The Blanket tells a story of an exhibition piece in a museum that belongs to Natalia, who came from the Udmurt Republic, and now works at the Estonian National Museum. She tells a story how it feels when some of the exhibited items in the museum once belonged to a person she knew. Bringing into light the connections between memory, materiality and cultural identity - exploring the seeming dichotomy of artefacts and living stories.
The Blanket was co-directed and animated with Regina Vitányi. The film was made in 48 hours as part of the Experimental Film Lab at Finno-Ugric Film Festival at Estonian National museum. The theme of the festival was Forgotten People. In total seven teams were selected for the experimental Film Lab to work with Finno-Ugric language speakers. Because of our interest in the museum objects we were lucky to get in contact with Natalia who is Udmurt and works in the National Museum of Estonia. As we explored the Finno-Ugric exhibition she revealed that multiple objects on the display were donated by her and belonged to her family members. Through interviews and conversations with Natalia we learned her family history but also her philosophy about museum objects and the possibility of learning her culture through these objects.
The question was - what does it mean to be forgotten? Looking at the lost and future narratives - from the museum pieces to contemporary objects and people who use them. Each becoming a carrier for a story with a fleeting presence and meaning inscribed to them. What kind of stories will the object of our every day tell to the future generations? Can they piece together form a coherent narrative? There's a paradox in preservation: does materiality immortalise or trap the narrative? What remains when memory fades, and artefacts crumble? Can the past be brought to life through the fragments of the present? What emerges from this recreation? Is it always going to be a crude representation of what once was or is there possibility for something meaningful?