We opened the exhibition “Who owns the night?”

Come and experience the bright and twilight life of an Estonian city night!
The ERM exhibition “Who owns the night?” you can experience urban nights of the past and present.

From 17 February, the Estonian National Museum will open the large exhibition “Who owns the night?”. The exhibition will allow visitors to experience Estonian urban life in the past and explore the meanings of contemporary urban life at night.

With the exhibition “Who owns the night?” we open the doors to the bright and dark night life of Estonian cities. Night as a fascinating field of activity will be explored from many angles, including the laws and restrictions governing nightlife, night-time occupations, technological developments, modern nightlife culture and much more.

“With this new exhibition, we are focusing on urban culture and lynx heritage in the ERM, perhaps a little unexpectedly for the audience,” says Karin Leivategija, the exhibition’s chief curator. “I dare say this is the biggest night exhibition in the world, because the different aspects of life in the city at night have never been dealt with in such a comprehensive way before,” the curator added.

Documenting nightlife is made more difficult by darkness and a certain anonymity. But it 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 night-time city life, including the influence of power and culture, and presents modern cities where life goes on around the clock.

The exhibition covers the entire back of the museum building and is divided into two sections. The ERM gallery will focus on the history of the Estonian city night, where visitors can walk the streets from the Middle Ages to the noughties of this century, enter the party room and relate to the stories of the night-time experience. The second part of the exhibition will be spread out in the ERM’s back lobby and basement in the form of seven installations on contemporary nightlife culture. Each installation is a different kind of research project on a topical theme of the night.

The exhibition is the joint work of many ethnologists, anthropologists, creative researchers and artists.

On the opening day, you can visit the exhibition until midnight, take part in a curator’s tour, watch films about night culture on the big screen, and dance and exchange exhibition impressions at the ERM’s location, The Long Night.

With the exhibition “Who owns the night?” will be accompanied by a public programme and a thematic symposium will take place on 15 March at 17:00.
The exhibition will remain open until 24. until 20 February 2025.
https://www.erm.ee/et/kellele-kuulub-oo