EKA Gallery

(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.

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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.

Exhibition by the first year students of photography at EKA Billboard Gallery is open from September 11.

This exhibition presents a selection of works completed during the studio photography course of the first year students of the photography department of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Artists: Denise Damaso, Kristjan Glück, Irma Holm, Mari Karjus, Taavet Kirja, Elias Kuulmann, Karlotta Lainväe, Anna Urakhchina

Supervisor: Madis Kurss

Taavet Jansen, Liis Vares „Held in Human“
21.08–13.09.2023, Tue-Sat, at 12.00–18.00
Opening: 21.08, at 18.00
EKA Gallery, Kotzebue 1

 

Join us for the exhibition “Held in Human” opening on August 21 at 18.00! The exhibition and accompanying events are part of SAAL Biennaal programme.

“Held in Human” is a performative installation where one tiny idea is made to sprout and can be fed with everything that one freshly born should know and experience. This growing idea is safe and warm in the gallery, like in a mother’s womb. The audience can manipulate the concept during its growing period, visit it at EKA Gallery, participate in the tours and virtual ultrasound examinations, and see traces of other people’s interventions.

The authors delve into how meaning is created, and responsibilities are assumed within a transient community, exemplified by a collective art project. The team constructs a metaphorical tunnel, likened to an umbilical cord, bridging the gap between the virtual and the tangible realms. Once the mist of artistic creation clears, this conduit enables everyone, irrespective of their geographic position or connection to ‘reality,’ to interact and connect with each other.

“You enter the exhibition hall like a body cave; the actions only express treachery. One and all-determining meaning is sought in the entrails.” – Ene Mihkelson

 

Events:
21.08, at 18.00 – exhibition opening
24.08, at 18.00 – exhibition tour
25.08, at 22.00 – Liisbeth Kala, Germo Toonikus “Making Sense”
30.08, at 16.00 – “Bodystorming”

Language is not a problem. More information: https://saal.ee/en/performance/held-in-human-1823/

 

Liis Vares is a choreographer and artist. At the center of her practice is the contemporary body. Attention is her ‘dancer’ with whom she dances in the black box, white cube, and on the grayscale online platform. She plays with borderlines between physical and mental, between personal and social. By following her research question: how does it feel/what does it mean to be in a body, she is diving more and more into transmedial spheres of art and being.

Taavet Jansen is an innovative artist and creative researcher specializing in digital and experimental performing arts. He co-founded the art collective e⁻lektron, is a lecturer at the UT Viljandi Culture Academy, and is a doctoral student at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Traditionally working within the confines of black box theater, Jansen’s recent work has expanded into diverse digital platforms, reflecting his evolving interest in the intersection of art and technology.

Authors, directors: Taavet Jansen, Liis Vares
Light designer: Jari Matsi
Sound and video designer: Taavet Jansen
Dramaturgs, choreographers: Liis Vares, AI
Performers: Germo Toonikus, Liisbeth Kala
Software developer, web designer: Kristjan Jansen
Producer: Kati Saarits
Co-producers: EKA, e⁻lektron, ACuTe (co-funded by the European Union)

Persuading Hard Matter

Sophia Hallmann, Loora Kaubi, Mattias Veller, Oliver Wellmann

15.07–10.08.2023

Opening 14.07 at 6 pm

 

Join us for the exhibition Persuading Hard Matter opening on 14.07, 6 pm at EKA Gallery! The entrance to the exhibition is via Kotzebue street.

 

The metaphor of “softening stones” (kive pehmeks rääkida) conveys the idea that a person is able to affect or manipulate even the most resistant and solid objects, much like speaking can lead to an emotional breakthrough or change.

 

In this exhibition, the artists found common ground in dealing with what is larger than themselves: be it phenomena that go far back in time or those that are situated in the minds of groups. Stones can be viewed as the embodiments of still-enduring old ideas. Some of them have since eroded into the dust of prehistory, others still stand like monuments. As time has passed, many have become burdens, but they are often too heavy to cast off of our collective shoulders. Systems of belief have learned to resist change by cultivating delusions in the minds of their believers.

