“festival…showcase” 5.—10.04 at EKA Gallery
Saara Liis Jõerand, Gregor Kulla, Riin Maide, Nele Tiidelepp, Henri Särekanno, Mattias Veller
The exhibition is open on 6.—9. April at 3—7 pm.
Opening: 5. April at 6 pm

In the course of six days, there will be actions, performances and presentations. This is a festival.
Six young authors share a platform to create and experiment. Tis is a showcase.

“festival…showcase” is an exhibition and a cluster of performances that takes place on 5—10 April in EKA Gallery. The cycle begins with a performative opening night on the 5th of April and ends with a Sunday afternoon presentation on the 10th of April. The days in between will be filled with ever-changing performances, including video screenings, sound works, and duration and short performances for both body and voice.

“festival…showcase” is an integration project of mediums with a focus on collaboration. Artists from different creative disciplines juxtapose their artistic tools with those of others, borrowing resources from them. The works flow across the borders of conventional media, using the fragility and uncertainty of the situation as an input. The subject of the works seen in the gallery originates from the moments spent together, it analyzes the mutual relations and draws on each other’s skills.

Outside of creative manifestations, the exhibition is an installation environment that reflects the preparation and the leftover. The spatial situation constantly alternates between festal and adjuratory, installation and performance. The space is shared with material and props of previous and subsequent works that will come to life in EKA Gallery.

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

TUESDAY, 5.04

18:00
Exhibition opening ceremony

Overalls
Mattias Veller
Performance for six figures
40′

WEDNESDAY, 6.04

15:00-19:00
The exhibition is open

I’ll be filming now
Henri Särekanno
An audiovisual experiment, in which the camera and the video image are co-creating the space

juhan
Henri Särekanno
Documentary about artist residency at Juhani farm

My words I
Saara Liis Jõerand
Continued writing during the exhibition

15:00
PRINT I: relief 
Riin Maide
Performance; mostly printing
30’

16:00
My words II 
Saara Liis Jõerand
A performance where abstract words are concretized into a suitable form for the exhibition
20’

17:00
Wrestling
Mattias Veller and Henri Särekanno
Audio-collage and sport-performance
15’

18:00
Phonecalls about theatre
Mattias Veller
Qualitative survey where the artist is challenging himself physically
20’

19:00
relief
Gregor Kulla
Performance and electroacoustic composition that deals with defining interval ratios through tension
30’

THURSDAY, 7.04

15:00-19:00
The exhibition is open

I’ll be filming now
Henri Särekanno
An audiovisual experiment, in which the camera and the video image are co-creating the space

juhan
Henri Särekanno
Documentary about artist residency at Juhani farm

My words I
Saara Liis Jõerand
Continued writing during the exhibition

15:00
PRINT II: intaglio (sort of) 
Riin Maide
Performance; mostly printing
150’

16:00
My words II 
Saara Liis Jõerand
A performance where abstract words are concretized into a suitable form for the exhibition
20’

17:00
Wrestling
Mattias Veller and Henri Särekanno
Audio-collage and sport-performance
15’

18:00
Phonecalls about theatre
Mattias Veller
Qualitative questionnaire where the artist is challenging himself physically
20’

20:00
relief
Gregor Kulla
Performance and electroacoustic composition that deals with defining interval ratios through tension
30’

FRIDAY, 8.04

15:00-19:00
The exhibition is open

I’ll be filming now
Henri Särekanno
An audiovisual experiment, in which the camera and the video image are co-creating the space

juhan
Henri Särekanno
Documentary about artist residency at Juhani farm

My words I
Saara Liis Jõerand
Continued writing during the exhibition

15:00
PRINT III: silk
Performance; mostly printing
20’

16:00
My words II
Saara Liis Jõerand
A performance where abstract words are concretized into a suitable form for the exhibition
20’

17:00
Wrestling
Mattias Velleri and Henri Särekanno
Audio-collage and sport-performance
15’

18:00
Phone calls about theatre
Mattias Veller
Qualitative questionnaire where the artist is challenging himself physically
20’

19:00
What to do to feel good
Nele Tiidelepp
A performance for six performers with myself and others, about talking over, along with and behind someone’s back
60’

SATURDAY, 9.04

15:00-19:00
The exhibition is open

I’ll be filming now
Henri Särekanno
An audiovisual experiment, in which the camera and the video image are co-creating the space

juhan
Henri Särekanno
Documentary about artist residency at Juhani farm

My words I
Saara Liis Jõerand
Continued writing during the exhibition

15:00
PRINT IV: continuations/summaries
Riin Maide
Performance; mostly printing
40’

16:00
My words II
Saara Liis Jõerand
A performance where abstract words are concretized into a suitable form for the exhibition
20’

17:00
Wrestling
Mattias Velleri and Henri Särekanno
Audio-collage and sport-performance
15’

18:00
Phonecalls about theatre
Mattias Veller
Qualitative questionnaire where the artist is challenging himself physically
20’

19:00
Showcase…festival inside the “festival…showcase”
open platform / togetherness / party / festival / showcase

Evening in open form, where you can take part in or miss out on different acts and performances. Works in every medium from uncountable performers, including the “festival…showcase” team and unknown others, that can last anywhere from one second to 10 minutes.

