An evening of acquaintance: the Benin traditional music project

We provide an overview of the current status of the Benin traditional music project.

Introducing the traditional music of Grand-Popo in Benin (West Africa).

Composer and singer Steve Abeni (Benin) and the Benin traditional music ensemble will contribute
Hans-Gunter Lock
Andrus Haugas
Janek Samberg
Asya Dorofeeva
Andrus Kallastu 

Since Grand-Popo is one of the most important voodoo spiritual centers in addition to extremely exciting musical traditions, in addition to musicians, anthropologists, religious researchers, dance researchers, visual artists, filmmakers, cultural historians, philosophers and experts in other fields are invited to exchange ideas.

Event on Facebook

Thursday, 28th of September at 17.30 Anthony Luciano, a New York based leather designer and entrepreneur will give an inspirational lecture about vintage handbags and building a small business in New York.

Anthony Luciano, a first-generation New Yorker of Italian descent, brings together artistry and family heritage. Raised in a family of skilled artisans, where his mother and grandmother were seamstresses and his father a carpenter, Luciano inherited a passion for crafting with his hands. 

He initially pursued a fashion degree at the Fashion Institute of Technology but later transitioned to accessory design. In 2000, he launched his own collection, drawing inspiration from vintage handbag clasps from around the world. His aim was to create luxurious day and evening bags of exceptional quality, quickly gaining acclaim in top retailers like Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, and Stanley Korshak. His bags have been featured in leading fashion magazines and have garnered a loyal celebrity following, including stars like Judith Light, Meryl Streep, Debra Messing, Cameron Diaz, and Megan Mullally.

This lecture is made possible by funding from the Baltic-American Freedom Foundation (BAFF).

Homepage: anthonyluciano.com

Anthony Luciano is visiting EKA to teach students a course on making handbags with frames. 

Lecture is in english

In autumn 2023, the open architectural lectures will take place under the title Mobile Masters. The theme brings architects and theorists to Tallinn, who analyse architecture’s flexibility and the mobile practices of architects, spatial designers and artists.

Gregor Taul, the curator of the autumn lectures, introduces the program with the following words: “Architecture stands at a significant crossroads. Ten-year-old buildings are demolished and taken to the landfill. The lifespan of an interior design project is five years at best, if that. These bleak facts do not inspire confidence in a discipline that requires so many resources in light of such a short time perspective. What does ‘better not do anything’ mean for spatial design? What might ‘mobile architecture’ refer to or who is a ‘mobile designer’? How can moving people or things be a positive spatial practice?”

On September 28, Keith Murray will be on the EKA main hall stage in Tallinn with the lecture “MOBILITY: Abstract/Actual/Affect”

Keith Murray is a Zimbabwean born architect, designer, sculptor and jewelry artist who has lived in the UK since 1988. Murray trained as an architect in Cape Town, South Africa and has worked as an architect and lecturer in South Africa, Zambia, Uganda, London and Brighton. About ten years ago, Murray retired to Suffolk on the east coast of the British Isles, where he built an eco-house for himself and his partner and has focused on making sculptures and jewelry from natural and found materials.

Keith Murray introduces his lecture in the following words:

The talk draws on personal experience/interests/thoughts of the last 50 years. Divided into three topics mainly to give some structure, but these will overlap and interweave, as they do in real life. 

ABSTRACT – From the Industrial revolution to the Technological revolution, in the last 150 years everything has got faster and faster. This acceleration has affected all aspects of our lives. Including Art, especially Sculpture (Calder is an obvious topic, but Caro and Smith are also looked at), literature, poetry. 

ACTUAL – Mobility in Architecture discussed using a few selected examples. Things now made, materials and techniques used, changing demands, some for good, some for bad. Just how bad is becoming more and more obvious, so responsible awareness and action is essential. 

AFFECT – Immigration and emigration, the spread of knowledge but also the awareness of things lost, left behind but impossible to forget. 

The open lectures are intended for students and professionals of all disciplines, not just the field of architecture. All lectures take place in the large auditorium of EKA, are in English, free of charge and open to all interested parties. Be there!

Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Department of Architecture and Urban Design of EKA brings to the audience in Tallinn every academic year about a dozen unique practitioners and valued theoreticians of the field. You can watch lectures from previous years on YouTube.

