Artwork on the Move and an Aesthetics of Home

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Abstract

Rather than migration from Eastern Europe that is usually seen as one-way and an east-west movement, this article will propose that artists particular way of travelling is multi-directional, short-term and recurrent. Their travel opens up the possibility for multi-directional connections and the coexistence of influences from different cultures within individuals. Artists’ practice and everyday lives are increasingly spread across multiple borders. They are moving, communicating, as well as sending and producing artwork across many different places for exhibitions and displays. This type of short-term, recurrent movement enables artists to understand more about “home” and to combine influences from these different places. The travels of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian artists and the effects of these movements (shown in artworks) are of importance as the Baltic States were, only 24 years ago, closed-off and part of the Soviet Union. This paper focuses on the effects of artists’ mobile lives and multi-directional connections on their artworks.