Exhibitions

Join us for the opening of ”Terribly Beautiful” on September 11 at 6 PM at EKA Gallery! The exhibition, curated by EKA architecture students Merilin Kaup, Margus Tammik and Ulla Alla, is part of Tallinn Architecture Biennale TAB 2019 and is open until October 9.

Where lies the beauty of a school project? We propose that the most beautiful thing about school project is the venturing, vulnerability and complexity of the process, the notion of getting lost. In the facility for learning, failure is beautiful and ugly matters too! We are shifting focus from the outcome to the process in order to start an in-depth discussion about motives that drive us, values that we believe in, work methods that have served us and bizarre places our mind has taken us when possessed by the project. We want to bring this liminal period into the spotlight because beautiful representations and elaborated briefs can be found all over the internet!

The exhibition brings together master theses, first-year experiments and self-initiated side projects. All projects are essentially critical, either succeeded or failed explorations that are experimental in their approach or rather explore experimentation and play itself as a creative method and a way of learning.

Authors exhibited:
Aleksandr Delev
Alexander Angelov
Aleksandra Lilovska
Marin Markovski
Teodora Todorova
Ralitsa Timeva
Aspasia Strani
Campbell Taylor
Charles Curtin
Miguel Gilarte
Diana Carrillo Silva
Eleonore Devolder
Eugenio Superchi
Maja Piechwiak
Raya Dimitrova
Sara Garcia Santi
Viliam Fedorko

Curators: Merilin Kaup, Margus Tammik and Ulla Alla

The exhibition is part of Tallinn Architecture Biennale TAB 2019 program, which is produced by Estonian Center of Architecture.

Anna Tamm’s solo exhibition “Puppet Warp” will be opened in the Showcase Gallery of the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts since September 4, 2019. 

“Puppet Warp” is an artwork inspired by the today’s situation in domestic policy, illustrating the simple method used for influencing the appearance and form of freely selected object/subject, thus transforming its purpose according to the artist’s needs. However, the radical use of the Puppet Warp tool may turn the original image into something new and unrecognizable.

The title of the exhibition is a direct reference to the digital image manipulation tool in Adobe Photoshop.

Exhibition can be viewed 24/7 and it will be open until October 26th.

Location: facade wall of the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM), Põhja pst. 35.

Solveig Lill is opening her solo exhibition “In the Nearest Distances” at Vent Space project room on Thursday, August 22 at 6 p.m. The exhibition will be open until Saturday, August 31 from 12–5 p.m.

“The human body consists of around thirty-seven trillion cells. The complicated sequence of biological processes that takes place between them and within them determines every aspect of an organism’s state. We perceive the environment mediated by the cells through the energy they produce. Despite this, people tend to think of themselves as a single whole form, not as a collection of actively living particles.

To somehow position oneself with regard to the surrounding world, to designate one’s position in a system, it is necessary to acknowledge other scales in addition to one’s own comparative size. It is necessary to cast one’s eyes closer as well as further from oneself.

It is possible to view the cellular level as a model for larger communities. Communication, conflicts, influence and vibrations, collaboration and competition between particles have similar parallels on a human as well as a universal level.

The drawings presented at the exhibition depict hypothetical situations in the cellular world. The works do not draw on scientific sources, instead they speak of the microscape through the artist’s interpretation. The exhibition invites the viewer to make a conceptual leap with regard to scale, directs attention away from people and towards cells and asks whether there can be anything fundamentally similar between the two.”

Solveig Lill (b. 1994) is studying in the Contemporary Art programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts and will defend her master’s thesis next spring. During the previous academic year, she studied on exchange in Germany at the Berlin University of the Arts, in professor Mark Lammert’s class. Lill acquired her bachelor’s degree in 2016 from the painting department at the University of Tartu. Having previously participated in group exhibitions in Tallinn, Tartu, Vilnius and Berlin, this exhibition is her first solo show. Lill’s creative practice includes a variety of media. She has worked with painting, installation and photography and is currently focusing on drawing.

The artist thanks: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts, Vent Space, Aksel Haagensen, Mark Lammert, Hanna-Liisa Lavonen, Iren Lill, Kaisa Maasik, Maria Muuk, Kati Ots, Mihkel Raev

The group exhibition “At the end of the workday” will open at Vent Space project space on Monday, 5 August 2019 at 6pm. The exhibition will remain open until August 11.