EKA baar is open at the event!

SUNDAY, 10.04
15:00
Exhibition finissage

Print presentation
Riin Maide
Publication presentation, printed during performances PRINT I, PRINT II, PRINT III and PRINT IV
60’

Short bios:

Saara Liis Jõerand (1999) studies general linguistics at the University of Tartu. She is interested in the area between thought and its expression. Jõerand has a bachelor’s degree in semiotics and culture theory, has published literary and theatre criticism and has been engaged in several theatre and art projects.

Gregor Kulla (2000) is a composer, writer and critic who studies composition with professor Tõnu Kõrvits and Helena Tulve in the Estonian Music and Theatre Academy. Previously, he has finished H. Eller Tartu Music College in oboe and composition and studied sustainable art in the Novi Sad EU School of Participation 2021. For his work in the cultural field of Tartu, Kulla has been named the Young Culture Carrier of the year 2020. Last year he earned the title of laureate of cultural magazine Sirp and he currently holds the Erkki-Sven Tüür scholarship.

Riin Maide (1997) is an artist and scenographer who has graduated from the graphic arts department of the Estonian Academy of Arts and educated herself in scenography and alternative theatre in DAMU Prague. Maide’s art focuses on noticing and playfully deconstructing spatial situations both on- and off-stage. She has organised and taken part in group exhibitions and different theatre projects in Tallinn, Tartu, Prague and Brussels. In 2020 she was awarded the Young Artist prize and the Edmund Valtman scholarship for young graphic artists.

Nele Tiidelepp (1998) is a freelance artist and a 2020 graduate of the installation and sculpture department of the Estonian Academy of Arts whose practice draws inspiration from spontaneous reactions to the environment and materials. She often expresses spontaneous and chaotic flow of thought in mediums like text, video, sound, installation and performance. Tiidelepp has won the Young Tartu competition in 2021, the Young Artist award in 2020, SIIL Prize and Millenium Prize in 2019, and has participated in art events in Estonia, Basel, Rovaniemi, Riga, Brussels, Stuttgart, Venice and Moscow.

Henri Särekanno (1999) is a freelance art worker and cinephile. He has studied art history and philosophy. In his creative practice he works with audiovisual media and is mainly interested in the border between documentary and fiction. Särekanno is a founding member of the vocal-instrumental ensemble SEAPUTS in which he plays guitar and violin.

Mattias Veller (1998) studies in the painting department of the Estonian Academy of Arts but consistently cheats on painting with all other possible creative practices. In his interdisciplinary activity, he has touched upon the themes of physical labour and the relation between humans and material and has worked on paintings and objects with absurd and excessive precision. Veller is a founding member of the vocal-instrumental ensemble SEAPUTS in which he plays the guitar and sings.

festival showcase INSTAGRAM

Soft Negotiations
Exhibition of the Department of Textile Design of EKA in the EKA Gallery.

Exhibition is opened 16.10–13.11.202. Põhja puiestee 7, Tallinn. Opening hours Tue–Sat, 12–18
Opening of the exhibition on the 15th of October at 4 p.m.
The performance of Inês Rodrigues Neves “Drawing the Line” will take place at the exhibition opening. Entrance with covid pass.

Just as the warp threads connect the weft, serving as a bridge for each other, this exhibition by the Department of Textile Design invites audiences to ponder the role of textile in today’s and future society. At the exhibition, the department presents contemporary trends that often straddle or meld with the boundaries of other disciplines. That in turn creates a new, multidisciplinary approach where textile can take very different forms: it can convey structure, idea, protest, message, self-expression, pattern or simply colour combination.

The exhibition presents works by students and teaching staff of the Estonian Academy of Arts that investigate the all-encompassing role of textile design. Besides conventional roles, new hybrid forms emerge, presenting new knowledge in the context of artistic research. Emerging technological approaches are demonstrated, in which textile, interwoven with digital properties or technology at different levels, mediates collaborative processes in design of social interaction.

