From the 12th of June the exhibition “Silver Girls. Retouched History of Photography” can be visited in Tartu Art Museum. The exhibition introduces a selection of ten early women photographers from Estonia and Latvia and places them into the company of three contemporary European artists who contemplate over the lost and the neglected in our visual history.
Photography is commonly believed to document the world as it is. Similarly, archives and historical collections are believed to represent imagined universal truths. On closer inspection, however, it turns out that archives are collected and later investigated by historians with a particular goal in mind. In a similar manner, photos are always taken from a particular angle and are enhanced to please the author or the viewer.
Photography has been popular among women since its early days, not just as a hobby but as a profession. In common with many other fields and professions, in history books woman photographers are hard to find. This seems especially ironic as the retouchers working in photo studios were mostly women shaping images of the world to please others.
The exhibition “Silver Girls” introduces a selection of works by ten early woman photographers who worked in the area of Estonia and Latvia and places them in the company of three contemporary European artists who contemplate the lost and the neglected in our visual history. As the research into women in history expands worldwide, the Baltic states are catching up and putting together pieces that have been preserved to clarify women’s stories and their legacies. Some of the stories turn out to be very significant in the context of art history, and some serve as small but important expansions of an already existing view of our common past.
As the research continues, we offer a glance at these stories through the surface of another physical and metaphorical reflector of truth – the mirror – which has played a significant role in making the photographic image itself. To enhance the contemplation of the lost and found and retold we have chosen three contemporary artists to tell their stories about certain moments and people in history, from the photo reproductions of destroyed artworks and films to historically important people whose legacies have been overlooked and therefore have long been hidden. History is made out of puzzles of the lost and found, the destroyed and recovered, the denied and accepted, making our present history just a certain type of mirror we choose to look into.
Tartu Art Museum as a memory institution is trying to be aware of its role as a collection of public knowledge: a position which inevitably brings with itself the need to constantly reconsider what we think we know about the past and the ways we understand it. This was the curatorial position of the recent exhibition about the Pallas Art School and has been the impetus for the exhibition series Tartu 88 that was initiated to determine and fill the gaps in our knowledge of recent art history. The upcoming exhibition Silver Girls. Retouched History of Photography wants to shed light on another such blind spot via an international exhibition.
Exhibition curators: Šelda Puķīte and Indrek Grigor
Participants:
Early Women Photographers from Latvia: Antonija Heniņa (1897–1979), Minna Kaktiņa (1876–1949), Lūcija Alutis-Kreicberga (1889–1985), Emīlija Mergupe (1885–1972), Marta Pļaviņa (1896–1956)
Early Women Photographers from Estonia: Olga Dietze (second half of the 19th century – first half of the 20th century), Helene Fendt (1896–?), Anna Kukk (1885–1979), Hilja Riet (1905–2006), Lydia Tarem (1904–1979)
Contemporary artists: Nanna Debois Buhl, Sami van Ingen, Elisabeth Tonnard
Silver Girls. Retouched History of Photography
12.06–27.09, 2020
Tartu Art Museum
Raekoja plats 18, Tartu, 51004
Digital prints of Mara Pļaviņa glass negatives in the mirror installations from the collection of the Aizkraukles History and Art Museum. Photo by Indrek Grigor
View from the exhibition. Photo by Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
View from the exhibition. Photo by Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
View from the exhibition. Photo by Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
Emīlija Mergupe. Father of Emīlija Mergupe Miķelis Mergups in Mālpils. Date unknown. Digital print. From the private collection of Pēteris Korsaks. Photo by Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
Lydia Tarem. Photo from Lydia Tarem’s album.1935–1940. Digital print. From the collection of Estonian Museum of Photography. Photo by Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
Helene Fendt. Kõpu Lighthouse. 1930s. Digital print. From the collection of Museum of Hiiumaa. Photo by Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
Elisabeth Tonnard. The Library. 2015. Series of eight archival pigment ink prints, 30×40 cm each. Book. Digital print, exposed sewing, 10.5× 14.8 cm. Photo by Indrek Grigor
Elisabeth Tonnard. The Library. 2015. Book. Digital print, exposed sewing, 10.5× 14.8 cm. Photo by Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
Elisabeth Tonnard. The Library. 2015. Series of eight archival pigment ink prints, 30×40 cm each. Photo by Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
Archival material in display box. View from the exhibition. Photo by Indrek Grigor
View from the exhibition. Photo by Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
Nanna Debois Buhl. Stellar Spectra. 2020. Installation. Curtain, 3 ×14 m; 2-channel hd video, 10′. Photo by Indrek Grigor
Nanna Debois Buhl. Stellar Spectra. 2020. Installation. Curtain, 3 ×14 m; 2-channel hd video, 10′. Photo by Indrek Grigor
Nanna Debois Buhl. Stellar Spectra. 2020. Installation. 2-channel hd video, 10′. Photo by Indrek Grigor
Nanna Debois Buhl. Stellar Spectra. 2020. Installation. 2-channel hd video, 10′. Photo by Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
Nanna Debois Buhl. Stellar Spectra. 2020. Installation. 2-channel hd video, 10′. Photo by Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
View from the exhibition. Photo by Indrek Grigor
Original silver gelating prints by Lūcija Alutis-Kreicberga from the collection of the Museum
of the History of Riga and Navigation. Photo by Indrek Grigor
Original silver gelating prints by Lūcija Alutis-Kreicberga from the collection of the Museum
of the History of Riga and Navigation. Photo by Indrek Grigor
View from the exhibition. Photo by Indrek Grigor
Archival material in display box. View from the exhibition. Photo by Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
View from the exhibition. Photo by Indrek Grigor
Marta Pļaviņa. Man with a Dog on His Shoulder. 1920s–1930s. Digital print. From the collection of the Aizkraukles History and Art Museum. Photo by Indrek Grigor
Digital prints of Mara Pļaviņa glass negatives in the mirror installations from the collection of the Aizkraukles History and Art Museum. Photo by Indrek Grigor
Digital prints of Minna Kaktiņa photos in the mirror installations from the collection of the Latvian Museum of Photography. Photo by Indrek Grigor
Minna Kaktiņa. Two Girls on the Staircase. 1910s. Digital print. From the collection of the Latvian Museum of Photography. Photo by Indrek Grigor
Hilja Riet. Postcard.1930s. Digital Print. From the collection of the Museum of Viljandi. Photo by Indrek Grigor
Marta Plaviņa. Girl Sitting in Front of a Mirror. 1920s–1930s. Digital print. From the collection of the Aizkraukles History and Art Museum. Photo by Indrek Grigor
View from the exhibition. Photo by Indrek Grigor
Sami van Ingen. Flame. 2018. Single channel video, 15′. Photo by Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
Sami van Ingen. Flame. 2018. Single channel video, 15′. Photo by Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
