Events

Towards Patterns of Making
Eik Hermann, Juss Heinsalu, Kärt Ojavee

The current publication introduces the key findings of the MUUSA: Synthesis and Modelling of Material Research project and situates them in a broader context. The opening text, an interview with anthropologist Tim Ingold, challenges prevailing ideas about the relationship between material practice and academic theory, while offering alternatives. This is followed by an introduction to the conceptware underlying the work and an overview of the project’s progression. This publication helps to better conceptualise different practices of making and research, and supports the teaching of new practitioners.

MUUSA brought together two artist-designers, Juss Heinsalu and Kärt Ojavee, philosopher Eik Hermann and several cross-disciplinary external experts. The project and its results were first shown as an exhibition (held in November 2024 at MUUSA Studio in Tallinn) and are now also presented as a publication.

Publishing of Towards Patterns of Making has been supported by the Estonian Academy of Arts, and the previous project was funded by the Estonian Ministry of Culture’s creative research grant. 

The launch will be held in English.

EKA students, staff, alumni and friends; join us for (re)building EKA aed behind K10 building under the oak tree. We will work to initiate the beginnings of a new garden site, this one-day event (with some additional preparation days if you feel like it!) will be a starting point, somewhere to lay down our roots, take up space within the institution’s expanding campus, and dream of ways the garden can unfold and grow. 

Throughout the day we’ll spend time building a garden; practically, poetically and politically.. 

Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Materials and plants will also be provided, but if there is anything specific that you want to plant we welcome you to bring seeds/plants. 

You are welcome to join whether you would like to be involved in the garden’s future, have been involved in its past, or if you just want to spend a mid-summers Sunday under the oak tree; the garden will be passed between hands year after year.

All welcome, no experience necessary. 

Please sign up for the garden day here: https://tally.so/r/PdrNYP

Day content:

• 10-10.30: Arriving, simple breakfast and introductions 
• 10.30-11.45: reading together (excerpts of texts that cover various garden-foundations: compost, seeds, the commons, poetics/politics of community gardens)
• 11.45-13.00: filling raised beds with compost, mulch
• 13:00-14.00: lunch
• 14:00-14:45: A notion to the future gardeners (yourselves or others) – manifesto, a list, a promise, an intention, a hope, 
• 14:45-15.15: planting plants/seeds
• 15:15-16:15: A holding space (rug decoration, from the previous activity)
• 16:15-1700: final reflections, tidying up, ending.

One-day workshop is led by Jake Shepherd and Yvette Bathgate and funded by Transform4Europe.

 

EKA Arh Conference 2026 is titled To Be Continued….From Scattered Facts to Shared Concerns, and takes place as Day 1 of the two-day Tallinn Architecture Biennial TAB Symposium.

Tickets for the EKA Architecture Conference and the entire TAB Symposium — available at an early-bird price until 31 July — can be purchased on Fienta.

The 2026 EKA Arh Conference focuses on one of the central questions facing architecture and urban development today: how do we move forward when starting from scratch is no longer a viable option? While knowledge about climate transition, resource limits, and the built environment is abundant, translating that knowledge into collective action remains a challenge. Rather than asking only what comes next, the conference asks what can and should continue.

Across urban, building, and material scales, international speakers and researchers explore adaptation, reuse, and transformation in the built environment. The programme brings together perspectives from architecture, planning, construction, and research to discuss how existing places, buildings, and resources can support meaningful change, and how scattered knowledge can become shared concerns capable of shaping long-term action.

Programme

09:30–09:45
Opening Words

09:45–10:30
Transformation Keynote
Aleksi Neuvonen (Demos Helsinki, Finland)
Finnish futures thinker and co-founder of Demos Helsinki, whose work explores societal transformation, post-growth futures, and new models of collective action.

