Tanja Muravskaya’s exhibition “The Word of the Soul” opens at the Russian Museum in Tallinn

Text Timo Huttunen
Photo Pamela Tulizo

The exhibition “The Word of the Soul” by Tanja Muravskaya opened at the Russian Museum in Tallinn on January 13. The exhibition is a look at Russian-speaking Estonians that reflects several processes that have taken place and are taking place in Estonian society.

The unique impacts of time and culture are reflected in the mother tongue of the Estonian Russian community, which indicates a clear expression of Estonian Russian identity. The exhibition has been compiled in collaboration with the Russian-speaking community and the Russian Museum in Tallinn.

“Throughout the collaboration between the museum and the friends of the museum over the past year, we have collected over a hundred of the most relevant words. Several words were repeated, indicating common values. There were also many surprising discoveries, new unfamiliar words that testify to Estonia’s cultural, national and linguistic diversity, ”says Tanja Muravskaja, the curator and artist of the exhibition.

Commonly used words included мама (mother), доченька (daughter), батя (father), красотуля (beauty), and уют (comfort). There were also relevant words related to a family’s past, moving or studying outside Estonia, such as поребрик (roadside), хутор (farm), рубль (ruble).

The installation, based on the words collected and related stories, forms part of the exhibition. The exhibition also features works by artists related to Estonia. Paintings and graphic magazines open up the cultural-historical context of the use of the Russian language in Estonia. This is reflected in the conceptual works of Raul Meele and Ilya Kabakov, as well as in the satire of Alexei Gordin.

The artists displayed in the exhibition are: Alexei Gordin, Kuzja Zverev, Ilya Kabakov, Sandra Kosortova, Raul Meel, Boriss Uvarov, Evi Pärn, Tanja Muravskaya.

The exhibition will be open until September. The Tallinn Russian Museum is located in the Old Town, at Pikk 29a.

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Exhibition Old town Russian-speaking Estonians Russian Language Russian Museum Russian Museum Tallinn Tallinn Tanja Muravskaya