Autumn lectures

– September 28  at 6 pm Keith Murray (https://www.instagram.com/keithmurray5199/)

– October 26 at 6 pm Alexander Roemer (https://constructlab.net/)

– November 23 at 6 pm Laurens Bekemans (https://bc-as.org/)

– December 7  at 6 pm Katarina Bonnevier (https://mycket.org/)

The lecture series is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Curator: Gregor Taul

www.avatudloengud.ee

The ceramics department of EKA is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. This exhibition is one of the events. The large-scale ceramic forms exhibited in Viimsi Artium have been completed as a first-year study project of the EKA Ceramics Department.

The works planned and built during March and April have been fired in the beginning of May in the anagama-type kiln located in Tohisoo manor park in Kohila. The special feature of the kiln is that it is heated with wood and the objects to be fired are in direct contact with the flame, one firing lasts on average 50 hours and the kiln cools down in 4-5 days.

Participating current and former students: Anna-Liisa Villmann, Merilyn Kasemets, Keily Kerem, Lilian Maasik, Elisabeth Tönne, Sanna Lova, Kristel Kärdi, Linda Viikant, Mari-Ann Maask, Maria Kim, Kätriin Reinart, Marta Vikentjeva, Gaida -Erica Pärn, Helen Griffiths, Ethel Ütsmüts.

Subject supervisor and exhibition organizer: Karin Kalman

The exhibition will remain open until October 19.

On Monday, 18th September, the EKA Library will open an exhibition to present the results of the artistic research project „The Reconstruction and Artistic Development of the Historical Relief Print Technique“.

The starting point of the study is the relief printing technique used in the workshop of leather artist and bookbinder Eduard Taska in 1924. The technique is currently unknown but distinguished from the well-known cliché and linoprint by its two-dimensional result and the absence of fine graphic lines.

The exhibition provides an overview of the experiments conducted to reconstruct the relief printing process as authentically as possible and develop printing solutions suitable for contemporary materials and techniques based on the restored historical technique that allows for mass production.

The reinvented reverse print technique allows for the use of a wide range of reusable and recyclable materials as printing plates. It enables blind and foil printing on various materials. The results of the experiments show that the reverse print is suitable for prototyping as well as for the production of unique items and small-scale products.

The exhibition will remain open until 15^th November 2023.

For more information, please contact Jaana Päeva: jaana.paeva@artun.ee

EKA artistic research project team of „The reconstruction and artistic development of the historical relief print technique“: Jaana Päeva, Eve Kaaret, Lennart Mänd, Riina Samelselg

Exhibition design: Ran-Re Reimann

Project is funded by: Ministry of Culture’s Artistic Research Support Program in the field of culture and creative industries

Special thanks to: The Estonian History Museum, EKA Bookbinding Studio, IKIGI

Monday to Friday 10.00–18.00
Saturday 11.00–15.00

21 September at 17.45 (room A-101).

The first lecture will be given by two artists’ duos.

During their residency, Japanese duo Reico Motohara and Kabo invite people to cook with them to get to know the participants better and learn about their stories.

Olga Wardega and Christoph Zeckel created an audiovisual installatsion at Kreenholm factory for the Station Narva festival. The artists explored what meaning this place has in the memories of Narva people and what happens when nature takes over.

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In autumn 2023, international artists from the Narva Art Residency will give three lectures at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

They will talk about the practicalities of being a professional artist, what the daily life of an art residency is like and how to get involved in the opportunities offered to artists. Of course, they will also introduce their own creative work.

Lectures take place on three Thursdays at 17.45. They are free of charge and open to all!

The lectures will be held in English.

(Russian below)

KEEPING THINGS IN THE DARK, AGAIN
Anna Škodenko, Darja Popolitova, Viktor Gurov and Francisco Martínez 
22.09—25.10.2023
Opening: 22.09 at 5 pm

Join us for the exhibition “Keeping things in the dark, again” opening on September 22, 5 pm at EKA Gallery!
“Keeping things in the dark again” is a collectively curated art project, based on ethnographic research. The exhibition at the EKA gallery is the final part of a trilogy, which reflects on the correlation between public secrets and shadow spaces in Ida-Virumaa. Over the past three years, we have visited 37 basements, exploring the underground material culture of this post-industrial, Russian-speaking, ecologically devastated region. A four-artist installation has been the first outcome of our collective work, which was exhibited in the Riga Art Space (2022) and at the Sillamäe Museum (2023). In the meantime, we have been developing our installation and continued with our research and the exchange of ideas. As a result, we have created 4 new, individual works:

THE PAST OF THE FUTURE—this installation stages a series of encounters with the time capsule buried into the ‘Glory to Labour’ monument in 1971 in Kohtla-Järve, which is supposed to be opened in 2046 but was accidentally unearthed in 1996.

