EKA Narva kunstiresidentuur, Joala 18, Narva
Start Date:
08.09.2017
End Date:
08.10.2017
resAs part of the Tallinn Photomonth programme, London-based Estonian artist Maria
Kapajeva returns to Narva Art Residency with a solo exhibition studying the social
legacy of Krenholm. For 150 years, Krenholm – the textile manufacture that was
declared bankrupt in 2010 – was the most important enterprise in Narva, shaping the
social and cultural as well as architectural atmosphere of the city. The exhibition
focuses on the mill in the late socialist period, when its workshops employed a
collective of 12,000 mainly female workers.
Inspiration for the exhibition was drawn from interviews conducted with former
workers of the mill and from the digitised family albums, diaries, and memorabilia
gathered by the artist during these interviews. By placing this material into the context
of a multimedia contemporary art exhibition, Kapajeva makes the history of the local
working class visible and enhances it with all of the artistic means at her disposal. The
viewer is presented a mill that is filled with lively female collectives and the deafening
rhythm of the looms, but which still seems like a bright and distant dream in today’s
competitive world, where the collective spirit and sense of togetherness between
women is challenged by the individualist and competition-based aims of global
capitalism.
Maria Kapajeva is a London-based Estonian artist who was born in Narva and has
exhibited her work internationally for the last 10 years. As the daughter of a designer
at Krenholm, she spent her childhood at the mill, drawing fabric patterns and
dreaming about the profession of a textile artist. The current exhibition thus takes a
distinctly personal approach, although the main topics of Kapajeva’s art are also
present: appropriation of found objects and highlighting of peripheral histories, use of
textile techniques and focusing on the representation of women, heightened sensitivity
towards social and political matters, and specifically East European feminism.
The exhibition takes its name from March of Enthusiasts, the signature song from the
soundtrack of the Soviet film The Bright Way (1940). This musical film, which starred
the Soviet cinema icon Ljubov Orlova in the role of a female weaver, inspired one of
the Krenholm’s weavers to seek employment at the mill after World War II. The
opening work of the exhibition, which bears the same name and performs reenactments
of the famous film, compares a woman’s loneliness then and now and
presents to the public for the first time the collaboration of Maria Kapajeva and dance
artist Maarja Tõnisson in the abandoned interior spaces of the former textile mill.
The exhibition is curated by Tallinn-based Liisa Kaljula, whose interests include
socialist-era art and post-socialist contemporary art dealing with the recent history of
its own region.
The exhibition is accompanied by a diverse trilingual public programme, including
Maria Kapajeva’s master class, artist talks, and curator’s tour, as well as an
educational programme for the schools of Narva and a lecture by Reverse Resources
on contemporary global textile production.
The opening of the exhibition will take place 8 September at 6 pm on the ground floor
of the Narva Art Residency at Joala 18.
On 8 September a special coach will be organized from Tallinn to Narva for the
opening of the exhibition. The coach leaves at 2 pm from the Russian Cultural Centre
at Mere pst 5. For further information and registration: koordinaator@fotokuu.ee.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Academy
of Arts, and Narva Gate OÜ. The entire public programme is supported by The British
Council in Estonia.
Maria Kapajeva’s solo exhibition, The Dream is Wonderful, Yet Unclear, will be open at
the Narva Art Residency until 8 October 2017 (T–S 12–6 pm).
Further information:
Liisa Kaljula
Exhibition curator
5162688
Maria Kapajeva
www.mariakapajeva.com
Tallinn Photomonth
www.fotokuu.ee