Conversations with Smaug. An interview with the curators Saara Hacklin and Kati Kivinen

Maria Tobola, Amber Kebab, 2016, Collections, photo: Finnish National Gallery/Pirje Mykkänen

Šelda Puķīte: Let’s start with the title ‘There and Back Again’. Is that a conscious ‘Hobbit’ quote? Saara Hacklin: Yes, it is, but only in English. It’s not there in the Finnish title ‘Meno-paluu’ though, which would simply be ‘round…

Photo reportage from the exhibition ‘There and Back Again. Contemporary Art from the Baltic Sea Region’ at Kiasma, Helsinki

Mindaugas Navakas, Beam and Hook, 1993, Collections, photo: Finnish National Gallery/Pirje Mykkänen

The exhibition There and Back Again brings together 26 artists from the eastern Baltic Sea region: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland and Russia. This collection exhibition explores the themes of identity, belonging and memory through the metaphor of travel. The title, There and Back Again,…