An exhibition ‘People and Cultures of Siberia’ launched at TSU

On June 1st, 2015, an exhibition titled ‘People and Cultures of Siberia. Photographs from the Siberian Expeditions of Finnish Linguist and Anthropologist Kai Donner’ was launched at the TSU Centre of Culture.

The idea of holding such an exhibition had been put forward by LSAR Chief Research Fellow, Chair of Department of Ethnology at Moscow State University, Professor and Doctor of History Dmitri A. Funk. It was organized by the Laboratory for Social and Anthropological Research team in cooperation with the TSU Institute of Arts and Culture staff and the initiative was supported by TSU Rector.

During the launch ceremony, 50 photographs by Kai Donner taken by him during his Siberian trips to the rivers of Ob, Tym, Ket’, Taz, Vah and to the Kamasins in the Kansk area of Yenisey province between 1911 and 1914 were presented to the public. The exhibition became possible thanks to the National Board of Antiquities (Finland) that kindly provided the photos. Two photographs of the early 20th century depicting the city of Tomsk which was a starting point of Donner’s expeditions and an early 20th century travel photographic camera were given for the exhibition by M. B. Shatilov Tomsk Regional Museum of Local History. TSU Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography also provided some items collected during ethnographic expeditions to the north of Western Siberia undertaken by prominent researchers of the Khanty culture V.M. Kulemzin and N.V. Lukina.

Head of the Laboratory for Social and Anthropological Research, Professor and Doctor of History Irina V. Nam, Director of the Institute of Arts and Culture (IAC), Professor and Doctor of History Eduard I. Chernyak, translator of Kai Donner’s book ‘Among the Samoyed of Siberia’, Doctor of Philology, Professor of Tomsk Polytechnic University Alexandra V. Baydak, and Associate Professor of the Institute of Arts and Culture, Candidate of History Irina V. Chernova – all delivered their talk during the launch ceremony. The exhibition research concept was developed by Candidate of History, Associate Professor of Department of Archaeology and Ethnology at Tomsk State Pedagogical University Natalia A. Tuchkova who gave an extended tour of the exhibition for the public.

The launch of the exhibition was widely covered by the media including TSU Press Office (‘Immersion into the Selkup environment’), TV2 News Agency (‘People of Siberia a century ago’), Tomskiy OBZOR (‘Tomsk residents will see how the indigenous peoples of Siberia lived in the early 20th century’) and other.

The exhibition was installed by the LSAR and IAC staff, actively assisted by students of TSU Department of Museology. The photos were printed and framed by Gis LLC (the city of Asino).
The exhibition will be open at the TSU Centre of Culture until the end of summer. Entrance is free.

You can learn more about the exhibition here (in Russian).