The exhibition has three conceptual threads, which intersect each other:

Textile as STATE(MENT)

#critical and conceptual practices

Textile as LAB

#experimental practice #flirting with science #biotextiles #new materials and structures

Textile as WELLBEING

#design that values the environment and well-being #sustainability #recycling #healthcare #social responsibility #therapy

Participants:

Frank Abner, Arife Dila Demir, Katrin Kabun, Liisbet, Karjel, Kadi Kibbermann, Mari-Triin Kirs, Kristi Kuusk + Ana Tajadura-Jiménez (Madriidi Carlos III Ülikool) + Aleksander Väljamäe (Tartu Ülikool), Krista Leesi, Kille- Ingeri Liivoja + Juulia Aleksandra Mikson, Greth-Ann Loog + Riina Samelselg + Anete Vihm, Inês Rodrigues Neves, Nithikul Nimkulrat (OCAD UNIVERSITY), Marin Nooni, Kärt Ojavee + Johanna Ulfsak, Ingrid Helena Pajo, Maria Kristiin Peterson, Piret Roos + Liisa Torsus, Zane Shumeiko, Marie Vihmar + Sirje Sasi (TLU), Piret Valk, Varvara & Mar + Sebastian Mealla, Carl-Rasmus Õunaste

Curators: Varvara Guljajeva (HKUST(GZ)), Kristel Laurits, EKA Department of Textile Design

Exhibition design: Varvara Guljajeva
Exhibition technical support: Tehniline Direktor
Graphic design: Jesus Rodriguez Santos
Translation and proofreading: Gepard OÜ
Exhibition team: Kristi Kuusk, Varvara Guljajeva, Krista Leesi, Kadi Kibbermann, Eelike Virve, Frank Abner, Juulia Aleksandra Mikson, Johannes Luik, Piret Valk

Supporter: Cultural Endowment of Estonia

Exhibition Catalogue: https://issuu.com/artun/docs/softnegotiations_catalogue_lowres

Join us for the opening of “Glass Struggle”, a solo exhibition by Sten Eltermaa on September 28, at 5.30 PM at EKA Gallery! 

Glass Struggle is an ongoing artistic research project based on glass as material, paradoxically fragile and extremely resilient at the same time. Glass is used in high-security buildings, and even the Pope drives around in a vehicle protected by bulletproof glass. The semantic field of glass plays an increasingly pervasive role: these days, we are all transparent, constantly looking at our own reflections on our screens, while having virtually no access to our own delicate data, which in many ways is used to control and even enslave us.

In the context of institutions and corporations we can also talk about glass as a symbol of democracy – a reference to open and equal dialogue between the people and those in power. Likewise, it refers to corporate totalitarianism and divergence of social strata. Glass Struggle is based on the semiosis of the viewer and the seen. 

The exhibition is accompanied by the online publication www.struggle.glass, which is also seen as part of one of the sculptures (“A Satellite Deviated from the Orbit”, in collaboration with Maria Lee).

Texts: Maria Lee, Sten Eltermaa

Exhibition design: Arvi Anderson, Sten Eltermaa

Graphic design: Maria Muuk

Website: Maria Muuk, Patrick Zavadskis

Translation: Madis Kuuse (ENG), Olesja Semenkova (RUS)

Thanks: Maria Lee, Arvi Anderson, Krista Loorits, Lauri Eltermaa, Sten-Erik Toos, Tõnis Vassar, Urmo Mets, Madli Ehasalu, Roman-Sten Tõnissoo, Pire Sova & EKA gallery, b210 architects, Kauss Architecture, KUU architects, Kolm Koma Architects, Ilmamaa Publishing House

Special thanks: Karmo Migur, Maria Muuk, Kadi Meriluht, Mary Magdalene

Supporters: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, MEISTRI, Salibar, Klaasissepa, joogipood.ee, nanoPruul, ÕIE, 3DLaser

The exhibition is part of the satellite programme of the Tallinn Photomonth contemporary art biennial.

Young Artist MA award
07.09.–23.09.2021
opening: 07.09, 5 PM

At the exhibition Hopscotch Aksel Haagensen and Triin Kerge will present elements from their respective childhoods. Both artists approach a broader analysis of memory through their own personal memories.

As a young child in Australia, Aksel drew a lot of birds. There were many birds in Australia and they were all so interesting and colourful and different. Recently, Aksel asked his mother which bird had been his favourite and his mother said there was no such thing, “… you liked them all!” He wasn’t simply fascinated by the common popular birds, instead drawing every bird he could, constantly. Haagensen is interested in the subtle otherness of being an Australian-Estonian.

