"Ideaalide Eesti. Sada aastat otsinguid". Eesti rahvusülikooli 100. aastapäevale pühendatud näituse kontseptsioon
Creators: name: Rääsk, Mairo
Publisher: name: Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi
Year: 2020

description: This exhibition explores Estonia’s important choices, ideas and upheavals. The aim of the exhibition is to highlight, through the role of the National University, the history of the development of national thought, its ideals in the context of events that had controversial and ground-breaking significance in Estonia, including failures and disappointments. All the issues highlighted have a decisive or tangible impact even today. The main idea of the exhibition was based on the premise that the current situation and course of the Estonian national university has always had a major influence on the welfare of the Estonian state and society. In the most general terms, the national university helped create the theoretical, independent, intellectual and power attributes of the Republic of Estonia and has at various times aided in interpreting the idea, nature, and future scenarios of the Estonian nation state. From each decade of the century, an important but polarising topic was chosen for the exhibition, accompanied by the question: “What if...”. The ideological upheavals of different decades were viewed from the opposite points of view, alternatives were analysed and opportunities were created to place visitors on different sides of the argument. The aim was to look at events in a rich context of connections on various levels of society, including through confrontations and controversies. The critical stance of the exhibition and the questions that were voiced during the centenary of the Estonian National University owing to it (some of which are discussed even today) are more topical now than they were some time ago. The critical approach emanated from the desire to initiate discussions between people and encourage introspection, to provide food for thought and look at the processes that have determined the developments of the past hundred years in light of today’s understandings and expectations. For example, the exhibition looked at the issue of female students in the context of the 1920s. Free thought was at the heart of the 1930s, and the concept of mass university was chosen to represent the 2000s. As stated in the introduction to the exhibition, the impact of the University of Tartu on Estonian society, politics and culture cannot be overestimated. However, the development of the University of Tartu did not run from victory to victory starting from its establishment in 1632, but is a story marked by interruptions and ideological changes. In 1919, the University of Tartu was opened as an institution providing instruction in the native language of the newly established Republic of Estonia and this had a lasting significance. The research exhibition “Estonia of Ideals” meant to create a critical challenge for the modern visitor and the University of Tartu itself, as it allows to consider the university’s role in our past, present and future.
description: Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi, Vol. 48 (2020): 100 aastaga pärisorjusest emakeelse ülikoolini