Confessional

Confessional is the most representative wooden object in the exhibition. Neeme Külm has called this slightly crooked solid wood structure with two unnecessary wheels and thills “a booth” or “a hermitage”, and even a blunt-sounding “trough” has slipped from his lips. However, during the process of making it, the beautiful object of Estonian oak has made the artist correct his language and respectfully call it “a confessional”.

The botanical database of Estonian folk medicine lists the beneficial properties of oak. Very few of them are related to religion, but some still are: “Treatment of diseases with the bark of a sacred oak at Kuremäe. In 1956, a nun in Kuremäe Convent (about 40 years old) offered the bark and leaves of a sacred oak as a medicine to treat all kinds of diseases. To the question of whether it would also cure cancer she replied that it will cure any disease if only one has faith in God.”[1]

[1] https://herba.folklore.ee/?menu=taime&tid=895