Silvia Pärmann — The Countries That Do Not Exist

The Countries That Do Not Exist is a documentary project that follows everyday life in the countries and regions that have all the trappings of a real country – they have governments and an independent spirit, quite often their own currency and military, and sometimes they even issue visas and stamp passports on the border – but they don’t officially exist. For various reasons, they are not allowed representatives in the United Nations and are ignored by most governments.

The exhibition features works from 11 places, of which some – like Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Chechnya – have once had the same fate as Estonia, and some others sound more exotic – like Somaliland, Western Sahara and Northern Cyprus.

Silvia Pärmann (1979) uses photography to document the world around her. She is interested in conflicts and interactions between people and their environment. Her works highlight issues and conflict zones that people might want to overlook but cannot.

She has graduated from Tartu University Law School and has studied documentary photography in many courses and workshops. She has travelled widely all over the world and has exhibited her work in several solo and group exhibitions.

She won the Delfi Travel Photo 2018 award in the professional category with her series photographed in Kalmykia and the Pentax Portrait Photo of the Year 2018 III prize with her work Brothers. South Ossetia, 2018.