Photo: Berta Jänes
New exhibition ‘Who Claims the Night?’ now open
Monday, 19. feb 2024
Come and experience urban nights of both the past and the present!
The exhibition allows visitors to experience the nighttime life in Estonian cities in the past and reveals the meanings found in contemporary urban nightlife.With the exhibition ‘Who Claims the Night?’, we open the doors to the bright and dark nightlife of Estonian cities. The night as a fascinating playing field is revealed from many angles, including the laws and restrictions governing nightlife, nighttime occupations, technological developments, the contemporary nightlife culture, and much more.
‘With this new exhibition, we are placing the focus of the ENM on urban culture and city heritage, perhaps a little unexpectedly for the audience,’ says chief curator Karin Leivategija. ‘I dare say this is the biggest exhibition about the night in the world, because the different aspects of life in the city at night have never been handled in such a comprehensive way before,’ the curator added.
Documenting nightlife is made more difficult by darkness and people’s certain desire for anonymity. However, the night is also a time that gives people a sense of freedom, allowing them to experiment more freely than during the day and to express themselves creatively. The exhibition highlights many aspects of city life at night, including the influence of power and culture, and introduces modern cities, where life goes on around the clock.
The exhibition covers the entire back section of the museum building and is divided into two parts. The gallery of the ENM will focus on the history of the Estonian urban night, where visitors can walk the streets from the Middle Ages to the noughties of this century, enter the party room, and relate to stories of the nighttime experience. The second part of the exhibition is spread across the back lobby and the basement of the ENM in the form of seven installations on contemporary nightlife culture. Each installation is a different kind of research project on a relevant theme in the context of the contemporary urban night.
The exhibition is the joint creation of many ethnologists, anthropologists, creative researchers, and artists.
The exhibition ‘Who Claims the Night?’ will be accompanied by an audience programme and the first event will be a thematic conference (in Estonian) on 15 March at 5 p.m. The exhibition will remain open until 24 February 2025.