10:30–10:45
Coffee Break

10:45–12:15 | Parallel Sessions

Main Hall – Session I: Spatial and Architectural Transformation

This session explores processes of spatial transformation across urban and architectural scales, examining how cities, landscapes, and built environments adapt to changing social, ecological, and cultural conditions. Contributions address themes such as urban restructuring, adaptive reuse, spatial continuity, and the relationship between territorial systems, public space, and architectural intervention.

Monumental studio – Session I: Prefabrication, Retrofit, and Adaptive Reuse

This session examines prefabricated and industrialized approaches to the transformation of existing buildings and urban fabric. Contributions explore themes such as adaptive reuse, modular retrofit systems, circular renovation strategies, and the extension of building lifecycles, addressing how contemporary construction methods can support more sustainable and resource-conscious forms of spatial transformation.

12:15–13:15
Lunch

13:15–14:00
Adaptation Keynote
Hiroto Kobayashi (Keio University, Tokyo, Japan)

Japanese architect, professor at Keio University, and founder of Kobayashi Maki Design Workshop, known for his work on adaptive reuse, post-disaster reconstruction, and resource-conscious architecture.

14:00–14:15
Coffee Break

14:15–15:45 | Parallel Sessions

Main Hall – Session II: Material Systems and Circular Construction

This session focuses on material systems, construction processes, and circular approaches to the built environment. Contributions examine themes such as material reuse, prefabrication, tectonics, fabrication methods, and resource-aware design strategies, addressing how construction systems can support more adaptive and sustainable spatial practices.

Monumental studio – Parallel Session II: Participatory Planning and Urban Transformation

This session explores participatory approaches to urban transformation through digital mapping, GIS-based spatial analysis, and collaborative planning tools. Contributions address themes such as tactical urban interventions, community engagement, and urban greening strategies, examining how localized actions and participatory processes can inform broader spatial and policy frameworks and vice versa.

15:45–16:00
Coffee Break

16:00–16:45
Panel Discussion

16:45–17:00
Closing Words

At the seminar, we will introduce Met(s)aRING, a joint research and development project by EKA PAKK (Estonian Academy of Arts) and RMK (State Forest Management Centre), which aims to develop a circular and modular construction system for RMK’s visitor infrastructure, including small-scale structures and cabins.

The project explores how infrastructure can be designed to be adaptable, upgradable, and reusable over time. The focus is on recurring standardized timber components, the use of production residues, and solutions that reduce material consumption, simplify maintenance, and extend the lifespan of structures.

The aim of the seminar is to gather practical feedback from builders and manufacturers on the applicability of the system currently under development. We will discuss how standardized or flexible a construction system should be, the opportunities for using reclaimed or lower-grade timber, and how procurement models and collaboration frameworks influence the implementation of sustainable solutions.

You can register for the event HERE!

PROGRAMME

27 August 2026, 9:30–12:30
EKA White Building (Kotzebue 10, Tallinn)

9:30 Introduction to the ongoing research project, RMK’s long-term goals and ambitions (RMK)

9:45 Eight Design Principles for Visitor Infrastructure Design (EKA)

10:00 Introduction to the Construction System (EKA)

10:15 The Use of Underutilized and Lower-Value Timber in Construction (TalTech)

10:30 Coffee Break and Introduction to the Construction System Prototype

11:00–12:30 Workshop

Research at EKA PAKK is co-funded by the European Union and the Estonian Research Council through the project “PUUSTER: Development of Methods for Valorising Underutilized Timber and Wood Materials in Construction” (TEM-TA80).

This event is part of the Adapter Network Collaboration Club Series, a platform where researchers, companies, and representatives of the public and private sectors come together to engage in meaningful discussions and explore opportunities for collaboration. You can find all Adapter Collaboration Clubs here.

Tammsaare park
6 June 11:30

As part of this year’s Baltic Pride programme, we invite everyone to join us for a simple shared moment in public space.

While the fabric is held open, the choirs Vikerlased (Estonia) and Riga Queer Choir (Latvia) will perform, creating a short shared moment of togetherness in public space before the fabric is folded together again.

