Est of Eden
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| Est of Eden | |
| Dr. David Bate | |
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Roland Barthes (the French semiotician) in his classic book Mythologies (1957) argues that myth is a type of speech. This is what the advertising campaign for ESTonia does: it uses language to create a myth about Estonia, turning what is a historical and cultural contingent situation into a natural imperative. The essence of this myth that is being constructed about Estonia is summed up by the campaign in two words: positively transforming. This idea (myth) underpins all the images and writing about Estonia in the new publicity materials being produced.
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If we examine these images we find that they are all dominated by a picturesque view: a Nordic sunset, pictures of Old Tallinn, a trendy bar, seagull caught in sunlight flying in front of waves, images of forests as an ecological haven, Estonians dressed in traditional costume, a well-stocked wood supply against a wooden house and so on. Of course, it is not that such images are in anyway false, it is rather the way that they are put together that inflects them into a myth of Estonia which occludes the real experience of the land and its peoples. Tourism thrives not only on selling tickets to a place, but also on the selling of an image of that place. To be on the tourist map you need a myth about your space as a place. France has its frenchness, Italy has its italianness and now Estonia has its estonianness. This modern marketing of a country as a brand is achieved by frankly admitting or offering the country as an opportunity. The positively changing idea at once acknowledges the past (the Soviet Union) and represses it at the same time. The marketing of the country is as aloof from the Baltic (a limited geographic identity) and a Nordic (not entirely credible) image. The reality, of course, is that Estonia is situated between these geographic and cultural identities with its own history of relations to them along with its once big neighbour to the East. Here a Nordic, Baltic and Russian triangle serves as a historical triangle out of which Estonia is positively transforming. (The logo ESTonia, mythifies an eastness of Estonia with a French, i.e. west European sounding EST.)
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Magically, the historical situation of Estonia in its past is resolved and positively transforming appears as an incontrovertible truth. To contradict this motto positively transforming is to be seen to be lacking in identity with this project. To complain, for instance, that some of the transformations happening in Tallinn or elsewhere are not positive is to be situated by the motto as against progress - this is how myth operates, it makes opposition appear ridiculous. Then when you look at the picturesque view of Estonia presented by the WELCOME TO ESTONIA brochure any counter-argument becomes even more ridiculous. The brochure is carefully organised to construct oppositions within it of an image of old and new, past and present in which opportunity is for the opportunist to exploit. WELCOME TO ESTONIA it says in capital letters set within the shape of the country. We are here for you it screams, come and develop us. I wonder, how does it feel to be marketed as an opportunity?
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| Estonian Art 2/02 (12) | Published by the Estonian Institute 2002 | ISSN 1406-5711 (Online) | ISSN 1406-3549 (Printed version) | einst@einst.ee | tel: (372) 631 43 55 | fax: (372) 631 43 56 | |
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