NSFW. A Chairman's Tale

Jaanus Samma, curated by Eugenio Viola

Panorama of the exhibition (2015) by Exhibition view by Reimo Võsa-TangsooEstonia - Biennale Arte 2015

Team

Jaanus Samma – artist  Eugenio Viola – curatorMarko Raat – film-makerBrit Pavelson – graphic designerValge Kuup – exhibition design and installationOrganised by Center for Contemporary Arts, EstoniaMaria Arusoo – commissionerRebeka Põldsam – deputy commissionerSten Ojavee – production assistant

View on the San Samuele square Estonian exhibition. Photo by Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo (2015) by Photo documentation by Reimo Võsa-TangsooEstonia - Biennale Arte 2015

Pavilion

The venue for the Estonian exposition in Venice 2015 is the Palazzo Malipiero, with the entrance at the front of the building on San Samuele Square, S. Marco 3199 (2nd floor), next to Palazzo Grassi.

Eugenio Viola (2015) by Photo by Reimo Võsa-TangsooEstonia - Biennale Arte 2015

Project

Not Suitable For Work.A Chairman’s Tale–Jaanus Samma, curated by Eugenio Viola.                                                                 Since 2007, Estonian artist Jaanus Samma has focused his research on collecting stories of gay lives in Soviet Estonia. Sharing the same interest, the project Not Suitable for Work. A Chairman’s Tale draws from the life of Juhan Ojaste1 (1921–1990), a war hero and “family man”, who was a successful chairman of a kolkhoz, i.e. a collective farm in Soviet Estonia. In 1964, he was arrested and then expelled from the Communist Party due to his involvement in homosexual acts. A degrading trial was followed by a sentence of one and a half year of hard labour. Following the loss of his social status as well as his dignity, family and job, Ojaste was forced to move to a different town, where he could hold only menial positions. In the end, he was murdered by an alleged Russian male prostitute, a year before Estonia regained independence and homosexuality was decriminalised.                                                                                                               From a micro-historical perspective, Jaanus Samma links the public and collective dimension of History with the private and biographical qualities of the chronicle. An archival impulse (Foster) investigates memory and images, documents and their representation, in order to restore a window into a period governed by an authoritarian regime. As a matter of fact “a heightened sense of urgency surrounds the demand to remember and commemorate in societies where social codes of communication have been historically unstable or pre-empted by state repression” (Enwezor).2                                                                                       Despite their different reasons, both the Annales school, from Bloch to Le Goff, along with some Marxist historians like Hobsbawm on one side, and several thinkers, such as Benjamin, Arendt, and Foucault on the other agree on turning the projective thought to the past instead of the future, using, according to Agamben, an archaeological approach to the present. Samma adopts a similar strategy, which is highlighted by the title Not Suitable For Work taken from internet slang 3 and applied to Chairman’s tale in order to emphasise the precarious professional and social position of all individuals subjected to the scrutiny of power. Moreover, the computer terminology refers to the pervading nature of media society, which turns us into passive witnesses of history and its discriminations, discords and contradictions.                                                                                                                 The social debate on LGBTI rights intercepts the wider issue of the violation of fundamental human rights, so common in the past and the current day alike. In this sense, the Chairman’s story becomes the tip of the iceberg for a broader denouncement addressed at all kinds of discrimination: cultural, social, political, religious, sexual and racial. Therefore, once again, in order to remind us that art is always for the co-existence of differences.    / Eugenio Viola

View from entrance of NSFW. A Chairman's Tale. Photo by Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo (2015) by Photo documentation by Reimo Võsa-TangsooEstonia - Biennale Arte 2015

First view to exhibition space

Installation view on court-file room (2015) by Artist: Jaanus Samma, photo by: Reimo Võsa-TangsooEstonia - Biennale Arte 2015

Study room

Study of Chairman, Jaanus Samma, 2013, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Archive photos of Tartu cruising spaces.Photo by Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo. jpgEstonia - Biennale Arte 2015

Archive

Haying, 1963/2015, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Grain dryer, 1965/2015, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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National meeting of kolkhoz chairmen in Tallinn, 1952/2015, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Soviet soldiers on the street, 1989 / 2015, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Installation view NSFW. A Chairman's Tale by Artist: Jaanus Samma, photo by Reimo Võsa-TangsooEstonia - Biennale Arte 2015

Re-acting the story

Exhibition view of Chairman's props

Chairman's props (2015) by Photo by Reimo Võsa-TangsooEstonia - Biennale Arte 2015

Trial #1, Jaanus Samma, 2015, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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3.50, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Study of Underwear, Jaanus Samma, 2013, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Panorama of the exhibition (2015) by Exhibition view by Reimo Võsa-TangsooEstonia - Biennale Arte 2015

Panorama of the exhibition

3.50 by Video by Marko Raat & Jaanus Samma. Photo by Reimo Võsa-TangsooEstonia - Biennale Arte 2015

Trial #2, Jaanus Samma, 2015, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Trial #3, Jaanus Samma, 2015, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Trial #4, Jaanus Samma, 2015, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Trial #5, Jaanus Samma, 2015, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Public Toilet, Jaanus Samma, 2015, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Forensic Medical Examination #1, Jaanus Samma, 2015, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Forensic Medical Examination #2, Jaanus Samma, 2015, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Study of a Toilet, Jaanus Samma, 2013, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Loge (2013/2015) by Jaanus SammaEstonia - Biennale Arte 2015

Loge

fictive opera

Loge., Exhibition view by Reimo Võsa-Tansgoo, 2015, From the collection of: Estonia - Biennale Arte 2015
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Credits: Story

Supporters

The Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia is the official representative of the Estonian exposition at la Biennale di Venezia. We cordially wish to thank our sponsors and supporters for generously making the exhibition Not Suitable For Work. A Chairman’s Tale at the Estonian Pavilion at the 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia possible:

Project is financed by Estonian Ministry of Culture

Supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Outset Estonia, Borenius Attorneys at Law, DSV Global Transport and Logistics, Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, Allfilm, ArtProof, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonian Art Museum, Estonian Health Museum, Estonian History Archive, Fagerhult, Fondazione Morra Greco, Frame Finland, FORM, Institute Français en Estonie, Kuu stuudio, Lahepuu, Laserstuudio, Signature House and Rhiannon Pickles PR

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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