The fabric was originally created in 2022 by artists Karl Joonas Alamaa and Lisette Sivard for an exhibition addressing school bullying. Sewn together from many different leftover fabric pieces, the work symbolises a society where nobody is left aside – where differences can exist together, support one another, and form something whole.

This year’s Baltic Pride theme, “Vaikides vaenu vastu ei saa” (“Silence will not stop hate”), reminds us that visibility, presence, and standing together matter. Sometimes even a simple shared gesture in public space can carry meaning.

The gathering is peaceful, short, and open to everyone.

Come take part, or simply be there with us.

https://www.facebook.com/events/987092100398332

When you think of the Nordic and Baltic regions, your first associations might be trolls and Vikings, the midnight sun and polar nights, saunas and ice swimming, hygge and fika, Nokia and IKEA. Maybe you have also heard about their excellent school systems and strong social welfare models. But what is behind these myths? 16 comic artists from across the Nordics and Baltics created works that reflect their unique perspectives on life in the region.

Participating artists: Akvile Magicdusté (Lithuania), Cecilia Vårhed (Sweden), Clara Jetsmark (Denmark), Disa Wallander (Sweden), Elín Elísabet (Iceland), Emmi Valve (Finland), Ida Neverdahl (Norway), Joonas Sildre (Estonia), Jurijs Tatarkins (Latvia), Laura Ķeniņš (Canada), Liisa Kruusmägi (Estonia), Mari Ahokoivu (Finland), Ona Kvašytė (Lithuania), Søren Glosimodt Mosdal (Denmark), Tim Ng Tvedt (Norway), Tommi Musturi (Finland). Curator: David Schilter.

Along with the exhibition comes the publication Baltic Comics Magazine š! #57 ”Mythbústers,” which collects these stories and gets distributed worldwide.

Organized by Kuš! in collaboration with Nordic Council of Minister’s Offices in Latvia and Estonia.

Supported by Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation, Nordic Council of Minister’s Offices in Latvia and Estonia, Danish Cultural Institute and Embassy of Sweden in Riga.

Date: Tuesday, 12 May 2026, 13:30–15:00
Venue: Estonian Academy of Arts, Room A202
Admission: free and open to the public

The MAKK&MACA programme (Master of Contemporary Arts) at the Estonian Academy of Arts invites students, artists, educators, and the wider public to an open lecture by contemporary artist, performance maker, and curator Pankaj Tiwari on Tuesday, 12 May 2026.

In the lecture, Tiwari will introduce TENT: A School of Performative Practices — not as a proposal, but as an intervention. TENT is a nomadic, collective, and deliberately unfinished institution that refuses permanence, refuses neutrality, and refuses to wait for permission. Emerging from lived experience and structural exclusion, TENT is built from the ground up: without fixed walls, without inherited authority, and without the illusion that change can happen from within the same frameworks that produced the problem.

“Contemporary art institutions speak the language of inclusion, while their structures remain largely unchanged,” says Tiwari. “This is not a conversation about reform. It is an attempt at construction.”

The lecture moves between dream and reality, critique and action, asking a simple but urgent question: if institutions cannot change, what does it take to build new ones — and who gets to build them?

TENT operates as a temporary, mobile space of mutual learning and collective imagination. It uses interactive formats such as talks, residencies, dinners, and temporal togetherness at host institutions for specific durations to engage with their politics and practice. It is a space for imagining, thinking, listening, and responding to social injustices.

TENT at Kumu Art Museum and Rehearsals for Solidarity
In May 2026, to mark Kumu Art Museum’s 20th anniversary, TENT is erected in the museum’s inner courtyard. Around it, a twelve-day programme titled Rehearsals for Solidarity runs from 9–20 May 2026. The programme responds to a growing need to find common ground at a time when wars and geopolitical and ecological crises are deepening. The challenges affecting our shared lives have grown so large that they demand collaboration — yet we face an increasingly polarised society that undermines our very capacity to cooperate. Rehearsals for Solidarity tackles exactly this: practising the skill of finding common ground in an era when doing so feels ever more difficult. The programme encompasses performances, workshops, reading circles, lectures, communal meals, and more.

