The 1990s in the post-Soviet countries were characterised by a particular sense of density and polyarchy. This was emphasised by the emergence and adoption of new ways of thinking, the concentration of time and the intensification of cultural activity, the testing of limits and radical possibilities, and the enmeshing of political and cultural practices. Although at first sight similar, these processes unfolded with significant local differences. The events setting off or determining the course of these processes did not occur entirely simultaneously and had different outlets; they were brought about by various historical developments, and cultural conditions and interests. Several processes started in the second half of the 1980s or even earlier. Among the cultural spheres – theatre, visual arts, literature, music and the humanities – these processes intensified and established social connections differently. On closer inspection, the imaginary unity of time and space in the 1990s was fractured by singularities and differences. A set of politically significant turning points, institutional configurations and art events, artworks and texts that resonated outside the cultural sphere all played a role. The intensity of such events is precisely what erodes a coherent view of the 1990s.
The planned seminar invites participants to reflect on:
– what linked and what distinguished the cultural politics in the 1990s in the Baltic countries; – what methods could be used to examine the post-Soviet culture of the 1990s;
– what the transgressive tendencies were that undercut the fabric of the imaginary unity between different cultural spheres.
As one of the starting points, we propose the concept of the democratisation of the aesthetic field. The democracy of the aesthetic field conditions what is possible (visible, expressible and doable) within a new cultural situation and shapes who determines the meanings in cultural communication. This allows us to consider various aesthetic discrepancies – discordances, interferences and conflicts between different elements – as parts of the broader politics of aesthetics within the same dynamic cultural situation. The process of democratisation also involved a new organisation of the relations between the private and public spheres. Concurrently, the seminar focuses on individual events and works which resonated beyond the cultural sphere, exposing tensions and rifts in society, and prompting public discussions or even animosity towards culture. The capacity of such cultural acts and events to transfigure social reality may have been unintentional but could have also been motivated by a certain utopian intention, inevitably raising the question of the democratic position of culture in contemporary society.
The seminar “Cultural heterologies and democracy” will take place in Viinistu, in northern Estonia, on 17–19 August 2021. The presentations will last 20 minutes. Please notify us of your desire to participate and submit your abstract by 20 April at the latest by contacting mari.laaniste@artun.ee or virve.sarapik@artun.ee.
Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words in length. Participation is free and the organisers will provide accommodation and meals in Viinistu (at the Viinistu hotel and conference centre, https://viinistu.ee/?lang=en). Participation will be confirmed in early May 2021.
The seminar is being organised by the Research Group of Contemporary Estonian Culture, which unites scholars from the Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn University and the University of Tartu. The research is funded by the project PRG636 “Patterns of Development in Estonian Culture of the Transition Period (1986–1998).”
Program:
August 17
Arrivals and registration
1 pm to 2 pm – Lunch
First panel
Chair: Jaak Tomberg
2 pm to 2.45 pm – Epp Annus, Scaling Change.
2.45 pm to 3.15 pm – Juhan Saharov, The Birth of Alternative Politics in Soviet Estonia (1986-88)
3.15 pm to 3.45 pm – Eglė Juocevičiūtė, Same Problems, Different Solutions: Cinema, Music, Art and Theatre in Lithuania 1985-1995
3.45 pm to 4.15 pm – Coffee break
Second panel
Chair: Mari Laaniste
4.15 pm to 4.45 pm – Viktorija Jonkute, The Discourse of the Revival in the Lithuanian and Latvian Cultural Press During 1988–1992
4.45 pm to 5.15 pm – Ieva Astahovska, Mapping the Transformations in Latvian and Baltic Art in the 1990s and Later Decades
5.15 pm to 5.45 pm – Virve Sarapik and Alo Paistik, Ethnofuturism among Futurisms
5.45 pm to 7 pm – Free time
7 pm – Dinner
August 18
First panel
Chair: Viktorija Jonkute
9 am to 9.30 am – Kārlis Vērdiņš and Jānis Ozoliņš, Tolerance, National Culture, and Queerness in Post-Soviet Latvia
9.30 to 10 am – Piret Viires, The First Manifestations of Queer Literature in Post-Soviet Estonia: Paradoxes and Ambiguity
10 am to 10.30 am – Maija Burima, Perestroika and Power Constellations in Arno Jundze’s Prose
10.30 am to 11 am – Coffee break
Second panel
Chair: Piret Viires
11 am to 11.30 am – Dalia Satkauskytė, Before Explosion: Projections of Lithuanian Literary field in 1988 (on the material on literary review Pergalė)
11.30 am to 12 pm – Joosep Susi, The Transformation of Subjectivity in Estonian Poetry of the 1990s
12 pm to 2 pm – Tour in the Viinistu Art Museum and free time
2 pm to 3 pm – Lunch
Third panel
Chair: Eva-Liisa Linder
3 pm to 3.30 pm – Lauma Mellēna-Bartkeviča, A Decade That Shook the World – Latvian National Opera and the 1990s and 2000s from today’s perspective
3.30 pm to 4 pm – Luule Epner, Between Past and Future: Aesthetic Innovation in Estonian Independent Theatre Field in 1987–1992
4 pm to 4.30 pm – Zane Kreicberga, Baltic Theatre Festivals in the 1990s as Agents of Change. The Case of Homo Novus
4.30 pm to 5 pm – Coffee break
Fourth panel
Chair: Neeme Lopp
5 pm to 5.30 pm – Loreta Mačianskaitė, Aesthetic Identities of the Younger Generation of Lithuanians in the 1990s
5.30 pm to 6 pm – Anneli Saro, Diffusion as the Process of Democratisation in Estonian Theatre at the Turn of the 1990s
6 pm to 6.30 pm – Tõnis Kahu, Art Ideology in Soviet Estonian Popular Music and its Demystification in the 1990s
7.30 pm – Dinner
August 19
First panel
Chair: Ieva Astahovska
9 am to 9.30 am – Krista Kodres, Democratising Estonian Art History in the 1990s: Critical Art Historiography in the Making
9.30 am to 10 am – Karolina Łabowicz-Dymanus, The Fine Art of Financing Arts in the Early 1990s
10 am to 10.30 am – Līna Birzaka-Priekule, Curating 90s. The Case of the Exhibition “Gone Crazy / Roof Gone” in kim? Contemporary Art Center in Riga
10.30 am to 10.45 am – Break
Second panel
Chair: Alo Paistik
10.45 am to 11.15 am – Ingrid Ruudi, Heterogeneous Publics and Public Spheres at the Freedom square
11.15 am to 11.45 am – Teet Teinemaa, “You have not heard this story before”: Nostalgia, Different Temporalities, and Meeting the Western Gaze in the TV series “Bank” (2018)
11.45 am to 12.30 pm – Coffee break
12.30 pm to 1.30 pm – Roundtable discussion: Revisiting Postmodernism in the Baltics
Chair: Jaak Tomberg
Participants:
Andres Kurg
Eglė Juocevičiūtė
Epp Annus
Ieva Astahovska
Piret Viires
1.30 pm to 1.45 pm – Closing words
1.45 pm to 2.45 pm – Lunch
3.30 pm – A walk on Pärispea peninsula
Departures