Chairman talking to the milkers about socialist duties, from Not Suitable for Work. A Chairman’s Tale (2015). Image: G. Paas, Estonian Film Archives
Chairman from Not Suitable for Work. A Chairman’s Tale (2015). Image: The National Archives of Estonia
From Not Suitable for Work. A Chairman’s Tale (2015). Image: Pavel Kuznetsov, Estonian Film Archives
Kolkhoz in South Estonia from Not Suitable for Work. A Chairman’s Tale (2015)
Chairman's fingerprints from Not Suitable for Work. A Chairman’s Tale (2015). Image: The National Archives of Estonia
Study of medical examination from Not Suitable for Work. A Chairman’s Tale (2015)

Jaanus Samma

Estonian artist Jaanus Samma has spent years working with archival material detailing the silenced histories of Soviet Estonian homosexuals. For the Estonian Pavilion, Samma presents a series of found photographs of Juhan Ojaste (1921-90), the chairman of a collective farm deemed “unsuitable for work” on the basis of his sexuality. A war hero and a dedicated family man, Ojaste was expelled from the Communist party and faced a humiliating trial in 1964. Samma brings his story to the surface. And although his portrait is blacked out, it stands as a symbol for other suppressed narratives.