Rehearsals for Solidarity is organised collaboratively by Pankaj Tiwari, Kumu Art Museum, Kumu Youth Club, Lasnaidee, and students of the Estonian Academy of Arts’ MA Contemporary Art programme, and is curated by Frederik Klanberg. The initiative is supported by the City of Tallinn.

TENTative Practices — A Satellite Programme by EKA Students
As part of Rehearsals for Solidarity, students of the Estonian Academy of Arts have devised their own satellite programme, TENTative Practices, which unfolds across several days within and around the tent.

On Monday, 11 May, TENTative Practices opens with a communal pillow-making workshop. Instructions, materials, and tools are provided on site; the finished pillows will furnish a cosy reading nook inside the tent, complete with a small library that remains open for the duration of the programme — a space for quiet encounters and playful exploration. That afternoon, artist Ming Zhu presents the performance OOOcarina, an invitation to slow down, attune to one’s breathing, body, and the ground beneath, and to enter a shared space of resonance.

On Wednesday, 13 May, the programme turns to mending and washing — an activation of the tent’s surroundings and the museum’s “backyard” through communal care. The result is a temporary clothesline exhibition to which visitors are invited to contribute their own everyday garments, becoming co-authors of an evolving collective composition. The evening closes with an adapted game of football on the hill beside the museum courtyard — a team-building exercise with the shared goal of getting the ball uphill.

On Monday, 18 May, a new week brings a new format: TENT Radio, featuring interviews, experimental sound works, radio theatre, essays, and more. Local and international artists discuss the relationship between artist and institution live on air. TENT Radio can be listened to at https://oh.eka-gd-ma.ee/.

On Tuesday, 19 May, the programme gathers the texts, drawings, and photographs produced over the preceding days into a collectively made zine — a document of all that has been shared during Rehearsals for Solidarity. The day continues with communal cooking: each participant chops one onion, one carrot, and one clove of garlic, and everything goes into the pot. Many small contributions make one shared meal, enjoyed together.

The full programme is available at https://kumu.ekm.ee/en/syndmus/pankaj-tiwari-tent-school-rehearsals-for-solidarity/.

About Pankaj Tiwari
Pankaj Tiwari is a contemporary artist, performance maker, writer, and curator from Balrampur, India. Currently based in Amsterdam, he holds a Master’s degree in Theatre & Curation from DAS Theatre Amsterdam. Since 2026, he has been working as a trajectory artist with the international arts centre CAMPO in Ghent.

His works bring Eastern perspectives into Western discourse on socio-political issues. Tiwari is the winner of the 3Package Deal Award (2021–2022) from Amsterdam Funds for the Arts and served as a curator for Gessnerallee Zurich from 2020 to 2024. He is currently the artistic director of Stichting Studio Current in Amsterdam.

Tiwari’s work has been invited and supported by numerous international festivals and production houses, including Thalia Theatre Hamburg, Romaeuropa Rome, Steirischer Herbst Graz, MC93 Bobigny, Theater Rotterdam, Frascati Theatre Amsterdam, Kaaitheater Brussels, DE SINGEL Antwerp, Grand Theatre Groningen, SpielArt Munich, Holland Festival Amsterdam, Zürcher Theaterspektakel Zurich, University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Radialsystem Berlin, Santarcangelo Festival Italy, and performingborderslive UK, among others.

The 2026 graduation ceremonies will be held on Friday, June 19th in the EKA Assembly Hall (room A101, Põhja puiestee 7).