 

In Sophia Hallmann’s work “Hyperstimuli”, sugar has been transformed into glass-like thorns. Her installation juxtaposes the fragility and sweetness of the material with the prickliness of the thorn shape. These contrasting aspects evoke the concept of sweet pain. Appealing also to the senses of taste and touch, the work deals with the complex relationship between pleasure and discomfort. Isomalt sugar has been transformed into a seemingly luxurious glass-like object. Because both the branches and sugar are organic, they will eventually decompose, breaking the illusion of eternal security that luxury creates.

 

Persuasion is a tool for shaping reality. It can be used to create an illusion of safety, which is a delusive contentment. Loora Kaubi’s work addresses the domination of a patriarchal system through violent architecture. In her installation, Kaubi performs a contorted body walking in bridge position towards the viewer, suggesting the mental damage done by conforming to oppression. In “Mind and hand follow an evil path” objects combined with choreography are used to reflect on feelings of hostility and discomfort. Is it the outside world that one must be protected from or should we protect the outside from the world within? The fences come across as material representations of the fear that is omnipresent for anyone not standing safely at the top of the power hierarchy.

 

On the topic of domination, the practice of storytelling can be seen as a tool that liberates from the burden of having no voice. It encourages us to claim the right to be heard and express things as we desire them to be, under the guise of objectivity. Oliver Wellmann’s work circulates around mythic traditions, exploring their controversiality. The work „Raunen (Fires)“ stems from the ongoing performance cycle “Raunen” (ger. ‘whispering the truth’), in which dark rural worlds blend with elements of the auto-fictional. Hay is a material that often self-ignites, eventually causing major fires.

 

Another grand story is the mythic narrative of the nation, which looms over the individual like a massive rock. Mattias Veller expresses frustration at having to accept it and all of its inconsistencies. Individually, he is unable to coax the rigid national mythos to soften, so he decides to turn the tables. In “The Donkey in Estonia” he demonstrates the absurdity of the ways in which collective identity is shaped. He is interested in how belief works and how to fool the gullible.

 

The works in “Persuading Hard Matter” can be seen as the artists’ interpretations of the tensions between themselves and overwhelming forces. Be it acceptance, toleration, protest or domination, some kind of persuasion always occurs. Its effectiveness can never be known in advance.

 

​​Sophia Hallmann (b. 1995) lives and works in Berlin, where she studies sculpture and installation at the Berlin University of Arts. In her work she deals with different moulding techniques and casting processes, where the relationship between the depicted object and the material used plays an important role. Often her works evoke a sense of tension with the human body. During her Erasmus exchange at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Sophia Hallmann participated in the Young Sculptor Award Exhibition 2023 at the ARS Project Space and won the 3rd prize. In addition, she has participated in several group exhibitions in Berlin and received a scholarship from the Tutsek Foundation.

 

Oliver Wellmann (b. 1991) is an artist living and working in Berlin who is currently studying at the University of Arts Berlin. His artistic practice interlocks internal sources with external ones or those that have frequently been abandoned. The imagery in his work distinctly revolves around rural areas, folkloric traditions and spiritual empowerment such as witchcraft. Oliver’s artistic exploration of witchcraft in a contemporary context raises questions in a society that thirsts for meaning and spirituality, but where both are simultaneously classified as vanishing phenomena. In 2023 he exhibited extracts of the performance cycle „Raunen“ in Iceland and will continue to do so in Estonia, followed by Denmark in the fall.

 

Loora Kaubi (b. 1998) is an artist working in Tallinn. She holds a BA degree from the Estonian Academy of Arts’ Fine Arts department and did part of her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She has also attended Casa Lü residency in Mexico City. Kaubi’s practice revolves around the (female) body and the societal relations and power structures that are involved with it. Wandering between the real and the imaginary, in her work she approaches life as a spectacle and focuses on creating a scene through which to perform intense emotions. Kaubi has been awarded the Artist of the Week Award of the Estonian Young Contemporary Art Union and has participated in exhibitions and performances in Tallinn, Narva, Haapsalu, Valga, Põlva, Vienna and Mexico City.

