Author Description

From the first song festival through the Singing Revolution and beyond, music has played a fundamental role in Estonian history, culture and identity. But if every bird has its own song, as the Estonian saying goes, what of the artist? What is the role of the painter in a society of "singing people"? This exhibition explores such questions, revealing how music and sound --from the ancient strumming of Vanemuine's golden kannel and chants of regilaulud to the modern clatter of cafés and the abstraction of the Jazz Age -- have transformed modern visual culture in Estonia.