ArhMus EXHIBITION

The Salt Storage Phenomenon: Back to the Future

This June marks the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Rotermann Salt Storage as an exhibition venue. The industrial building, completed in 1908, became home to the Museum of Estonian Architecture and the contemporary art department of the Estonian Art Museum. It was here that the meaning of a contemporary exhibition space in Estonia began to take shape.

The Salt Storage soon became an important meeting point for art and architecture. With little prior experience of operating a venue on this scale, exhibition formats and working methods had to be developed on site. During the 1990s and 2000s, artists experimented with new media and forms of expression, responding to a rapidly changing society and the rise of mass culture. The Salt Storage provided space for projects that could not be accommodated within traditional galleries, creating an environment where disciplines intertwined and the boundaries between art forms became increasingly fluid.

Alongside experimental art, the Museum of Estonian Architecture played a significant role in shaping the understanding of Estonia’s architectural history through its exhibitions at the Salt Storage. These exhibitions helped uncover and interpret the country’s 20th-century architectural heritage. The museum focused on solo exhibitions, accompanying publications, and the continued development of its collection.

The exhibition The Salt Storage Phenomenon: Back to the Future brings together the many elements that have made the Salt Storage what it is today: groundbreaking artists of the 1990s and 2000s, the media and ideas explored within its walls, and architects whose work has been consistently highlighted through the Museum of Estonian Architecture’s exhibition programme. Past ideas and practices are placed in dialogue with contemporary creative work.

“There has been fashionable art and the most fashionable art, moving and stationary objects, the sound of running water, birdsong, smoke bombs and singing sculptures, reclining yellow men, breathing iron beds and hanging pianos. At the Rotermann Salt Storage, everything seems somehow different from an ordinary museum, exhibition hall or concert venue. Here, everything seems possible.”

— Karin Hallas-Murula, 1998

Curators

Grete Margna (Museum of Estonian Architecture)

Eha Komissarov (Estonian Art Museum)

Architects and Artists

Arnold Matteus, Anita Kremm, Ene-Liis Semper, Erika Nõva, Hanna-Eliise Kitter & Saskia Krautmann, Ilmar Malin, Kiwa, Kristel Zimmer, Liisamari Viik, Marko Mäetamm, Toomas Rein, Urmas Viik, Valve Pormeister, Tiiu Kirsipuu

Exhibition Architecture

Priit Põldme, Reet Sepp (Joonprojekt)

Graphic Design

Mette-Mari Kaljas, Chloé Gourvennec

Supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment

Special Thanks

Estonian Art Museum, Floorin

Raul Meel’s exhibition ”Concretization”

Raul Meel (1941) is one of Estonia’s best-known avant-garde artists and one of Europe’s leading figures in conceptual art and concrete poetry. He has participated in more than 600 group exhibitions and over 100 solo exhibitions, and is the only Estonian artist to have received an award at a major international biennial. Meel is also widely regarded as Estonia’s most renowned self-taught artist and outsider. Art historian Mai Levin has compared Raul Meel’s significance in Estonian art to that of composer Arvo Pärt in music.

In concrete poetry, meaning is conveyed not only through words, but also through the visual experience—the rhythmic structure of words and symbols, the interplay of colours, repetition, and the expressive power of silence. A letter becomes a brushstroke, words form architecture, the page transforms into space, and poetry becomes an object.

The exhibition is presented by the Artner.ee art platform, curated by Jaan Heinsoo.

The exhibition is open until 15 October 2026.