KRATT© MADE IN IDA-VIRUMAA—a wall installation consisting of sculptured oil shale fragments exposed on 3D-printed shelves. Kratt is a workaholic mythological creature who destroys oneself when its creator entrusts it with impossible tasks.

CAVE GHOSTS—an installation that combines fumage aesthetics with spatial design. By covering the entrance to the gallery, it reproduces the experience of descending a staircase and stepping into a cellar. Or into a mining tunnel.

LIQUID SHADOWS AT THE BORDER—a series of Byzantine collages inspired by the bonding gestures of garage users in Kulgu (aka ‘Narva Venice’). This is a male, amphibious territory for doing things other than in the city and being in time at ease.

What had been concealed and kept in the dark has a particular efficacy while resurfacing and being on display. This exhibition presents different instances of this, reflecting on material hoarding, messages for the future, existentialist aesthetics and shelters where to test different sides of the self. People need hideouts and places to store things in the dark. The main installation deals with this issue and is composed of 4 parts: the ‘Cellar Door’ video installation in which Jelena guides us around her cellar in Kohtla-Järve; the audio-visual sculpture titled ‘Баю-бай’ introduces a surreal video located in a sculpture in the form of a stroller; the visual representation ‘Sartre downstairs’ of various existential messages found in local basements; and ‘Subterranean biographies’, which displays a series of extracted objects alongside personal stories.

Anna Škodenko (b. 1986) is a multidisciplinary artist and guest lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Her work is characterized by a lyrical and analytical approach to the medium and the visual image.

Darja Popolitova (b. 1989) is a multidisciplinary artist, guest lecturer and doctoral student at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Darja creates jewellery and video installations on the topic of digital culture, mixing it with pseudo-magical aesthetics.

Viktor Gurov (b. 1989) is an artist and graphic designer interested in urban landscapes and decommissioned places. He works as creative director of the Estonian National Library.

Francisco Martínez (b. 1982) is an anthropologist of Tampere University dealing with contemporary issues of material culture through ethnographic experiments. In 2018, he was awarded with the Early Career Prize of the European Association of Social Anthropologists.

We express our gratitude to Pire Sova, Svetlana Ivanova, Ekaterina Grafova, Jelena Mutonen, Andrei Mitkovets, Nadežda Popolitova, Jakob Tulve, Andres Nõlvak, Allar Rebane, Madis Kaasik, Riina Varol, Mari Kivipõld, Taavi Teevet, Dmitri Fedotkin, Enas Amerkhanov, Dept. of Jewelry and Blacksmithing, WasteMatters ERC project, and, overall, to all who have contributed to the exhibition in different ways.

_______________

И СНОВА ВЕЩИ В ТЕМНОТЕ?
Анна Шкоденко, Дарья Пополитова, Виктор Гуров и Франсиско Мартинес
Галерея EKA, 22.09—25.10.2023
Открытие: 22.09 в 17.00

И СНОВА ВЕЩИ В ТЕМНОТЕ? – это коллективный художественный проект, основанный на этнографических исследованиях. Выставка в галерее EKA является заключительной частью трилогии, которая размышляет о том, как хранимые обществом тайны соотносятся со скрытыми пространствами в Восточной Эстонии. За последние три года мы посетили 37 подвалов, исследуя подземную материальную культуру этого постиндустриального, русскоязычного, экологически разоренного региона. Инсталляция, созданная четырьмя художниками стала первым результатом нашей коллективной работы, которая была выставлена в Рижском городском выставочном зале (2022) и в музее Силламяэ (2023). Тем временем мы дополняли нашу инсталляцию, продолжали наши исследования и обмен идеями. В результате мы создали 4 новые индивидуальные работы: 

ПРОШЛОЕ БУДУЩЕГО—эта инсталляция представляет собой серию встреч с капсулой времени, замурованной в 1971 году в монументе «Слава Труду», возведенном в Кохтла-Ярве. Капсулу предполагалось открыть в 2046 году, но ее случайно обнаружили в 1996.

ДОМОВИК© MADE IN IDA-VIRUMAA—настенная инсталляция, состоящая из скульптурных фрагментов горючего сланца, выставленных на полках, напечатанных на 3D-принтере. Kratt (домовик) – мифологическое существо-трудоголик, которое уничтожает себя, когда его создатель поручает ему невыполнимые задачи.

ПЕЩЕРНЫЕ ПРИЗРАКИ—инсталляция, сочетающая эстетику фьюмажа с пространственным дизайном. Закрывая вход в галерею, инсталляция воспроизводит ощущение спуска по лестнице в подвал. Или в шахтный туннель.

