Flag Days (with Kaisa Maasik)

There is something quite different about national pride amongst states that have only recently gained independence. While our pride is necessary, it can feel endearingly disproportionate. This is a kind of pride that is both more prevalent and less threatening than pride amongst bigger nations. We happen to come from such countries (the small kind). For Estonia and Iceland, two small nations with a history of being governed by foreign powers, their flags were a promise of freedom even before it became a reality.

Flags unite, invoke pride and disrupt unities. With the flags as our subject, we attempt to broaden the idea of what constitutes a flag by drawing parallels with sports. As sports are often linked to the national identities of people, athletes can be thought of as ambassadors, spreading the glory and reputation of their countries. In Iceland, the millennial generation grew up idolising pole vaulter Vala Flosadóttir, the first ever athlete to win an Olympic medal for Iceland. In the central video work, we witness the sheer determination of a young Icelandic pole vaulter, as her eyes lock on the goal. The athlete appears here both as the flag itself and she who raises it.