Kumu exhibition Expedition explores how Estonians became Finno-Ugric
On 2 October, Kumu Art Museum will open the exhibition Expedition: Finno-Ugrians and the Power of Images. The exhibition explores Estonians’ relationship with Finno-Ugric Indigenous peoples, asking why ethnographic research into other Indigenous peoples became a form of self-exploration for Estonians in the 1970s and 1980s. The exhibition is being curated by Linda Kaljundi, with Eha Komissarov and Bart Pushaw as curatorial consultants.
The exhibition brings into dialogue the Finno-Ugric collections of the Estonian National Museum, ethnographic drawings and photographs produced by students of the State Art Institute of the Estonian SSR (today the Estonian Academy of Arts) during their Finno-Ugric expeditions, and works of art, film and design inspired by Finno-Ugric heritage. The contemporary artists Karl Joonas Alamaa and Jaanus Samma, who also designed the exhibition, respond to this heritage through their own artistic interventions.
Alongside well-known works by Kaljo Põllu, Lennart Meri and Veljo Tormis, the exhibition showcases the works of many other authors, including women artists and students who participated in the expeditions, offering a broad range of perspectives on Indigenous peoples.
“Although being Finno-Ugric may seem like an unquestionable part of Estonian identity today, this understanding only became widespread in the 1970s and 1980s. It was shaped by both academic research and the increasing prominence of Finno-Ugric heritage in Estonian culture: in film, art, music and other fields. This Finno-Ugric ‘turn’ is also significant in a broader context, as interest in Indigenous cultures was growing globally at the time,” said the exhibition curator Linda Kaljundi.
According to Kaljundi, research into Indigenous cultures elsewhere in the world was driven in part by the energy and environmental crises, which prompted people to look to Indigenous communities for solutions to the problems of the modern world. “The same energy shortages, however, also led to the expansion of the oil and gas industries into Finno-Ugric territories. Estonians’ expeditions of the period could also be considered in the context of the historical tradition of expeditions, which were intertwined with colonial conquest and colonial science,” the curator added.
As part of the exhibition’s opening programme, a two-day conference, Giving Voice to Museum Collections: Finno-Ugric and Sámi Heritage Today, will take place on 2–3 October at the Estonian Academy of Arts and the Estonian National Museum. On Thursday, 8 October at 5.30 pm, the exhibition will host a guided tour led by the curator Linda Kaljundi and the Estonian National Museum researchers Svetlana Karm and Piret Koosa. The tour will be followed at 6.30 pm by a discussion moderated by Joonas Hellerma.
The exhibition Expedition: Finno-Ugrians and the Power of Images has been created in dialogue with the exhibition no beginning, no end: Decolonial Gestures in Sámi Worldbuilding, which opened at Kumu in mid-September (11 September 2026–14 March 2027, curated by Ann Mirjam Vaikla). Both exhibitions are part of a multi-year research project examining our relationships with Indigenous peoples and how these relationships have shaped Estonians’ self-image. The exhibitions are accompanied by a catalogue edited by the curators and featuring contributions by a number of authors from Arctic Indigenous communities, as well as Estonian writers and researchers. The catalogue is complemented by the reader Collected Relationships: The Sámi-Finno-Ugric-Estonian Nexus, published in collaboration with the Estonian Academy of Arts, which provides deeper insights into several themes addressed in the exhibitions. The exhibition is accompanied by a public and educational programme.
The exhibitions Expedition: Finno-Ugrians and the Power of Images and no beginning, no end: Decolonial Gestures in Sámi Worldbuilding explore the interconnections between identity, power and visual culture. In this respect, they can be seen as continuations of several earlier exhibition projects at Kumu Art Museum, including History in Images, Image in History (2018), The Conqueror’s Eye (2019), Art or Science (2022), Art in the Age of the Anthropocene (2023) and They Began to Speak (2025).
Expedition: Finno-Ugrians and the Power of Images is on view on the third floor of Kumu Art Museum from 2 October 2026 to 21 February 2027.
Curator: Linda Kaljundi
Curatorial consultants: Eha Komissarov and Bart Pushaw
Exhibition design and artistic interventions: Karl Joonas Alamaa and Jaanus Samma
Graphic design: Jojo&me stuudio (Martina Gofman and Johanna Ruukholm)
Coordinator: Inga Jaagus
Exhibition manager: Andres Amos
Technical manager: Mati Schönberg
Public programme: Maria Lota Lumiste
Education programme: Frederik Klanberg
Art studios: Maari Hinsberg
In collaboration with and with the support of:
Estonian National Museum, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonian Ministry of Culture, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, WOH and the US Government Fulbright Exchange Program