Kumu to Present Sámi Art Attracting Growing International Attention

Opening on 11 September at the Kumu Art Museum’s Contemporary Art Gallery, the group exhibition no beginning, no end: Decolonial Gestures in Sámi Worldbuilding focusses on the Sámi people’s struggle for sovereignty over their land, language and culture. The exhibition is being curated by Ann Mirjam Vaikla, with Jenni Laiti as a curatorial consultant.

The politicisation of Sámi art began in the 1960s and 1970s, alongside the Sámi self-determination movement. Over the past decade, Sámi art has once again gained widespread international attention, and the voices of Sámi artists have formed one of the most prominent and dynamic forces in contemporary Nordic art. The exhibition features works by pioneers of socially and politically engaged Sámi art, as well as artists of the younger generation. Among the internationally acclaimed artists represented are Britta Marakatt-Labba, Hans Ragnar Mathisen and Outi Pieski.

The exhibition features two brand new works born out of the Kumu Art Museum’s collaboration with the artists and created especially for the exhibition. Pauliina Feodoroff, who exhibited her work at the Sámi Pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale, has created a map of the Kola Peninsula in collaboration with Kaisu Mustonen. The work explores how the artist’s family, despite the violence exerted by power structures in Russia and the Nordic countries, has reclaimed traditional practices of land use. The installation also incorporates Sámi objects on loan from the collection of the Estonian National Museum. The kinetic video installation Voyage is a collaboration between the artist and activist Jenni Laiti and the art collective Invisible Flock. The work examines the self-serving policies and practices of the Norwegian nation-state in Sámi ancestral lands, highlighting their far-reaching consequences, from environmental degradation to the disruption of communities’ traditional ways of life.

The curator, Ann Mirjam Vaikla, says she was particularly inspired by the co-curator Jenni Laiti’s thoughts around Indigenous worldbuilding. “Can we speak of worldbuilding in an era when the environmental and climate crisis coincides with the rise of authoritarian leaders whose imperialist and colonialist world-views have destabilised entire regions and led to a level of militarisation not seen since the Cold War? One example of this is Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has also affected the preparation of our exhibition, making it impossible to involve the remaining Sámi community on the Kola Peninsula, as well as other Indigenous Finno-Ugric peoples living in Russia,” says Vaikla.

The exhibition’s education and public programme focuses on the theme of power, recognising that the stories of Indigenous peoples are inseparable from the broader power structures that produce inequality. At the centre of the exhibition is the installation Palvõ (Prayer), created in collaboration with the artist Ketlin Kuusing, based in Tallinn, and the Seto region in south-eastern Estonia. The east-facing space, made of gauze fabric, serves as a gathering place for participants in the exhibition’s education and public programmes. The colour red holds an important place in both Seto and Sámi Indigenous cosmologies, symbolising protection. It helps create a safe and enriching learning environment for examining power and imagining more equitable ways of living together. The first workshop, Words That Speak of Power, will take place on 12 September as part of the opening programme.

no beginning, no end: Decolonial Gestures in Sámi Worldbuilding has been created in dialogue with the exhibition Expedition: Finno-Ugrians and the Power of Images, which opens at Kumu in early October (2 October 2026 – 21 February 2027; curator: Linda Kaljundi). Both are part of a multi-year research project examining Estonians’ relationships with Indigenous peoples and the impacts of these relationships on Estonians’ self-image.

The exhibitions are accompanied by a catalogue edited by the curators, featuring contributions from several authors from Arctic Indigenous communities, as well as Estonian authors. The catalogue is complemented by a reader, Collected Relationships: The Sámi, Finno-Ugric and Estonian Nexus, produced in collaboration with the Estonian Academy of Arts and offering a deeper exploration of a number of the themes addressed in the exhibitions.

As part of the exhibitions, a three-day conference, Giving Voice to Museum Collections: Finno-Ugric and Sámi Heritage Today, will take place from 1–3 October 2026 at the Kumu Art Museum, the Estonian Academy of Arts and the Estonian National Museum.

The exhibition no beginning, no end: Decolonial Gestures in Sámi Worldbuilding will be open at the contemporary art gallery of the Kumu Art Museum from 11 September 2026 to 14 March 2027.

Participating artists: Carola Grahn, Snowchange: Pauliina Feodoroff & Kaisu Mustonen, Marja Helander, Kalli Kalde, Ketlin Kuusing, Jenni Laiti & Invisible Flock, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Hans Ragnar Mathisen, Alo Paistik, Outi Pieski, Suohpanterror, Lada Suomenrinne

Exhibition team:
Curator: Ann Mirjam Vaikla
Curatorial consultant: Jenni Laiti
Exhibition design: Aksel Haagensen
Graphic design: Jojo&me Studio (Martina Gofman and Johanna Ruukholm)
Coordinator: Anastassia Langinen
Exhibition installation manager: Villu Plink
Technical manager: Mati Schönberg
Education and public programme: Frederik Klanberg
Art studios: Maari Hinsberg

With the support of:
Estonian Ministry of Culture, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonian National Museum, Nordisk Kulturfond, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Lásságámmi Foundation, City of Tallinn, Lincona, Moderna Museet, Kin Museum of Contemporary Art, Finnish National Gallery: Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma and Finnish State Art Deposit Collection, Galleri Nicolaj Wallner, Fenno-Ugria, Sámi Museum Siida, private collections