• At 11:00 AM, the ceremony will begin for graduates of the Faculty of Architecture, the Faculty of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Art Culture
• At 3:00 PM, the ceremony will begin for graduates of the Faculty of Design

Dear graduates, please arrive 15 minutes early to the lower door of the EKA hall, where you will be guided to your designated seat. This year there is a record number of graduates (for the first time over 300) and unfortunately most of the congratulators will not be able to sit in the hall, they can watch the ceremony on the screens in the lobby or online via EKA TV.

More info:
Elisabeth Kuusik
elisabeth.kuusik@artun.ee

May 7-8, 2026 

Venue: Estonian Academy of Arts,  

Room A501 

The symposium aims to explore how references to the mythological underworld engender, maintain, and revitalize the politics of cultural and social critique in contemporary art of the past three decades (post 1991). The focus of the project is the representation and interpretation of chthonic elements, such as devils, spirits, witches and other beings – human or non-human –, associated with the underworld, the subterranean, the primal grounds of being in Baltic folklore and other cultural landscapes.  

The participants of the symposium will be exploring how the employment of these elements in contemporary art has contributed to the development of a new body of socio-political knowledge, including sensitivity, awareness, and insight into a range of urgent issues such as gender inequality, racism, the climate crisis, consumerism, and gentrification. The “underworld contemporary art” engages uncanny imagery and occult allure to attract and engage audiences, challenging the status quo while fostering debate that promotes social change, reinforces democratic values, and cultivates inclusive and safe societies. 

The project is organized by the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, Latvia in collaboration with Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia. Project authors: Dr. Toms Ķencis, Dr. Jana Kukaine, Dr. Ieva Melgalve and doctoral student Maija Rudovska. Supported by Latvian Council of Science “Contemporary Art and Folklore: Unlocking the Underworld” (UNART) (lzp-2024/1-0479) 

Everyone is welcome to attend. 
For the workshops, please register under this link: https://forms.gle/jPLYsRJbSYv6FPSf6  

Visual design: Liana Mihailova 

On May 14, 2026, the Estonian Academy of Arts will host an open conference titled “Metamorphosis as a Creator of the Future” in room A501, featuring internationally acknowledged Italian philosopher Emanuele Coccia as the keynote speaker.

The conference will be held in English.

The conference will focus on the philosophy of Emanuele Coccia, with metamorphosis as the key term. Life is an incessant series of metamorphoses that happen everywhere, and the first natural technology is the cocoon, where preparation for transformation takes place. The keynote speaker at the conference will be Emanuele Coccia. The floor will also be given to artists and thinkers who, through their work, have explored change and its impact on the world around us.

Programme:

15.00 Opening words and introduction

I session: Contemporary Art and Language as a Form of Transformations

Bjarki Bragason (artist, educator, Iceland University of the Arts):
The Garden That Was: Memory, Ecology and Transformation

Ene-Liis Semper (artist, stage director, educator, Estonian Academy of Arts)
Large-Scale Performances as the Agents of Change in Society

Hasso Krull (poet, essayist, philosopher, Tallinn University)
A Metamorphic Event: Hommages à Artur Alliksaar and Emanuele Coccia

16.00 Coffee break

16.15 II session: Philosophy of Metamorphosis

Marek Tamm (cultural historian, theorist, Tallinn University)

Philosophy as Metamorphosis: Emanuele Coccia

Emanuele Coccia (philosopher, Italy/France, EHESS)

Metamorphosis as the Creator of Future

17.30 -18.30 final panel: Metamorphosis as the Creator of Future

Coccia, Bragason, Semper, Krull, Tamm – moderated by Kirke Kangro

Emanuele Coccia is Associate Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. He has been a visiting professor and researcher at numerous international institutions, including universities in Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Düsseldorf, Columbia University, Harvard, Penn University and New York University. His work bridges philosophy, ecology, contemporary art, architecture, and visual theory, proposing a renewed understanding of life, form, and habitation on a planetary scale.

