Exhibition of artists’ films at the Tartu Art House

On Friday, 20 June at 5:00, the exhibition of artists’ films “Once More I Would Like To Return” * will open in the large gallery of the Tartu Art House. The exhibition is being curated by Marge Monko and designed by Karel Koplimets.

The exhibition features five films by artists that deal with home and the memories, longing and melancholy associated with it in various psychological and aesthetic registers.

The motifs of leaving home and longing for home are as old as human history. On a personal level, fleeing or being forcibly displaced is a tragic event that leaves a mark on the rest of our lives, even if we manage to adapt well. “They don’t know that they will never really fit in. No, never. Some part of them can´t be fully present, something left behind in the old country that won’t allow them to really settle in elsewhere, to put down roots,” writes the Lithuanian-American avant-garde film-maker Jonas Mekas in his memoir I had nowhere to go. Mekas has captured his experiences as a refugee and his search for self in a new homeland through his experimental film-making.

“Artistic film is a phenomenon that situates itself outside film industry formats but uses the (audio)visual means of expression offered by the moving image. In her book War is not a woman’s face, Svetlana Alexeyevich uses the term “luminous force” from optics to describe the difference in experience of war between women and men. The more luminous a lens is, the greater its ability to record an image in poor lighting conditions. Hopefully, the films selected for the exhibition will help to illuminate those layers of homesickness and longing that are overshadowed by the great narratives of history,” explains Marge Monko.  

*The title of the exhibition is borrowed from Marie Under’s poem “The Refugee”, written while she was in exile in Sweden.

Participating artists: Noor Abed, Paul Kuimet, Jonas Mekas, Marge Monko and Anna Scherbyna.

Thank you: Kaisa Maasik, Brigita Reinert, Eesti Kunstimuuseum, AS GoProperty, Valge Kuup OÜ

The exhibition is being produced in collaboration with the Photography Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

The exhibition will be open until 20 July.

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The Tartu Art House (Vanemuise 26) is open Wed–Mon 12.00–18.00. All exhibitions are free of charge.

The exhibition activities in the Tartu Art House are supported by the Tartu city government and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.