[spectre] Fwd: CONF: Visual Culture of the Baltic Exile Communities (Riga, 11 Sep 26)

[Andreas Broeckmann LEU]

From: Ulrike Nürnberger
Date: Jul 18, 2026
Subject: CONF: Visual Culture of the Baltic Exile Communities (Riga, 11 
Sep 26)

Riga, Art Museum RIGA BOURSE (Mākslas muzejs Rīgas Birža), Doma laukums 
6, Sep 11, 2026
Registration deadline: Aug 31, 2026

Visual Culture of the Baltic Exile Communities in the Aftermath of World 
War II.

The study of the Baltic exile communities following the Second World War 
has often concentrated on the seemingly inextinguishable energy that 
these communities displayed in combining their carefully defined 
political, social and cultural ambitions with their commitment to 
self-preservation. This dual mission required resounding resilience. 
The importance of their visual cultures in this process, however, has 
not received the interest it deserves. The aim of the 2026 "Homburger 
Gespräch" shall be to delve deeper into how visuality in the Baltic 
exile communities after the Second World War helped them shape their 
understanding of reality.
This shall be done by assembling conversational partners from various 
backgrounds and fields to Riga for a day-long colloquy. The focus shall 
not primarily be on formal aesthetics, text and speech, but rather on 
how cultural meaning, codes and identity were formed through visual 
cues. The notion of seeing shall be ever-present in these discussions. 
What did its members choose to see and what not to see and how did new 
ways of seeing evolve in the new environments?  How did geography and 
history leave its mark on this seeing?  How were space, color, 
materiality negotiated?

Attention shall be focused on the time period between 1944 and 1991. 
This does not, however, mean that the communities did not draw on visual 
perceptions prior to this period and did not reconfigure this visuality 
retrospectively once the exile experience in the formal sense of the 
word came to an end in 1991. By incorporating the most varying impulses 
from periods “prior and post”; and by, at times, engaging their new 
environments, at others, secluding themselves from them, an enhanced 
multifariousness and manifoldness evolved.

A collaborative colloquy (Homburger Gespräch 2026) under the auspices of 
the Böckler-Mare-Balticum-Foundation (Bad Homburg) in collaboration with 
the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe – 
Institute of the Leibniz-Association (Marburg) and the Latvian National 
Museum of Art (Riga)
Concept: Agnese Bergholde-Wolf, Jānis Krēsliņš, Ulrike Nürnberger, 
Dietmar Popp

Please register for the conference: 
geschaeftsstelle at boeckler-mare-balticum-stiftung.de
----------------------------------------
Programme:

Arrival at 9.00 AM

9.15–9.30 AM Welcome: Daiga Upeniece (Art Museum RIGA BOURSE), Ulrike 
Nürnberger (Böckler-Mare-Balticum-Foundation), Dietmar Popp (Herder 
Institute)

Revisiting the Notion of Exile and Visual Culture in Exile
9.30–9.45 AM Jānis Krēsliņš jr. (SE)

09:45–10.00 AM Reflection and Discussion

What do we know about Baltic Visual Culture in Exile?  10.00–10.15 AM 
Kadi Polli: Estonia
10.15–10.30 AM Elita Ansone: Latvia
10.30–10.45 AM Ilona Mažeikienė / Birutė Pankūnaitė: Lithuania

10.45–11.00 AM Reflection and Discussion

11.00–11.15 AM Coffee Break

Visual Culture in the very early Stages of Exile 11.15–11.25 AM Inese 
Gātere (LV): The Thematic, Stylistic, and Social Narrative of Artifacts 
Depicting the Lives of Interned Latvian Legionnaires in Allied Captivity 
from 1945 to 1946

11.25–11.45 AM Reflection and Discussion

11.45–11.55 AM Agnija Lesničenoka (LV): Collections of Latvian Exile 
Artists in the National Archives of Latvia: The Example of the Art 
Academy of Latvia Student Fraternity “Dzintarzeme”

11.55 AM–12.15 PM Reflection and Discussion

12.15–12.25 PM Triin Metsla (EE): Understanding the Possible Narratives 
of Refugee Art – from Self-Dermination to Modern Art

12.25–12.45 PM Reflection and Discussion

Exile and the Variety of its Visual Platforms 12.45–12.55 PM: Elke Bauer 
/ Agnese Bergholde-Wolf (DE): “I Have Never Left Latvia” (Jānis Krēsliņš 
sen.) and “The Annual Harvest of a Poor Lithuanian Collector in Exile” 
(Povilas Reklaitis) – Exile Collections at the Herder Institute

12.55–1.15 PM Reflection and Discussion

1.15–2.15 PM LUNCH

The Visible and the Invisible — Physical Footprints vs. That which 
evades the Gaze
2.15–2.25 PM Isabell Schierenbeck (SE): From Berlin to Tel Aviv: Traces 
of German Culture in the Cityscape

2.25–2.45 PM Reflection and Discussion

2.45–2.55 PM Maarja Merivoo-Parro (EE): What in Exile evades the Gaze?

2.55–3.15 PM Reflection and Discussion

Memory vs. Forgetting? 3.15–3.25 PM Indrė Urbelytė (LT): We had to 
forget... National Art Histories and the Experience of Exile (Jonas 
Mekas, Kazys Varnelis, NYC)

3.25–3.45 PM Reflection and Discussion

3.45–3.55 PM Liisa Kaljula (EE): Childhood Memories and Utopian 
Thinking. The Case of Estonian-Swedish Artist Enno Hallek

3.55–4.15 PM Reflection and Discussion

4.15–4.30 PM Coffee Break

Reconfiguring Home vs. Creating a new Home?
4.30–4.40 PM Martin Nõmm (EE): Home or Away – the Dilemma of Exile Art

4.40–5.00 PM Reflection and Discussion

5.00–5.10 PM Ilona Mažeikienė / Birutė Pankūnaitė (LT): The Activities 
of the Art School École des Arts et Métiers (1946–1950): Art Education 
in New Settings, Freiburg im Breisgau

5.10–5.30 PM Reflection and Discussion

Preservation vs. Unbridled Creativity
5.30–5.40 PM Marianna Auliciema (LV): No one wants your Art: Musings on 
Visual Culture in the Collection of the Latvians Abroad - Museum and 
Research Centre and beyond

5.40–6.00 PM Reflection and Discussion

6.00–6.10 PM Andra Silapētere (LV): A Wish to turn Lived Exile into 
narratable History

6.10–6.30 PM The day’s final reflections


Reference / Quellennachweis:
CONF: Visual Culture of the Baltic Exile Communities (Riga, 11 Sep 26). 
In: ArtHist.net, Jul 18, 2026. <https://arthist.net/archive/53501>.