ЖИДКИЕ ТЕНИ НА КРАЮ—серия коллажей в византийском стиле, вдохновленная тем, как вяжут узлы пользователи лодочных причалов в районе Кулгу (также известном как «Нарвская Венеция»). Это, так сказать, земноводная, мужская территория, где можно отдохнуть от городской рутины и отлично провести время. 

То, что было скрыто и хранилось во тьме, приобретает особое очарование, когда извлекается на поверхность. И выставка позволяет нам в этом неоднократно убедиться, размышляя о накоплении материалов, посланиях в будущее, экзистенциалистской эстетике и убежищах, где можно узнать разные стороны собственного «я». Людям нужны укрытия и пространства, чтобы хранить вещи в темноте. Основная инсталляция посвящена этой теме и состоит из 4 частей: видеоинсталляция «Дверь в подвал», в которой Елена проводит нас по своему подвалу в Кохтла-Ярве; аудиовизуальная скульптура «Баю-бай» знакомит с сюрреалистичным видео, располагающимся в скульптуре в форме коляски; визуальное представление «Сартр внизу» из различных экзистенциальных посланий, найденных в местных подвалах; и «Подземные биографии», в которых рядом с личными историями представлен ряд извлеченных объектов.

Anna Škodenko (1986)—мультидисциплинарная художница и гостевая преподавательница в Эстонской академии художеств. Ее творчество характеризуется лиризмом и аналитическим подходом к медиуму и визуальному образу.

Darja Popolitova (1989)—мультидисциплинарная художница, гостевая преподавательница и докторант в Эстонской академии художеств. Дарья создает украшения, а таже видео-инсталляции на тему дигитальной культуры, смешивая это с псевдо-магической эстетикой.

Viktor Gurov (1989)—художник и графический дизайнер, которого интересуют темы оформления текстов, а также городских пейзажей и заброшенных, урбанистических мест. Виктор работает креативным директором Эстонской национальной библиотеки.

Francisco Martínez (1982)—антрополог Университета Тампере, занимающийся современными проблемами материальной культуры через этнографические эксперименты. В 2018 году он был награжден премией за раннюю карьеру Европейской ассоциации социальных антропологов.

Выражаем благодарность Пире Сова, Светлане Ивановой, Екатерине Графовой, Елене Мутонен, Андрею Митковцу, Надежде Пополитовой, Якобу Тульве, Андресу Нылваку, Аллар Ребане, Мадис Каасик, Рийна Варол, Мари Кивипылд, Таави Тивет, Энас Амерханов, Дмитрий Федоткин, Кафедра ювелирного и кузнечного дела, ERC проект WasteMatters, и всем, кто так или иначе внес свой вклад в инсталляцию.

Tiia Roivanen ELE/GESTURE
15.–21.09.2023 in Vent Space

Tiia Roivanen lives and work in Helsinki, Finland. They graduated from Taidekoulu Maa’s contemporary art study program (2022) and is preparing for a bachelor’s degree in Aalto University’s visual arts education program. In their Bachelor’s artistic research they explore their practicum in how intuition and gestures perform in our sense of selves. They call it ”the practicum of weaving”. They is a self-taught lyricist and composer. In their work, they use singing, lyrics, organic materials and objects that become a part of their work. With their projects, they does solo concerts and music performances. Now they is fascinated to bring their musical work

’Ele’ (Gesture) into an installation and to open a new layer of thoughts with it’s aesthetics. 

Ele/Gesture is proposing movement. Gestures and their interpretations may vary – their connection to humankind is wavering, and sometimes complex. Every gesture adds a layer into our surface. They pierce trough into our previous ways and make space for variation. Sometimes there is dust between the gestures and the surfaces don’t stick to each other. Do you understand the meaning? Yes – no – sometimes you get lost. They always give, reach and receive. You can choose how to answer. 

What kind of gestures you have been practicing? Which gestures lead forward? What kind of gesture you are?

Gesture is a statement for revealing yourself. The idea behind the work is to act as a letter, like a “novella about heartbreak”. Since childhood, I have been fascinated by epochal films from the 1700s and 1800s. I think there’s something about them that never changes – the romantic scenes and the dazzling rays of sun woven into their core, blurring my surroundings. The romanticized scenes from the fields and the way love is being presented as this unbearable source of suffering. The spaces we have created, the spaces we have taken from, the spaces we want to go back to even after we have lost them. This gesture is an act to become seen in grief and movement to see the layers – it strives to be a multimaterial composition. 