As a young child, Triin visited her great aunt at Voka, Ida-Viru County. Her great aunt lived in an apartment building and from the window all one could see were prefabricated buildings, sandpits and climbing frames. From Voka, Triin remembers picking chamomile, a machine for walnut-shaped waffles and a dating show on television, which made everyone laugh. Recently Triin visited Voka and while walking towards the shop, she remembered that it was from that very shop that to her great delight a roly poly toy was bought for her. At the exhibiton Kerge looks at the nature and materiality of memories.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Thanks to  Marika Alver, Saskia Lillepuu, Katarina Meister, Irmeli Terras, Marcin Teterycz, Tallinn University of Technology, Valge Kuup

You are invited to the solo exhibition “Presence of People Absent” by Katariin Mudist at EKA Gallery. The exhibition is curated by Maria Helen Känd.

8.07.–12.08.
Tue-Sat 12–6 PM

With her solo exhibition “Presence of People Absent”, Katariin Mudist explores the nature of cleaning work and the corresponding attitudes in society in a multi-layered and playful way. The series of photos and videos completed in the course of working as a cleaner for Airbnb apartments (in 2019 and 2020) expose how we perceive the closeness of strangers and the discomfort of encountering signs of people who have left a space they have used.

The exhibition asks: to what extent is it possible to overcome one’s discomfort of being in close contact with strangers through the mess and objects left behind. Further, it addresses the prejudices against cleaning work as a cultural phenomenon and follows Mudist as she tries to approach cleaning as a mindful activity or more philosophically – the constant alternation of order and chaos as a manifestation of eternity and cyclicality in everyday life.

“Simply cleaning the apartments seemed dull and monotonous, so the idea arose to look for opportunities to get to know the people I clean after and to imagine them based on the state of things left behind,” Mudist describes. By gathering as much information about the guests as possible and documenting the items that carried information, Mudist identified patterns in the guests’ behavior. This was facilitated by the fact that the interior design of the apartments had elements to meet the stereotypical expectations of certain travellers, while remaining universal and clinical, typical for a rental apartment. Later, based on the presumption, hypotheses began to emerge about their reasons for visiting Tallinn, lifestyle, gender, number, relationships, hair color and values.

The exhibition – opening at the time when people are highly aware of the nearest disinfectant and the location of other people in a space – strives to offer ways to overcome the fear of the invisible other and uncertainty that a stranger’s presence evokes.

Katariin Mudist is a second-year master’s student in contemporary art at the Estonian Art Academy, who is currently studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghnet, Belgium. She graduated from the Tartu High School of Art in media and advertising design and has studied animation at Moholy-Nagy University. Mudist mostly works in mediums like graphic drawings, animation and installation. Her works have been exhibited both in Estonia and at international festivals. Mudist’s most recent exhibition “Festival of Disbelief” took place in the Gallery of the Artists’ House of Pärnu City Gallery in cooperation with Maria Elise Remme.

Maria Helen Känd has studied film, theatre and media science at the University of Vienna, cultural theory and comparative literature at Tallinn University and is currently in her second year of master’s in curatorial studies at EKA. Her most recent curatorial projects include the group exhibition “Outside of Oneself” at ARS project space, the group exhibition “east end(s)?” at Põhjala tehas and the joint media project of EKA curators “EKA reality”.

Jette Loona Hermanis “Torque Vulnerati”
26.02, 8 PM
27.02, 7 PM
The number of guests is limited, please register at pire.sova@artun.ee

“Torque Vulnerati” is an emotional and expressive fairy tale mystifying transcendence and longing to express an affect. Strongly influenced by the digital age, the material carries a screaming obsession with self-centralization and online persona-portrayal, exhibiting emotional narratives of self in relation to existence and suffering of the soul. Storytelling as a concept from which ambiguous attitudes and ideas emerge. Emo Fairytale drenched in mythological symbolism, the frame – post-internet dark romanticism.

Jette Loona Hermanis, born in1997, is pulsing Baltic blood, Estonian and Latvian. Performance “Torque Vulnerati” is Hermanis’ Bachelor thesis at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam, in Art-Coreography curricula.

The performance lasts about 60 minutes. The entrance is for free and from Kotzebue street. Please wear a mask and keep a safe distance!

Kristel Zimmer, Linda Mai Kari, Liisamari Viik, Estookin, Anita Kremm
Curator: Ene-Liis Semper

The project is a result of one and a half year studies of EKA Scenography department students. Dassemperdepot consists of five investigators of metaphorical thought: “We sense, create meaning and space, reflect the world and search for poetry. Our mentors are wise and creative people, including Ene-Liis Semper. Study of Deconstruction is a presentation of creative research about metaphorical thought through deconstruction, body, and space.”.

Durational performances: 10–14.02 at 4–8 PM
Exhibition: 16–20.02 at 12–6 PM
The entrance is from Kotzebue street! Please wear a mask and keep a safe distance!