Conference of Doctoral School

The annual Conference of EKA Doctoral School will take place on April 13th, 2023

EKA hall A501

Please register by April 10th at the latest.

TIMETABLE

9.45 Registration
10.00 Opening words, Dr. Anu Allas, Vice-Rector for Research, Head of Doctoral School

10.10 Key Talk: Prof. Esa Kirkkopelto (University of Helsinki), visiting professor of EKA Doctoral School 2022/23, „On the Possibility of Artistic Research“.

11.10 Coffee break

Art and Design, moderator Dr. Liina Unt

11.20 Taavet Jansen, supervisor Dr. Anu Allas
„Memento – Directing a Hybrid Event as Practice-based Research“. Discussant Nesli Hazal Oktay

12.00 Mia Čopíková, supervisors Prof. Karol Weisslechner, Dr. Nadia Kančevová
„Transformation of the Stones in Jewelry“. Discussant Varje Õunapuu

12.40 Nezli Hazal Oktay, supervisors Prof. Danielle Wilde, Dr. Kristi Kuusk
„Intimacy with Far-away Bodies“. Discussant Mia Čopíková

13.20 Lunch break

Architecture and Urban Planning, moderator Dr. Jüri Soolep

14.10 Johan Tali, supervisors Prof. Andres Kurg, Prof. Maroš Krivy
„Curious Cases of Exhibiting Architects: Shaping the Mindset Through Displays of Environments and Spatial Interventions“. Discussant Martin Melioranski

14.50 Martin Melioranski, supervisor Dr. Jüri Soolep
“Re-writing the Rules – Architecture by Iterative Ideas”. Discussant Johan Tali

15.30 Coffee break

Cultural Heritage and Conservation, and Art History and Visual Culture,
moderators Dr. Anneli Randla, Prof. Andres Kurg

15.40 Varje Õunapuu, supervisors Dr. Hilkka Hiiop, Ms. Karol Bayer
„How Is it Done? Technical Aspects of the Estonian Medieval Wall-paintings and the Underneath Plaster“. Discussant Mariann Raisma

16.20 Mariann Raisma, supervisors Prof. Linda Kaljundi, Dr. Anneli Randla
„Discontinuance or Continuity? Changes in the Role of Museums as Mediators of Cultural Memory During the Major Changes of the 20th Century“. Discussant Mariliis Elizabeth Holzmann

17.00 Mariliis Elizabeth Holzmann, supervisors Dr. Regina-Nino Mion, Dr. Barbi Pilvre
„A Diffractive Approach to Analyzing Horror Films Directed by Women“. Discussant Taavet Jansen

17.40 Coffee break

17.50 Roundtable (Dr. Anu Allas, Dr. Liina Unt, Dr. Anneli Randla, Dr. Jüri Soolep, Prof. Andres Kurg)

For more information:
Henry Kuningas Henry.kuningas@artun.ee

In April, EKA will open a POP-UP SHOP in Telliskivi Creative City. Great chance to buy art and design made by EKA students!

Workshops and other exciting activities will also take place.

Pop-up shop will be open on 1–30 April

Mon-Fri 11–19 and Sat-Sun 11–17.

Stay tuned!

Tõnis Jürgens „Dreaming of Babylon“ / „Paabeli ulmad“

Tartu Kunstimuuseum / Tartu Art Museum

18.03.2023–14.05.2023

The main focus of the exhibition is the digital measurement of sleep, which has gained popularity in recent years. Tracking the habits of one’s everyday life is offered to individual users by an increasing number of devices: smartwatches, -bands, -rings, -speakers, -mats, apps etc. These devices track users even when they are sleeping, collecting a steady stream of data about their habits and cycles of sleep.

The measuring of sleep turns a welcome spotlight on the importance of healthy sleep habits. However, the data collected through these measurements are resources and commodities which end up in the data centres of the smart device manufacturers and which can then be resold as data or market information. Therefore, by tracking your sleep habits and interpreting the collected data, you are also working while you are sleeping.

It seems that sleep, which previously seemed to be the last mysterious safe haven where capitalism couldn’t reach, has quietly started becoming part of the machinations of the surveillance society. Through measuring sleep, dreams have turned into side-products in the production process, like the noise surrounding a radio signal or the sediment in a bottle of juice.

At the exhibition Dreaming of Babylon, Tõnis Jürgens follows the afterlives of the data collected by the surveillance society, as well as dreams that have been written down by dreamers. At the centre of the display is a staged bedroom filled with traces of somebody’s life. In the room, a film is projected – scenes of server racks towering over uninhabited landscapes – which is accompanied by a shifting narrative of the descriptions of dreams.

The exhibition is part of the Tartu Art Museum exhibition series Young Tartu.

Tõnis Jürgens (b 1989) is a film projectionist, a writer and an emptiness aficionado. He has a bachelor’s degree in culture studies from Tallinn University and a master’s degree from the Department of New Media at the Estonian Academy of Arts, including an additional year as an exchange student at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (UMPRUM). The exhibition is a continuation of Jürgens’s creative research at the Doctoral School of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Saturday the 1st of April has an open door day at the Copperleg Artist Residency in Vaskjala, roughly 12 km outside of Tallinn.

