed on to us is silence?

The exhibition brings together artists working in Estonia and the Baltics with those belonging to Indigenous communities in the Nordic countries, and explores the possibility of cultivating a felt sense of connection between body and land. This connection is evident in environmental trauma: sudden changes in the physical environment, often caused by human activity, evoke mental suffering amongst land-based communities. This trauma is often expressed as pauses, delays, and wordlessness.

Curator Hanna Laura Kaljo says: “Artists such as Pia Arke (Kalaaleq-Danish), Outi Pieski (Sámi), and Mia Tamme (Estonian) guide us towards a wider understanding of who has the ability and the right to speak, what is the knowledge being expressed, and how acts of remembering and knowledge transfer take place. The body has a central role here.”

Curator Ann Mirjam Vaikla adds: “They Began to Talk invites us to reflect on environmental change through the lens of colonial history and its lasting impact. The exhibition forms a speech which ends a deafening silence, giving voice to marginalised perspectives, including those of the more-than-human world, as reflected in the works of Eglė Budvytytė, Merike Estna, and Sasha Tishkov.”

The public programme encourages embodied engagement and forms an integral part of the exhibition. The opening week will feature exhibition tours with curators and exhibited artists, the participatory performance AudioSwarm: Geofractions by John Grzinich, as well as a conversation between the curators, the artist Ruth Maclennan, and the sociologist Outi Autti. Dance performance Choreographies of Hugging: Variation (2024) by Eline Selgis and Sofia Filippou, along with ecosomatic tours led by Joanna Kalm, will take place throughout the exhibition period. In collaboration with the Estonian Academy of Arts, writer and scholar Macarena Gómez-Barris will deliver a public lecture in May on decolonial approaches to artistic practice.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication.

They Began to Talk will remain open until August 3, 2025.

Artists: Pia Arke, Eglė Budvytytė, Merike Estna, Sofia Filippou & Eline Selgis, John Grzinich, Joanna Kalm, Johann Köler, Ruth Maclennan, Outi Pieski & Biret Haarla Pieski & Gáddjá Haarla Pieski, Mia Tamme, Sasha Tishkov, and Vive Tolli

Curators: Ann Mirjam Vaikla, Hanna Laura Kaljo
Exhibition design: Kaarel Eelma
Graphic design: Tuuli Aule
Technical manager: Siim Hiis
Technical support: Mati Schönberg
Coordinator: Anastassia Langinen