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Showing posts with the label Estonia

Tallinn for the fully invested traveler

 Viru Gate Though Tallinn is over seven centuries old, it wears its age well.   Remnants of its past such as the defensive walls and a few of the towers are still standing and have become part of the urban landscape. It is an enchanting place that opens up to reveal itself when you spend more time getting acquainted with it. Fortunately, you can still stroll around town without the crowds that beset other European cities. Flower Market When my Uber driver dropped me off at Viru Gate, I was immediately captivated by the colorful flower market that leads up to the Old Town. The floral varieties for late fall were astonishing. The sight of these flowers brightened my mood immediately as I passed the gate.  Pikk Jalg (Long Leg) Street  This is the path I chose to go up to Toompea Hill. It is one of the oldest streets in Tallinn and is sandwiched between two walls. The other way up is through the Luhike Jalg or Short Leg street which is a shorter route but much steeper....

KUMU Museum Tallinn

Seagull/Talking Heads, Villu Jaanisoo, 2006 It was certainly an eye opener for me to see the permanent collection of the KUMU. As if that wasn’t enough, I was also treated to the Latin American Art temporary exhibition with works by Diego Rivera and Fernando Botero. On this post, I’ll show images from the permanent collection only as there was quite a lot of Latin art on display that merits a separate post. Come back to read all about it. Villu Jaanisoo is a sculpture graduate of the Estonian Academy of Arts where he also served as the head of the Department of Sculpture in the 2000s. He uses non traditional materials for his sculptural pieces like rubber, plywood, sound and others. In the Seagull installation, he took 86 busts of children, heroes, Stalin from the Museum collection to create a roomful of “heads” backed by an archive of interviews conducted with these subjects playing on repeat and creating a cacophony of sounds in the exhibition room, hence the moniker Talking Heads. ...