Polish painter Katarzyna Pitek and Dutch sculptor Jonathan Stavleu (EKA Contemporary Art MA) will display the art they made during their month long residency.

Janno Bergman and Erik Alalooga will be performing. The open door day takes place from 13:30 to 16:30.

Copper Leg Residency

Facebook

An evening with noise music, nostalgic irony and cake.

Nele Tiidelepp’s play “When we reached the end of the sentence, we forgot where it started” is performed again.

A fluid collective consisting mainly of performers, artists, musicians and art workers with a background in EKA, Riin Maide, Gregor Kulla, Henri Särekanno, Ekke Janisk, Andreas Kübar, Ats Kruusing, Oliver Issak, Raul Markus Vaiksoo and Leon Allik, are Tiidelepp’s companions on this journey to the end of the sentence, where the predominant activity is the attempt to forget the past and the predominant mood is anxiety, chaos, alienation and sincerity due to its impossibility.

Director: Nele Tiidelepp

Performers: Nele Tiidelepp, Riin Maide, Henri Särekanno, Gregor Kulla, Ats Kruusing, Andreas Kübar, Ekke Janisk

Artist: Riin Maide

Dramaturgical support: Oliver Issak

Illuminator: Leon Allik

Choreography: Raul Markus Vaiksoo

Project manager: Kaie Küünal

Co-production: Kanuti Gildi SAAL, Nele Tiidelepp

Support: the Cultural Endowment of Estonia 

The performances will take place on March 29, 30 and April 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Nele Tiidelepp’s play “When we reached the end of the sentence, we forgot where it started”.

The number of places is limited – grab your ticket now!

The first thought I had when I walked into the hall was that I felt like I was walking into someone else’s class night. It’s a certain pseudo-nostalgic feeling associated with the experience of a class night. An experience that has been somewhere before and you long for it. – Karin Allik, Kultuur ERR

Some scenes also seemed almost like a quote from something earlier and more distant, as if the performers, despite the prism of irony, were nostalgic for some distant, indirectly experienced times, when neon was in fashion and Janika Sillamaa sang about hope in a bright voice – Brigitta Davidjants, Sirp

Come and visit the exhibition Introduction to Estonian Design! Perhaps you can recognize some familiar objects? Tell us more about it!

The Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design (ETDM) invites you to contribute to the upcoming installation featuring visitors’ photographs and stories of design objects that can be found at homes and in the museum! Other objects that relate to the exhibition are also welcome.

Public programme and installation Do you have this at home? explores the wider context of design objects. We aim to raise awareness on local histories and form a more personal connection with the surrounding material culture. By showcasing how household items can become museum objects over time, the installation supports the further understanding of the museum’s collection and seeks to facilitate a conversation where varying voices can be heard.

Show us what you have:

1. Look around your home! Find out if there is/are some design object(s)
2. Take a picture of it
3. Think of any personal memories related to this object – traditions, rituals, how it became yours, anything nostalgic or very pragmatic. You can also consult and gather stories from your friends and family. Write down the story
4. Send us the photo and story via email to publik@etdm.ee or bring it to the museum reception at Lai 17, Tallinn

Selected contributions will be included in an installation in the permanent exhibition.

The public programme and installation is created in collaboration between the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design (ETDM) and the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), The Institute of Art History and Visual Culture.

Do you have this at home? is envisioned by students Ksenia Kovalenko, Maivi Kärginen-Kivi, Lilla Lukács, Paula Oberndorfer, and Johanna-Elisabeth Tärno.

Special thanks to Agnes Aljas, Rebecca Duclos, Hanna-Liis Kont, and Sandra Nuut.

Graphic design by Ott Kagovere

Exhibition design by Ulla Alla

The Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design (ETDM) has been collecting and contextualizing design for the past twenty years. There are about 18 000 pieces in the museum’s collection, which are the base to organize exhibitions, public and educational programmes.

On 25 March at 12.00, the third exhibition „The Skin of Reflections“ of the creative doctoral thesis by Sirja-Liisa Eelma, PhD student in art and design, will be pre-reviewed.
The peer review will take place in the large gallery of the Tartu Art House.
The exhibition will be open until 26 March.

The pre-reviewers are Dr. Elnara Taidre ja Peeter Talvistu
The thesis supervisor is Dr. Alari Allik.

This exhibition introduces Sirja-Liisa Eelma’s paintings completed in 2022 and 2023. The new artworks form a continuation of Eelma’s painting series Black Mirror, which was partly displayed at the exhibition of the same title by Sirja-Liisa Eelma and Tiina Sarapu in the Draakon gallery in summer 2022.

Read more: http://kunstimaja.ee/2023/02/sirja-liisa-eelma

Entropy Gauntlet
Zody Burke, Taylor “Tex” Tehan, Joonas Timmi, Lauri Raus April 6 – April 28, 2023
Opening: April 6, 6pm–9pm

“There is nothing more mysterious than a TV set left on in an empty room … Suddenly the TV reveals itself for what it really is: a video of another world, ultimately addressed to no one at all, delivering its images indifferently, indifferent to its own messages. You can easily imagine it still functioning after humanity has disappeared.”

