Gallery: New joint exhibition opens at three south Estonian museums
This Thursday saw the opening of "Washing Machine Made of Beetroot," a new joint exhibition project about ingenuity, recycling and a do-it-yourself attitude, at three different museums across south Estonia.
The project's name is taken from the expression "to make a washing machine out of beetroot," which dates back to the Soviet era. At that time, faced with difficult living conditions, people were demonstrated a great deal of creativity to invent all manner of different things they needed, despite the scarcity of high quality materials. Now, a selection of their creations is on display at the Estonian Road Museum, the Estonian Agricultural Museum and the Tartu City Museum.
Each of the three museums explores the topic from a different angle.
At the Estonian Road Museum in Varbuse, Põlva County, visitors can experience the invention and ingenuity of road workshops and private garages. The garage culture, including repairing, and home-made vehicles still has a strong presence all over Estonia.
Meanwhile, the Estonian Agricultural Museum's exhibition in Ülenerme, Tartu County, focuses on horticulture and gardens, applied textiles, food preservation methods as well as domestically created agricultural machinery.
At Tartu City Museum, visitors can see what it was like living in deprivation during the Soviet era. If people needed something that was not readily available, they had to take the old and turn it into something new, or at least pimp it up a little bit.
As a result, people often made their own clothes, cosmetics, hobby equipment, and even household appliances.
"One woman talks about how she had a terrible urge to get herself some wooden shoes. So, her father gave her two wooden blocks and she started sawing them herself and then crafting them with a knife. In one summer she finished the sole of one shoe, but didn't finish the other one, and so that was the end of her shoe project," said the exhibition's curator Meeli Väljaots.
The exhibition project "Washing Machine Made of Beetroot" is part of the Tartu 2024 European Capital of Culture the main program.
The exhibition project "Washing Machine Made of Beetroot" is part of the Tartu 2024 European Capital of Culture the main program.
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Editor: Karmen Rebane, Michael Cole
Source: Aktuaalne kaamera