Participating artists: Katrin Enni, Aksel Haagensen, Ulvi Haagensen, Hanna-Liisa Lavonen, Kaisa Maasik, Olesja Semenkova, Silvia Sosaar

This exhibition allows visitors to get to know the people behind Vent Space project space (and one invited artist). Together they tackle everyday subjects using familiar everyday methods. This is an homage to works in progress, which receive much attention especially during the summer. This is a tying up of loose ends, an appraisal of the inbetweenness.

The exhibition is open 6 – 11 August, from 12 to 6pm.

Katrin Enni (1976) lives and works in Tallinn. When she’s not working, she does everyday things. She also likes to use various everyday objects in her sound installations.

Aksel Haagensen (1993) works in Tallinn. He is interested in the telling of everyday and not-so-everyday stories and in what accompanies the telling of these stories.

Ulvi Haagensen (1964) will soon be living in Tallinn again. If making brooms and doing other preparations takes long enough, then maybe we won’t ever have to start cleaning.

Hanna-Liisa Lavonen (1994) studies and works in Tallinn. She can be found sitting phone in hand scrolling through the yoga stream on Instagram or hanging around in town, gathering inspiration.

Kaisa Maasik (1994) works mainly in Tallinn and Helsinki. While doing her everyday shopping (sometimes just walking on the street), Kaisa often finds shopping lists, which are the basis for the carpets presented at this exhibition.

Kati Ots (1993) is currently preparing to move. She’s learning to say “no”, so as to prevent a burnout. But #fomo – here she is again…

Olesja Semenkova (1992) is a woman. “Every potential has a stereotype, every stereotype is potential.” In her everyday life, Olesja finds untouched potential and conveys them in her everyday art.

Silvia Sosaar (1979) asks, “People’s opinions? How are they formed? Where do they receive confirmation for their opinions and preferences? How does a creative person search for shelter from the world?”

The solo exhibition “ILINX extended” by Rebeka Vaino will be opened at Vent Space project space on Wednesday, July 31 at 6pm. The exhibition will be open until August 2 from 12-6pm.

According to Roger Caillois, Ilinx is a category of play defined by dizziness, vertigo; what you feel when you gallop on a half-wild horse across an empty beach or forget yourself and your surroundings while dancing in some techno club. The exhibition is inspired by the artist’s personal experiences – summers on the backs of horses as well as the endless dances in Berlin’s techno clubs. Throughout history horses have symbolised freedom, movement and desire. Due to this and the use of the horse tranquiliser ketamin in the clubs, the white horse has become the symbol of Berlin clubbers. This is why the artist chose the white horse as her starting point in the exhibition. The aim of the exhibition is to look at the relation between human and horse, people and (sexual/social) freedom and a person and their inner animal.

Ilinx is an audiovisual exhibition, which is a development of Rebeka Vaino’s graduation work, TASE ’19, Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA).

Rebeka Vaino (b. 1995) is an artist working in Tallinn and Berlin, who graduated from the painting department at EKA this spring and studied at the Berlin Academy of the Arts (UdK) 2017-2018. Vaino is an internationally active artist with group and solo shows in Berlin, Budapest and Tallinn. In her art, she focuses on the human body, a person’s primitive nature and relationship with nature in a self-portrait fashion.

FB: facebook.com/rebekavaino
Instagram: @rebekavaino / @rebekarubyvinot_12

Giulia Lanza will present her project “Vestiges” as the final outcome of her residency at Vent Space on Wednesday, June 19 from 6 to 9pm.

During her residency at Vent Space
Italian born artist Giulia Costanza Lanza (b. 1988) is exploring the relationships that form from measuring the body and the space by experimenting with materials.

„Skin, body and organic tissues are starting points to explore the interaction between the surface of the object, its thingness, and the meaning that we attach to it. I’m currently investigating the object’s dichotomy and playing with materiality in order to give a tactile feeling. The objects dialogue with the empty space around, creating a new environment characterized by the aesthetic of fragment, meant as a tool of dissection to investigate human nature, the complexity of its patterns and metamorphosis. I try to blend together the linguistic codes of applied arts with the one of sculpture and drawing, materializing ephemeral shapes. The relationship that interweaves the body and the object that originates from it is fundamental.“

On Thursday, July 18, Bianca Hisse presents ‘A Safe Place for Criticism’, the result of her residency period at Vent Space. The doors will be open from 18:00 to 21:00.