— Jean Baudrillard, America

Entropy Gauntlet invites you to pass a threshold into a transmutation of space. Inspired by wide-eyed summer night visits to amusement parks and roadside motels, laden with the nostalgia of childhood & playing with the expectations generated by the psychogeography of such spaces, the exhibition leads viewers to contemplate the tension between fantasies of the world we’ve inherited versus the reality of a warming planet.

Solastalgia, a concept which describes a form of emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change, presents itself materially through an amalgam of works and artifacts set inside a narrative. Within the Entropy Gauntlet is a contemporary apologue; using architecture as archetype, exploring the porousness of post-western notions of national identity and its haunted histories. Here, utopia and dystopia become uneven categories in the realm of the anthropocene.

In the tradition of transformative environmental-architectural works such as Gregor Schneider’s “Totes Haus u r” and Jonah Freeman’s “Hello Meth Lab in the Sun”, and hearkening to Robert Ashley’s operatic compositions of late capitalist melancholia, the Entropy Gauntlet manifests as a linear series of archaeological sites undergoing perpetual excavation. It is a narrative of motion and placelessness tropifying the notion that invisible, emotional environs can be injected into the visible sphere to create a sense of longing, dread, and even abject horror.

A note from the artists…

The roadside motel is a ubiquitous feature upon the sprawling face of the continental USA, but it is entirely absent in Estonia. It is taken for granted as a place where small tragedies may or may not occur. It is a location for repressed emotions to manifest due to its invisible status, despite its ubiquity in the flyover states. Within the Entropy Gauntlet, our aim is to engage with the surreality that permeates the line where memory and history interact, in an unexpected location in Tallinn; creating a hauntological simulacrum of a space that exists between destinations. The poetic transmutations of culture that occur when countries on opposite sides of the globe mirror and refract one another are acutely fertile terrain for our work.

The fact that the USA exists partially as a fantasy informed by media is intrinsic to our concept. Two out of four of us are American; despite this, the two of us have experienced our home country in ways that run contradictory to the America that exists in the imagination of the cultural status quo. The other two of us are Estonian and have spent a considerable amount of time formulating fantasies about America & weighing these fantasies against facts. To honestly engage with the USA is to deal with omnipresent shadows that resist truth & dominate the country’s emotional cartography, and with an endless deluge of popular fantasies that provide alternative images to the USA that exists.

Artist Bios:

With an eye towards the complicated nature of inherent and enforced structures, American multidisciplinary artist Zody Burke criticizes the absurdity of late capitalism and the mythologies and archetypes it generates, while leaving a liminal space for larger ways of being together.
Working with sculpture, illustration, sound, and other media, Burke has sought to establish that societal concepts of identity, symbolism, brutality and hierarchy are as tenuous as we see to craft them, and yet they paradoxically shape practically every facet of our lives.

Taylor “Tex” Tehan is an M.A. Graphic Design student from the United States and an interdisciplinary practitioner. Working with textiles, sound, metal, wood and film, his work is influenced by the landscape, nostalgia, speculative futures, mythology and romanticism of the American West. Previously working in the fashion industry, Tehan has worked as a designer for various brands, including a recent traineeship on the Menswear Design Team at Louis Vuitton in Paris. His interests meet at the cross section of fashion, music, contemporary art, film and graphic design, with a strong emphasis on experiential-environmental themes.

Joonas Timmi is an Estonian artist & designer who explores the contemporary identity of craftsmanship by combining traditional woodworking techniques with VR-modeling, 3D-printing and CNC-milling. In his work, he expresses the relations between functionality and sentimentality in objects using furniture as the main medium. Each piece aims to be a somewhat functional artifact with an emphasis on biomorphic form with anthropomorphic charisma. A recent work, “Traction” chair, was exhibited in the exhibition “Present Yet-to-Be” (Tallinn, Hobusepea gallery) in January 2022. The installation combined meandering forms of plywood with textile to create throne-like structure, inspired by the idea of alternate realities.

Lauri Raus is an Estonian songwriter & guitarist, most notable for his work in contemporary country/shoegaze ensemble Holy Motors. Through his work, he engages with western musical tropes from a distance, transfiguring his own interpretation of Americana into something subtly different and altogether unique. His band is signed to New York-based indie label Wharf Cat which has enabled him to tour the USA, allowing him to rupture, expand, and transform his relationship with the musical tradition he uses as a foundation for his art. He studies anthropology at Tallinn University.

On 21 March at 11.00, the second production „Memento“ of the creative doctoral thesis by Taavet Jansen, PhD student in art and design, will be pre-reviewed.

The peer review will take place in the Zoom, link HERE.

Hybrid production „Memento“ is a physical, poetic journey performed by three actors. Read more: https://elektron.art/projects/memento

The pre-reviewers are Dr. Elen Lotman and Dr. Raivo Kelomees.
The thesis supervisor is Dr. Anu Allas.