Urmo Vaikla
An Island Is Not an Island. Shades of Dark Heritage
Draakoni Gallery ground floor, Pikk 18, Tallinn 28.08 – 27.09.2026
Opening 27.08. from 6pm
“An Island Is Not an Island. Shades of Dark Heritage” is the first exhibition of Urmo Vaikla’s practicebased
doctoral research. It explores military architectural heritage in the context of Hiiumaa and its
impact on the island’s landscape, local community, and collective memory.
Although island may appear separate and isolated, it has always been influenced by global political
processes. Defensive lines and military installations were built on the Hiiumaa both before and during
the First and Second World Wars. A rich military heritage also dates from the 50-year period of Soviet
occupation, when the island was the westernmost border zone of the Soviet Empire. Traces of this
history remain visible: boundary strips once ploughed and raked through the coastal forests,
defensive trenches branching out like a capillary network, and barbed wire still scattered here and
there. Countless bunkers, cannon positions of coastal batteries, border guard towers, and training
grounds remain abandoned in the landscape, evoking a dark history embedded in the island’s natural
environment.
Urmo Vaikla’s research focuses on spatial conditions in the aftermath of trauma, examining the
persistence and adaptation of architectural heritage in the context of social and political change. The
aim is to map and investigate spatial values and to seek answers to the questions of whether, and
how, dark heritage can be interpreted and (re)used.
Methodologically, the exhibition project draws on two curated international creative residencies
addressing military heritage—Time Lap and Pinhole—which took place at Kordon Art Residency on
Hiiumaa between 2024 and 2026. The residency programmes explored political trauma through
embodied (somatic) experience, personal objects, and individual experience. The exhibition is a visual
and poetic synthesis of the material gathered and experienced during collective research and the
creative projects created based on it.
Photo: Kärdla, Hiiumaa 25.05.1941. German Flown Aerial Photograps 1939-1945, U.S. National
Archives
Artists participated in the residency program: Selina Bonelli, Thomas Reul , Alexander Petrounine, Anna Underowicz, Anu Pennanen, Kaisa Karvinen, Jona
Kleinlein, Nelly Haag
Residency Program Curators: Urmo Vaikla, Tüüne-Kristin Vaikla
The exhibition is supported by: Eesti Kultuurkapital, Eesti Sisearhitektide Liit,
ühendus Ruum ja Vorm