The recurring topics in Mattias Veller’s (b. 1998) artistic practices are physical labour and the relationship between human and material. Conceptually, he is rather minimalistic and technically he is precise, often applying time-consuming manual approaches. Veller is currently most interested in collective consciousness and history. He has been awarded the Artist of the Week Award of the Estonian Young Contemporary Art Union. His works have been shown in group projects in the ARS Project Space and Uus Rada Gallery (2023), EKA Gallery (2022) and in a duo exhibition in Infinite Life Gallery (2021).

 

Supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Student Council of UdK Berlin, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany Tallinn

 

The artists would like to thank: Ulvar Kaubi, Saara Liis Jõerand, Elss Raidmets, Patrick Zavadskis, Mirje Veller, Riina Veller, Karl Linnasmägi (OÜ NovaElement), Valge Kuup OÜ

 

Contemporary Drawing: Worlding in Layers
Triin Anijalg, Maria Hindreko, Sander Karjus, Kassandra Laur, Rebecca Norman, Helena Pass, Mia Rulli, Nana Schilf, Sirel Tammisto
Curator and supervisor: Britta Benno
23.05–17.06.2023
Opening: 22.05 kell 17.00

Join us for the opening of the exhibition “Contemporary Drawing: Worlding in Layers” on May 22 at 5 pm at EKA Gallery!

The openness and liminality, being in between, on the threshold, of drawing contain the immense potential of transformation, the inherent non-being and hybridisation. Becoming something or somebody feels like flowing or writing: it is a place that requires common construction; it is a time which does not flow in a linear manner. Instead of being complete, there is becoming, the endless unrolling of materials and gestures, limitless potential. The technical processes of making art are very similar to the descriptions of the becoming of a Land(scape). When printing, painting, drawing or building installations, one is adding new layers of traces from materials, colours, (conceptual) motions and other means of depiction to a base structure. In printing, one uses different methods and mechanisms of transfer to create imagery. When drawing directly onto the canvas or on paper, a new layer is created with a pencil or the tip of a brush leaving its trace. Sometimes, however, the layers are also removed: erased, washed off with water or by tearing the textile into shreds.[2]

The exhibition displays the works of students, which were completed as part of the elective course. The aim of the course was a critical analysis or rethinking of contemporary drawing art by looking at various examples, reading texts and experimental tasks. The use of the layered work method applied in the art practice of the participants: the layered combination of experimental materials and forms in the art of drawing.

 

[1] Britta Benno, Saamisest maa(stiku)ks. Materjalid, teadus, utoopia. ­– Leida, 25.11.22 (https://leida.artun.ee/et/issues/tehnokriitika/saamisest-maa-stiku-ks-materjalid-teadus-utoopia vaadatud: 09.05.23).

[2] Britta Benno maa, Of Becoming a Land(Scape). Material, Science, Utopia. ­– Leida, 25.11.22 (https://leida.artun.ee/en/issues/technocriticism/of-becoming-a-land-scape-material-science-utopia accessed: 09.05.23).

May brings an opportunity to experience, in an exhibition format, works produced by students in the Faculty of Fine Arts as their term projects: every day there will be a fresh crop of university students’ works on display in the gallery.

Works in contemporary art, prints, installation, sculpture and painting curricula will be on display. On each morning of the marathon, a new exhibition will be installed and in the evening the exhibit will give way to the next one. Hopefully, viewers will be able to keep up with the pace of the young artists.