Bianca Hisse (b.1994) is a Brazilian artist based in Norway. From a continuous double movement between visual arts and dance, Hisse’s practice delves into performative strategies to reflect on how today’s societies are choreographed.

Fast-paced monologues, actions in public space, ironic manifestos, industrial materiality and other elements common to urban contexts are central in her pieces, normally employed to question the complex movement dynamics of the world. Through diagrams, performances and textual installations, Hisse asks herself what are the politics of scale between humans and their social framework, and if artistic practices can unravel new directions to what words can do – and to how our structures are moving.

Bianca Hisse has a Master in Fine Arts from Kunstakademiet i Tromsø and a Bachelor in Performing Arts from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo.

For more information on Bianca Hisse’s work, please visit www.biancahisse.com

Silvia Sosaar would like to request the honour of your presence at the opening of her exhibition “Unconscious Patient” on 31 May 2019 at EKKM at 5pm (Põhja pst 35, Tallinn). The exhibition is on view until August 30th 2019.

How to prepare, mobilise and attune a person to experience contemporary art?
Smells are the trigger of contextual memory. Smells are a central element of sensory processes, which are necessary for the development of a functioning memory and based on which the contextual memory is able to conjure up the past. The contextual memory functions when we associate a space with an event (because something once took place in that space) or associate a song with a special person, enabling us to be able to access a past reality once again – the same applies to the sense of smell. Smells affect moods and emotions. The aroma installation at the Showcase Gallery is open to visitors throughout the summer and will form the “basecamp” for the aroma-tours/performances that will take place in June, July and August in Tallinn’s urban space and in large shopping centres, Smell-O-Rama film screenings and a lecture on aroma marketing. Dates to be finalised.

In addition to the events at the Showcase Gallery, with the aroma installation in collaboration with EKKM café, the artist would like to direct visitors’ attention to the fact that many Estonian companies use aroma machines in their work environments daily – dentists, mini golf courses, spas, hotels, clothing stores, etc. across the whole of Estonia and the world, as well as the Estonian National Museum all implement the “scent marketing” service. Normally, people are not aware of this or don’t even notice that something is different; that their state of mind, desires and the most primary levels of their moods are being manipulated. This is also used in the military industries of various countries, where those entering war-zones are acclimatised with synthetic analogies to the smell of burning human flesh, spent gunpowder, sewage with the aim of softening the effects of the trauma awaiting them.

Silvia Sosaar (born 1979) is an interdisciplinary artist living in Tallinn. She works with photography, video, performance and installation. The main focus of her interest is the person – tackling the encounters between artist and subjects. Sosaar graduated from the photography department (BA) at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2017. In the same year, she started her master’s studies in contemporary art, faculty of fine arts at EKA, where she is presently studying. Sosaar is a member of the Estonian Union of Photography Artists (FOKU).
In addition to Estonia, she has participated in group exhibitions in London, Milan and Madrid. Sosaar’s short film “Finding Elvis” participated at the “60 Second Intl. Film Festival” in Islamabad.
Her first solo exhibition “Shiny Shoe Salon” took place in 2017 at EKA Gallery in Tallinn.
She is one of the co-founders of ;paranoia publishing and has participated at numerous performances connected to presentations of publications.  She is a founding member of skaala publishing.

The artist would like to thank the department of photography at Estonian Academy of Arts, EKKM Café, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, aroomiturundus.ee, Marten Esko, Aksel Haagensen, Cloe Jancis, Marge Monko, Immanuel Poltimäe, Eve Roosna, Hanno Soans.

ANNA KAARMA will open her personal exhibition ON THE THRESHOLD in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Thursday, May 23^rd, 2019.  

With the current exhibition, the artist is observing the borders of the personal and the public, dreams and waking, the permanent and the changing. Anna Kaarma focuses on the living environment of the district of Lasnamäe in Tallinn – the architectural and social superstructure is being unravelled to fragments charged with personal meanings and experiences.

