Exhibitions
01.04.2022
Caring for Ida-Viru? Tracing Frontiers of Shrinkage
We kindly invite you to the exhibition and final grading of Urban Studies and Interior Architecture Urban Models studio tutored by Kristi Grišakov & Keiti Kljavin. Please join us 1st of April, 15:00 in the EKA courtyard. The exhibition has been collectively curated by students of urban studies, architecture and urban planning and interior architecture.
Urban decline in East-Estonia presents itself in a state of flux: it is tied to the area’s contested past but also allows a peek into the future. Multiple facets of shrinkage manifest in landscapes of extractivistic production, where the line between nature and man-made environment is increasingly difficult to draw. Although urban shrinkage is often associated with deteriorated buildings, abandoned and fragmented urban environments, if we choose to look through another lens there are multiple layers of phenomenologically dense experiences of decline that can provide acceptance and perseverance. Whether shrinking cities are distressing cities is a point of contention that urges us to rethink why cities are only ever received positively and linearly through growth, and whether or why shrinkage is seen as the opposite of growth. Should it be?
The Urban Models studio and its final project Caring for Ida-Viru? Tracing Frontiers of Shrinkage explores various questions related to tangible and intangible aspects of habitation in Ida-Viru county. Urban districts and towns of Ahtme, Järve and Kiviõli, where changing policies and approaches in urban governance aim to respond to the surplus of housing caused by the outmigration of people are in focus. Students of urban studies, architecture and interior architecture collaborated in exploring, reinventing and rethinking approaches towards shrinkage, adaptation and re-use. Some try to trace the stories that are subsumed in the industrially toxic air of Ida-Virumaa. Others attempt to take a peek into the everyday life that has somehow frozen in time. The students’ used relevant literature and explored case studies with experimental media and techniques in order to deliver final projects challenging the condition of shrinkage in Eastern Estonia.
Students: Paula Veidenbauma, Ljudmila Funika-Müür, Kush Badhwar, Augustas Lapinskas, Karen Isabel Talitee, Kelli Puusepp, Nabeel Imtiaz, Luca Liese Ritter, Julia Freudenberg, Kristiina Puusepp, Paul Simon, Christian Hörner, Hannah Mühlbach, Loviise Talvaru, Khadeeja Farrukh, Nora Soo, Jannik Kastrup.
Guest critics: Roland Reemaa (https://www.rloaluarnad.com/), Gregor Taul (EKA), Jüri Kermik (EKA), Johanna Holvandus (TÜ)
——————————————————-
Opposing the Desert
EKA courtyard terrace
an interactive installation by Paula Veidenbauma and Ljudmila Funika-Müür
Shrinking cities are aging cities. Enclosed by panels, slippery roads, railway tracks, and liminal landscape, elderly tend to be tied closely with their homes, not receiving enough soft care from the local municipality. While focusing on the topic of the invisibility of loneliness amongst the retried, the project tackles spatial isolation while looking at it from the perspective of the city district of Ahtme. It investigates public space in relation to a private space once inhabited by a senior teacher living in Ahtme’s Sõpruse street Soviet panel building. The installation tackles the findings revealed through critical geography, in parallel exploring the state of social services in Ahtme. How many borders does one have to overcome in order to be cared for? Can public space enable caring relationships between people, place, and materials, towards a city interested in investing resources beyond growth?
———————————————————
Ida
EKA library
illustrated children’s book presentation and readings by Kush Badwahr, Augustas Lapinskas and Karen Isabel Talitee
Ida (meaning ‘east’ in Estonian but also referring to the ancient Germanic root ‘id’ meaning ‘labor, work’) is an eight year old resident of Ida-Virumaa asking herself what she would like to do when she grows up. On her way home from school, she has various interactions – with a soon to retire army officer, a group of young boys, a bird, her visiting aunt and an ex-miner – that relate to their life and work in the region in which they live. The interactions Ida has and the illustrations that make up the book are based on interviews and research exploring the nature of work, unemployment and retirement and its connections to issues of shrinkage and de-growth in the area. Ida is both a metaphor of the contemporary state of the region and a children’s book that makes these topics accessible through an illustrated narrative form.
Underneath the layers
@ the EKA spiral staircase
panorama installation by Kelli Puusepp and Nabeel Imtiaz
As the stones burned in the beginning of the 20th century, the towns in the East of Estonia started to grow. As the terrain in the backdrop was being dug deep, people moved in – families with all their personal belongings. Children played in the parks and their familiarity brought households closer. Memories of good times were made – over on the sidewalks and alleys, behind and in between the walls of Kohtla-Järve homes. As the underground sphere expanded, the mines got deeper, consequently developing the life on the surface. Though the estates grew denser, their expansion was halted by the end of the century. It all fell back inwards, imploding into themselves, throwing the community into an uncertainty. What was left were the remnants of the spaces once inhabited.
The story traces the history of socio-spatial formations and disintegration of the society that once formed Kohtla-Järve.