SCHEDULE

02.05. Painting, supervisors Merike Estna, Alice Kask, Kristi Kongi, Holger Loodus
03.05. Photography, supervisor Madis Kurss
04.05. Drawing, supervisors Maiu Rõõmus, Matti Pärk
05.05. Drawing, supervisors Tõnis Saadoja
08.05. Drawing, supervisor Ulvi Haagensen
9.05. Drawing, supervisor Lilli-Krõõt Repnau
10.05. Drawing, supervisor Tõnis Saadoja
11.05. Graphic Art, supervisors Charlotte Biszewski, Eve Kask, Rene Haljasmäe, Viktor Gurov
12.05. Graphic Art, supervisors Kadi Kurema, Maria Erikson, Charlotte Biszewski, Britta Benno
15.05. Photography, supervisors Marge Monko, Paul Kuimet
16.—17.05. Scenography, supervisors Ene-Liis Semper, Mark Raidpere
18.—19.05. Contemporary Art, supervisors Marge Monko, Kirke Kangro, Merike Estna, Taavi Talve, Anu Vahtra, John Grzinich, Paul Kuimet, Taavi Piibemann, Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Eve Kask, David K. Ross

Vaim Sarv Live Performance @ Entropy Gauntlet (EKA Gallery) on Friday, April 14, 7 pm.

As part of the programming for the Entropy Gauntlet group exhibition, performance artist and experimental musician Vaim Sarv (EE/USA) will be playing free, using voice and electronics to respond to the exhibition themes revolving around the porousness of post-western notions of national identity and it’s haunted histories.

Free admission!

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.

Don’t cross their boundaries!
17.03-25.08.2023
Opening: 17.03, 4 pm at EKA lobby
EKA Billboard Gallery, Kotzebue 1

Participating artists:
Kristiina Aarna, Karola Ainsar, Katharina Grepp, Kärt Heinvere, Annika Hint & Irmeli Terras, Maria Kapajeva, Sanna Kartau, Hanna Eliise Kask, Karis Kivi, Maria Izabella Lehtsaar, Annemarie Maasik, Marlene, Susanna Mildeberg, Katariin Mudist, Enn Nazarov, Liisa Niit, Katerina Rothberg, Pamela Samel, Tiina Sööt, Daria Titova, Kadi Viik, Laura Vilbiks

 

Feministeerium and EKA Gallery invite you to the exhibition “Don’t cross their boundaries!” opening on March 17 at 4 pm in the EKA lobby!

 

72% of Estonian university students have experienced sexual or gender-based harassment at least once. The most common types of harassment that the students have experienced are stereotyping remarks, sexually suggestive language, ambivalent jokes and inappropriate staring.*

 

Everyone has the right to decide for themselves about their bodily integrity. However, how personal boundaries are established depends on the cultural norms and on the social contract, institutionalized in the form of civil laws. Any sexual relation must be based on the explicit free consent of all parties. Free consent means that the parties of a sexual relation can decide whether they want to continue or end it at any time, fully assured that their boundaries will be respected. Consideration of each other’s needs creates an emotionally safer space and is a step towards defying stereotypes that contribute to violence and inequality.

 

The 2017 Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, also ratified by Estonia, advocates for changing the definition of rape in the Penal Code, so it would be based on consensual sexual relations as the norm, while deviation from consent constitutes rape. Alongside the law, it is important to establish a popular understanding across the society that everyone has the right to physical and mental self-determination and integrity. 

 

For this exhibition, we have selected submitted artworks that address the principles of sexual consent culture and confront the problems created by stereotyping attitudes.

 

* Based on the 2020 Federation of Estonian Student Unions survey Gender and Sexual Harassment in Estonian Higher Education Institutions.

 

Supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Active citizens fund

Beyond the Blue Yonder

Denisa Štefanigová in collaboration with Johanna Ruukholm and Marleen Suvi, curated by Yilin Ma.

16.02–16.03.2023
Opening: 16.02, 5 pm

In Štefanigová’s Beyond the Blue Yonder exhibition, humans are melting, becoming tides into other creatures to coexist together, in the same body. Culture historian Astrida Neimanis writes on ”Hydrofeminism; Or, On Becoming a Body of Water”, how the space between ourselves and our others are at once as distant as the primaeval sea, yet also closer than our skin. 

Current in Štefanigová’s practice, is the fluidity between human and nonhuman subjects, where no living being is separated nor untouched from others. Like water connecting us all and ensuring we are always in a state of becoming as it travels in our bodies, in Beyond the Blue Yonder Štefanigová’s works are blending into new boundaries. Through works especially made for the exhibition, Beyond the Blue Yonder studies the possibilities of fluidity and fusing into each other, very much like boundless water crashing into itself in our bodies. 