Lasnamäe has the characteristic features of a metropolis. It is easy to remain anonymous for individuals between and inside the housing blocks that have been mathematically positioned – the intimate views into the neighbours’ lives that one gets through the windows and walls has rather the effect of a background noise than a human contact. The exhibition emphasizes the microcosm of an individual resident belonging to the so-called anonymous crowd. Everyday objects are interwoven with a personal perception of space, playful childhood memories, stories and a dreamlike logic of space.

Anna Kaarma: „In the mid-1990s, a bullet was shot into the kitchen window of my 8^th floor apartment in the Lasnamäe district. The bullet probably bounced off of the wall in ricochet, only penetrating the outer glass of the window. The pane was therefore left as it was for several years. In the context of the criminal events of the last decade of 20^th century, the bullet hole has no special value; it is more meaningful for me as a strange image from the past. It is intriguing how an element from the outer environment had intruded into the personal space, got stuck between the two spaces while creating a new field – a certain wormhole that makes it possible to go back to the space in the past. The window as the connecting link between the private and public sphere became an entry point to the third sphere, the one of memories.”

This spring, Anna Kaarma will defend an MA degree in Contemporary Arts in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has obtained a BA degree in Graphic Design at the same academy. She has also studied at Hochschule Düsseldorf and in Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School. Anna Kaarma is the laureate of Adamson-Eric Scholarship in 2017. Kaarma’s diverse artist’s practice involves publication design, artists’ books, video works as well as expansive installations. In her work, Kaarma skilfully combines the elements of graphic design, this often resulting from a 2D image to a monumental spatial installation. Anna Kaarma’s first personal exhibition „Type 121” was held in EKA Gallery in 2017 that can be considered as an ideological predecessor to her current exposition.

The artist would like to thank: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Marge Monko, Jan Kaus, Sebastian Saaremäe, Anu Vahtra, Angela Ramires, Lee Kelomees, department of installation and sculpture of Estonian Academy of Arts, Jaana Jüris, Neeme Külm, Ingvar Heamägi, department of glass art of Estonian Academy of Arts and Eve Koha, Virko Kuusk, Kaisa Maasik, Kulla Laas, Gregor Taul, Saara Bergström.

Installation of the panel block: Valge Kuup LLC.

Exhibition will be open until June 10^th, 2019.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Department of Photography of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Current exhibition belongs to the programme of TASE – the annual spring graduation show festival of graduation works of Estonian Academy of Arts. The main TASE exhibition includes all MA graduation projects and selected BA projects in the new academy building on Põhja pst. 7 from May 31^st to June 16^th, 2019. The Young Artist Award and the Young Applied Artist Award will be announced at the opening of TASE’19 in collaboration with the Estonian Artists’ Association. The extensive satellite programme of the festival presents students films in TASE FILM, offers presentations of selected graduation works in TASE Elevator Talks, provides feedback to your artwork from international experts in Portfolio Cafe and opens several diverse personal and group exhibitions by students. Additional info: artun.ee/tase

On Thursday, May 16 at 6 pm, the exhibition YOU MUST HAVE A BODY by the second-year students of the Jewellery and Blacksmithing Department will be opened at the Estonian Academy of Arts Trepigalerii.

The subject of the exhibition is the body and the experience of this self-existence and being a part of the world. Nine young artists interpret how bodies interact with each other, what are the characteristics of the body, and what, in which form, leaves marks in the body. The selection of the materials and techniques used can be somewhat surprising.

Participators: Georg Arnold, Kristina Kask, Endel Maas, Terje Meisterson, Tauris Reose, Kristin Sepp, Oleg Šubitšev, Mart Talvar, Taavi Teevet.

Supervisors: Eve Margus-Villems, Nils Hint, Urmas Lüüs, Jens A. Clausen.

Sponsors: Träx rehvikeskus, Tikkurila, ExtraWize, EKA, Martin Kipper, Carol Haamer.

The exhibition at the Estonian Academy of Arts Trepigalerii (entrance on the corner of Põhja pst 7 and Kotzebue street) remains open May 17 – 30, Monday – Sunday 12 PM – 7 PM.

Further information:
Taavi Teevet
taavi.teevet@artun.ee
+372 56 947 532