I would like to thank my closest people and co-workers for their ultimate support in order to complete Ele. Thank you Elias Riipinen for music producing Ele, Ida Lindgren, Hele Okkonen ja Saija Lehtola for making video cooperation and Helmi Tikkanen who helped me to write this poster in English.

Manifesto:

In my practice I am committed to questioning questions of vulnerability and honesty, which trough play grow first from shyness to trust, and then into an experience of being able to open up, with encounters that reflect the path you are on. I try to surrender myself towards it constantly.

On Friday, 15th of September at 6 pm Holger Loodus will open his solo exhibition titled “Silver Bullet / Dinner for Four” at Vaal Gallery.

The exhibition brings together two parallel narratives presented as a cohesive unity through the mediums of painting and video.

The series of paintings titled “Dinner for Four” is about you and me and the unknown guests who come to visit us one evening from far away. The guests have come to provide answers to questions that have been bothering us for a long time – how to end wars and solve global problems; what the future of our planet will be; is humanity still sustainable or is it time to pack up and leave? And finally, as perhaps what we all think about, how can we become better human beings? At the same time, there are so many questions we would like to ask, but perhaps we are afraid to. What answers do they bring? We’ve never sat down with people who have no face, no body, and who don’t speak with words. But they talk a lot.

“Silver Bullet” is a video essay about a rifle bullet lost in space. A closer look reveals that a solitary character lives there inside. We don’t know how they got there, where they’re going or what they’re thinking. At the same time, inevitable processes and strange events are taking place. The artist wonders whether such phenomena take place inside every bullet on its journey.

The exhibition will remain open until 7th of October, Tue–Fri 12–6 pm, Sat 12–4 pm.

Holger Loodus (b 1970) is a musician, painter, multimedia and installation artist, as well as a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts. His work is characterized by the construction of strange situations that at times strive towards fantastical realities or alternative histories. In order to do this, he uses analytical and poetic-philosophical visual means – from hyperrealist painting to mechanisms he himself has constructed and from video to staged installations. In 2018, Loodus participated in the exhibition of the Köler Prize nominees at the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia and was awarded the People’s Choice Award. Since 2010, he has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in Estonia, Lithuania, Finland and Germany, his most recent solo exhibitions took place at Kai Art Center (2023), Kogo Gallery (2021), Turku Art Museum (2019) and the Tallinn Art Hall Gallery (2017).

Contributors to the exhibition:
Sander Põldsaar – camera and post-production.
Katrin Enni – sound
Aaron Adam Bluds – passenger

The artist would like to thank: Rein Loodus, Kristel Altmäe, Andreas Altmäe, Iris Vilu, Mihkel Ilus, Jane Muts, Hans Lillemets, Tanel Paliale, Irma Bluds, Johannes Säre

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Tallinn, October 3-5, 2023

Organisers: Kumu Art Museum and Estonian Academy of Arts in collaboration with the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art

With the support of the Nordic Culture Point 

Venues: Estonian Academy of Arts, Kumu Art Museum

The climate crisis has developed into the defining crisis of our time, interlinked with the military, socio-political, and humanitarian conflicts and inequalities across the globe. The artworld must inevitably reevaluate its priorities. A major part of rethinking art in the age of the anthropocene centers around creating and adapting more sustainable practices. The global lack of resources, issues of environmental justice – and possibly also careful visions of post-extractivist futures – make art workers think through circularity and sustainability.

This workshop calls to discuss the art world’s green transition in a creative and at the same time critical manner and explore it across disciplines – inviting professionals and students from art and design, conservation, curating and museology and related fields.

How to make art institutions, art and exhibition production more sustainable? What are the other ways in which arts and culture can contribute to transforming the extractivist mindset? What is the role of artists, designers and other art workers in fulfilling the climate aims set by governments and politicians? What is the relationship between an artwork and its carbon footprint? How to avoid greenwashing? How to make space for time and effort that goes into experimenting with more sustainable practices and avoid burnout?

Valuing learning from different perspectives, skills and knowledge, the teaching staff includes experts from various fields. The event is designed for art workers, as well as students across disciplines (MA and doctoral, but also motivated BA students).

Organisers:

Linda Kaljundi (Estonian Academy of Arts)

Karin Vicente (Art Museum of Estonia)

How to apply?

Participation is free of charge. Please register here: https://form.jotform.com/231972683642060

Deadline: September 15

In case you need study credits, you can gain 2 ECTS credits by attending all the talks and visits and completing a conference report in the format of a visual essay.