When looking at Štefanigová’s work through connections, you can see how they are formed and how unavoidably they reach out to every corner of our own private lives in good or in bad. Neimanis writes how “Despite the fact that we are all watery bodies, leaking into and sponging off of one another, we resist total dissolution, material annihilation. Or more aptly, we postpone it: ashes to ashes, water to water”; this is evident in Štefanigová’s work where water, air, or anything that bounds us together, works as a communicator between our bodies, connecting us and facilitates bodies into being. Doing so, it shows all the things from the past to the present. Our bodies are holding the past, and simultaneously are on the verge of the future. The space of constant becoming that is trying to find its own, but without the naivety of being born again. 

There is also something queer about the way Štefanigová’s approach to challenge boundaries between human and nonhuman, and everything that sets them apart socially and environmentally. As bell hooks writes ”queer as not who you’re having sex with, that can be a dimension of it, but queer as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to love”. 

Štefanigová’s technique holds water in an important role — from working with acrylics that water controls from how the water dries to the canvas, Štefanigová’s one line technique awakes something watery in the paintings; a reflection, that’s on a constant move. Installing these 31 pieces of paintings next to each other, Štefanigová is creating a wave that flows through the space. 

The exhibition consists of paintings and an installation by Denisa Štefanigová, as well as sculptures by Marleen Suvi. A limited amount of catalogues that examine the exhibition through a dialogue between the artists Denisa Štefanigová and the curator Yilin Ma is designed by Johanna Ruukholm. 

Denisa Štefanigová (she/her) (b.1995) is a Czech artist who mainly works in painting. She recently graduated from the Master’s Program in Contemporary Art at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA). She also holds a bachelor’s degree from the Technical University, Faculty of Fine Arts (FaVU), during her studies she also attended the Faculty de Bellas Artes in Bilbao. In 2021, Štefanigová was one of the 15 finalists for the Young Painter Award for the Baltic countries. Her recent exhibitions include MO Museum, Vilnius, and Hobusepea, and Hoib Gallery, both in Tallinn. Her works are represented in the KogArt collection based in Hungary and in SYNLAB based in Tallinn. This year, she will have a solo exhibition in Tallinn, Prague, and then one group show with the Hungarian artist Asztrid Csatlós in Brno. 

Marleen Suvi (b. 1998) (she/her)has graduated from the department of painting in the faculty of fine art at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2020) and is currently acquiring a MA degree in the contemporary art program at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Marleen Suvi is examining the interwovenness between the body and the human soul. At the moment she is working with ideas such as whether it is possible to meet yourself, how to let go of your selfishness and what it means to depict yourself in a sexual way. Most of her works are autoportraits. While writing haikus, the artist contemplates empty phrases, which arise from subconsciousness that sometimes seems to belong to someone else. She prefers to work with oil on canvas and glass. Among her recently held exhibitions are ‘‘A Visitor’’ (Hobusepea Gallery, 2022) and ‘‘So That the Body Does not Forget’’ (Vent Space Project Room, 2021). 

Johanna Ruukholm (she/her) (b. 1996) is a graphic designer and artist. She is part of a design duo Jojo&me. Her graphic works vary from websites to illustrated visuals and she enjoys telling stories through characters in colourful and enigmatic worlds. Besides working with a computer and pencils, she creates ceramic sculptures and everyday objects under a brand called Nestworkers. She is also one of the curators of the club event series HoneyCombat, which takes place in Tallinn. 

Yilin Ma (they/them) (b.1995) is a Helsinki based curator and writer, who works in intersections of literature and visual culture with a focus on East-Asian queer diaspora narratives and queer- feminist way of understanding the spaces in between lyrical and material. Currently they are attending The Praxis Master’s Programme in Exhibition Studies at The University of Arts in Helsinki. 

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Estonian Academy of Arts

Opening drinks by Punch