An encounter with art gives each of us a unique impulse. Reflection, emotion, a new perspective on the familiar, a voice we hadn’t heard before.

In this sense, the exhibition “Mirror in the Mirror: Estonian and German Art from Lucas Cranach to Arvo Pärt and Gerhard Richter” offers the viewer immense opportunities. 150 exhibits — paintings, graphics, objects, audio and video installations — span more than 700 years of shared history. Cultural parallels and exchanges, academic, religious, and trade ties. 20th-century art that reflects the horror of two world wars, the striving for freedom, and hope. Contemporary art that interprets both history and the present day in its own way.

The exhibition’s title, “Mirror in the Mirror,” repeats the name of a musical composition by Arvo Pärt. It is a dialogue of two voices that exist only in harmony with each other. “…the meeting of Pärt’s music and Richter’s painting reveals the cultural ties between the two countries. It is a dialogue based on love and the awareness that we can truly see ourselves only in the mirror of the Other,” says one of the curators of the exhibition, Sergey Fofanov.

Until the end of August, the exhibition will be held in Dresden, at the Lipsiusbau, and from October 24 it will open in Tallinn, at the Kumu Art Museum.

We are truly delighted that Ülo Sooster’s small-scale work Fear has become the emblem of a significant international cultural event…