Understanding the Possible Narratives of Estonian Refugee Art 

• In Event: Baltic Artistic Reactions to Social and Political Issues

Abstract

The late summer and autumn of 1944 marked a turning point in the history of Estonia and the entire Baltic region, and the beginning of refugee culture. In fear of the Soviet occupation, approximately 80,000 people, the majority of the Estonian cultural elite fled Estonia to the West (mainly to Germany and Sweden), not knowing when they could return home, if at all. The refugee crisis that took place in Europe during the Second World War is not dissimilar from that of today – both can be seen as a response to the political situation and war.

This research focused on refugee camps in Germany in the US Zone between 1945 and 1950, where approximately 50 visual artists from Estonia lived. Their artistic life in the first five years of exile in post-war Germany, was extremely lively. In this study, refugee art was viewed through the specific conditions of exile. In other words, an attempt was made to find connections between the tragedy of having to escape, the loss of homeland, the post-war political situation, life in a foreign environment and art making. In addition, it is important to consider the concept of collective exile, which, compared to individual exile, enabled the refugees to continue their former life in some form and organise themselves as a single cultural and national group.

This research observed the connections between trauma (escape and exile), collective nationhood (national political missions) and a foreign environment (living in a new country) in the case of refugee art. This research highlights different possible narratives of Estonian refugee art (1945–50) in Germany – national identity: a continuation of the Estonian culture and the fight for the homeland;  post-traumatic expression: the traumatic experience of flight; the new environment – paintings of German landscapes and cities and the influence of German and Western European modernism.

Short Bio

Triin Metsla is an art historian, lecturer and PhD student from Estonian Academy of Arts. As a curator and art historian, her main interests concern exile studies, historiography and environmental humanities. She defended her MA-thesis on exile art of Estonian refugee artists after WWII at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2018. At the moment she is completing her PhD studies and focusing on questions of decanonizing art history and questions regarding historiographical processes. Her recent and upcoming curatorial projects concern the conceptual turn surrounding post- and transhumanism.

Author

• Triin Metsla, Estonian Academy of Arts