He is the author of several books translated into many languages, including The Life of Plants (Polity, 2018; Gallimard, 2016), Metamorphoses (Polity, 2021; Rivages, 2020), and Philosophy of the Home (Penguin, 2024; Rivages, 2024) and A Treatise on Modern Love (Flammarion and Einaudi 2026) . Together with photographer Viviane Sassen, he published Modern Alchemy (JBE Books, 2022), a book on photographic theory and image-thinking; with Paolo Roversi, Lettres sur la lumière (Gallimard, 2024), a philosophical epistolary on light as a principle of visibility and creation; and with Alessandro Michele, creative director of Valentino, The Life of Forms. Philosophy of Re-enchantment (HarperCollins, 2024). His forthcoming book, New Natures. Planetary Museums (Park Books, 2026), co-authored with author and curator Béatrice Grenier and architect Jeanne Gang, examines the emergence of planetary museums as living ecologies at the intersection of nature, architecture, and culture.

In 2019 and 2021, he contributed to Nous les Arbres, presented at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris and the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, where he is also a member of the Academic Committee. Together with Olivier Saillard, he curated The Many Lives of a Garment (ITS Arcademy, Trieste 2024) and Borderless (ITS Arcademy, Trieste, 2025), two exhibitions reflecting on the philosophical and social metamorphoses of fashion.

With Yuko Hasegawa, he co-curated Dancing with All at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, centered on ecology, coexistence, and the poetics of movement. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Power Station of Art of Shanghai. In 2024, Coccia was awarded the Mondriaan Prize for his theoretical and curatorial work bridging philosophy, art, and architecture.

Bjarki Bragason (b. 1983) studied at the Iceland University of the Arts, Universität der Künste Berlin and CalArts in Los Angeles. He is Associate Professor and Dean of the Fine Art Department at the Iceland University of the Arts and has taught at institutions internationally since 2014. His work has been represented in numerous solo- and group exhibitions internationally, and is in the collection of museums and private collections.

Hasso Krull (b. 1964) is an Estonian poet, translator and philosopher who has published nineteen books of poetry and eleven collections of essays that include literary criticism as well as writings concerning art, cinema and society. During 1990–2017 he was teaching cultural theory at the Estonian Institute of Humanities (special courses on continental philosophy, psychoanalysis, creation myths and oral tradition). From 2019 he has been teaching creative writing in the Estonian Academy of Arts. His latest books are The Eternal Recurrence (2025) and Twilight Remembrance (2025). He currently works as a researcher at Tallinn University.

Ene-Liis Semper (b. 1969) is an Estonian video, performance, and theatre director, and professor in the Department of Scenography at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2004, she co-founded Teater NO99 with Tiit Ojasoo, where she worked as artistic director and stage director until the theatre closed in 2018. Semper has created numerous set and costume designs for both drama and opera productions, and is known for her visually powerful and grandiose style. Her solo exhibitions have been held at prestigious museums, including the Kumu Art Museum (2011) and the Estonian Museum of Contemporary Art (EKKM) (2024). Her most recent major production projects include the concert-performance “Where Are You?” (2026), “The Master and Margarita” (2024, Riga Dailes Theater), “Macbeth” (2023, Estonian Drama Theatre/ERSO/Estonian Concert), “Now We Can Talk About It” (2023, Theater Expedition), and many more.

Marek Tamm is professor of cultural history in Tallinn University and head of the Institute of History, Archaeology and Art History. His primary research fields are cultural history of medieval Europe, theory and methodology of history, and cultural memory studies. He has recently published Breakthroughs in Cultural Psychology (ed. with Jaan Valsiner; Tallinn University Press, 2024), The Fabric of Historical Time (co-authored with Zoltán Boldizsár Simon; Cambridge University Press, 2023), and The Companion to Juri Lotman: A Semiotic Theory of Culture (ed. with Peeter Torop; Bloomsbury, 2022).

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