Exhibition in Paris — Self-Invented People: The Face of Soviet-Era Punk in Estonia

In cooperation with the Estonian Embassy in Paris, we inaugurated the exhibition ‘Self-Invented People: The Face of Soviet-Era Punk in Estonia’ on Thursday, December 19, 2019. The exhibition showcases photographs by Arno Saar and is a curated selection from a more extensive photo exhibition that was displayed in 2017 at the Juhan Kuus Documentary Phtoto Centre, now reimagined and presented in Paris.

The Paris exhibition focuses on individual and group portraits of punks, offering viewers a glimpse into the eyes of the era’s rebels and free spirits. On display are 31 black-and-white pieces, featuring several Estonian punk legends, such as Villu, Munk, Trubetsky, Merca, Kojamees, Kont, and others.

Toomas Järvet, one of the exhibition’s curators, highlighted the significance of the punks’ presence on the walls of the Estonian state’s diplomatic mission. He noted that many Soviet Estonian punks were also seen as freedom fighters, making them fitting representatives at the Estonian foreign mission to parallelly narrate the story of Estonia’s reclamation of independence.

Accompanying the exhibition is a concise overview of Estonian punk history, translated into French. This was prepared by sociologist Pirjo Turk, who has extensively studied the punk subculture and authored a dedicated chapter in the book ‘Subcultures: Studies of Lifestyles.’
The exhibition will be open at the Estonian Embassy in Paris until August 2020.