Anna-Stina Treumund: How to Recognise a Lesbian?

Anna-Stina Treumund: How to Recognise a Lesbian? is the largest ever exhibition of the pioneering Estonian queer-feminist artist Anna-Stina Treumund’s (1982–2017) works, opening at the Kumu Art Museum on September 4, 2025.

Treumund was a photographer, contemporary artist and activist, whose oeuvre is still impactful today. She was the first in Estonia to clearly integrate her artist’s position with the experience of being a lesbian. Her art projects of the 2000s and 2010s were seminal in the Estonian art scene and the feminist movement. The exhibition also features works by artists who influenced her the most, such as Marju Mutsu and Kai Kaljo, and sets up dialogues between her oeuvre and that of the young artists Janina Sabaliauskaitė from Lithuania and Elo Vahtrik and Maria Izabella Lehtsaar from Estonia, who continue exploring queer and feminist topics in their art practices.

Curators Piret Karro-Arrak and Magdaleena Maasik about the artist:
“Anna-Stina Treumund’s creative journey began in the early 2000s at Tartu Art College, where she studied photography and dealt mainly with issues of identity and complex interpersonal and family relationships. She used intimate (self-)portraits to pose existential questions about self-image and belonging, and explored the meanings of such goals in a woman’s life as creating a family and becoming a mother. Continuing her studies at the photography department in the Estonian Academy of Arts, Treumund focused even more on topics related to gender and sexuality. She also established herself as a queer activist. Her first big solo exhibition, You, Me and Everyone We Don’t Know, held in the Tallinn Art Hall Gallery in 2010, initiated a broader discussion of the politics of the representation of lesbians in Estonia. Over time, her recognisably queer-feminist visual language expanded to installations and three-dimensionality. This tendency was particularly visible at her solo exhibition M’s Wet Dream, which opened in the Tartu Art Museum at the end of 2016: it dealt with women’s sexuality and BDSM as one of the most radical practices critical of patriarchy.“

Throughout the exhibition period the public program named Activism School will take place as well. Treumund has said that "you cannot accomplish anything with just art". Inspired by this message, her activism and oeuvre, Kumu will bring together a series of events, including various practical, educational and theoretical workshops. The aim is to provide participants with tools to enable civic activism to grow in Estonia at a time when (international) human rights are under threat, the climate crisis looms large, and inequality is on the rise.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication.

Artists: Anna-Stina Treumund, Maria Izabella Lehtsaar, Janina Sabaliauskaitė, Elo Vahtrik, Kai Kaljo, Marju Mutsu, Joosep Kivimäe, Piibe Kolka

Curators: Piret Karro-Arrak, Magdaleena Maasik, Triin Tulgiste-Toss (1987–2024)
Exhibition design: Marge Monko
Graphic design: Lilli-Krõõt Repnau
Layout: Tuuli Aule
Installation manager: Andres Amos
Coordinator: Johanna Jolen Kuzmenko
Consultant: Rebeka Põldsam
Public and educational programmes: Maari Hinsberg, Frederik Klanberg, Maria Lota Lumiste

Exhibition team: Richard Adang, Nele Ambos, Tanel Asmer, Kaarel Eelma, Pärtel Eelma, Erik Hallik, Erik Hõim, Mihkel Kosk, Ketlin Käpp, Tõnis Medri, Reigo Nahksepp, Kaisa-Piia Pedajas, Johann Põldra, Renita Raudsepp, Brigita Reinert, Mati Schönberg, Laura Tahk, Terje Tammearu, Inga Tislar, Madli Valk

We thank: Tartu Art Museum, Rotermann Clinic, Maire Treumund, Barbara Treumund, Gertrud Treumund, Riinu Rahuoja, Brigitta Davidjants, Bruno Kadak, Kadri Kallaste, Karin Karindi, Dagmar Kase, Aet Kuusik, Nele Laos, Tanja Muravskaja, Kristina Paju, Tiina Põllu, Jaanus Samma, Killu Sukmit, Mare Tralla, Airi Triisberg, Tanel Veenre, Helen Volber