——————————————————
Nothing Power: where absent matter matters
A-500
exhibition by Luca Liese Ritter and Julia Freudenberg
In Ida-Virumaa, shrinkage refers to the complex consequences of going away, becoming less, fading into thin air. People move, things disappear, services close, concrete panels decay and houses are demolished. What remains in those places that were inhabited by heterogeneous matter is a void. But this emptiness is not empty in the sense of a nothingness, a nirvana; rather, it continues to be quasi-present, conceivably retaining many of its material aspects and thus its place in the fabric of socio-material relations that shape the experience of living in and coping with urban shrinkage.
Our project explores the affective flows between what is gone and what remains, and seeks to highlight the complicated intertwining of cause and effect that residents and policymakers must navigate as they confront the challenges of population loss and subsequent over-provision of housing infrastructure.
—————————————————-
…so we can keep on watching eesti laul in the future
A-400
house by Kristiina Puusepp and Paul Simon
In the future, Ida-Virumaa will see rapid transformation. The excavation of oil shale, one of the main social and economic pillars of the region, is not in keeping with the reality of the climate crisis. The concept of a ‘just transition’ demands a change-over satisfying both workers rights and environmental care. Originally being required by labor- and environmental activists, the term is meanwhile used by different governmental actors. In Ida-Virumaa, the EU supports the endeavor of a just transition with 340 Million Euros. While the funding will not directly finance housing, by striving for a future-oriented industry, it is the base structure for securing homes for local residents. Despite attempts for widespread participation of just transition, the transformation is mostly directed by demands and plans from external groups and higher institutions. By thematizing the ambiguous relationship between this ‘outside’ and the local population, the project raises the question how we should position ourselves in the process of transition.
—————————————————–
The Last Layer, the Next Layer? Signs for those who choose to stay
B-205
video installation by Christian Hörner and Hannah Mühlbach
When exploring the abandoned flats of Kohtla-Järve, we came across an outstanding phenomenon of personal expression and appropriation of space: through its multiple colors, patterns and layerings, wallpaper became the collage-like visual theme of our experience as explorers of Ida-Virumaa shrinking cities’ interiors. Inspired by the creativity and self-expression of those who have left the area, our search for shrinkage re-centered around the idea of creating something for those who still live in the cities that de-grow. We began to play with the idea of decorating facades of abandoned buildings with wallpaper in a graffitti-like manner, as a vehicle of intention, resistance and visibility. This next layer on Ida-Virumaa loses the fatality of linear decline until disappearance and points to an alternative future where abandoned buildings become monuments of persistence rather than unwanted obstacles for liveability. Our installation represents the hypothesis that people, when provided with the means to care for their cities, can re-frame narratives of shrinkage and create an optimistic outlook on Ida-Virumaa’s future.
——————————————————
The Other side of the Coin: Must Shrinkage be Only Tormenting?
A-200
mixed media by Loviise Talvaru and Khedeeja Farrukh
Emptiness becomes even more emptier because of our need to define society through community. Kiviõli, one of the many mining towns in Ida-Virumaa, is categorized as an example of urban shrinkage, where dilapidated conditions of facades, rustic reminders of laundry lines, empty apartment buildings, sounds of sea gull penetrating the otherwise silent urbanity urges an outsider to call this environment tormenting. But is that really so?
Must shrinkage be only tormenting? Why is shrinkage antagonistic to growth? Isn’t growth also tormenting? Through this project, a process of personal experiences, of how we perceived shrinkage and how our experience changed it, is depicted. There came a point in our research where we realized that this top-down trajectory of perceptions is quite acute and that urbanity is not an abstraction only to be lived on papers, rather it is an everyday experience. So, we went back to Kiviõli. For good. And for surprises.
Our approach is not an end-point, but a device of researching, where our visits to Kiviõli enabled an important aspect of experimentation and co-creation, transforming our approach towards shrinkage.
——————————————————
Help yourself with Energy
B-205
video and installation by Nora Soo and Jannik Kastrup
The electricity meter operates between the public and the private realm. Subject to regular control, it softly breaks their boundaries. In economically deprived regions like Ida-Virumaa its reading frequently decides the fate of the inhabitants, pressuring those who are financially incapable to upgrade to more efficient devices.
Tampering with the electricity meter is therefore a common disruptive practice.
However in the spheres of en vogue online life coaching, energy is portrayed as a personal property that can be manipulated according to spiritual practices, detached from economic and political circumstances. Does it mean that anyone can achieve anything being only restricted by imaginary boundaries? Paradoxically, the imaginaries of inhabitants in Ida-Virumaa are limited in a situation of energy poverty. Within this dichotomy of energy as a contested public good and as an individualized spirituality lies one of the challenges of neoliberal capitalist societies. The (video) installation plays with diverging concepts of energy by audiovisually overlapping and rearranging these distinct narratives.
Caring for Ida-Viru? Tracing Frontiers of Shrinkage
Friday 01 April, 2022
We kindly invite you to the exhibition and final grading of Urban Studies and Interior Architecture Urban Models studio tutored by Kristi Grišakov & Keiti Kljavin. Please join us 1st of April, 15:00 in the EKA courtyard. The exhibition has been collectively curated by students of urban studies, architecture and urban planning and interior architecture.
Urban decline in East-Estonia presents itself in a state of flux: it is tied to the area’s contested past but also allows a peek into the future. Multiple facets of shrinkage manifest in landscapes of extractivistic production, where the line between nature and man-made environment is increasingly difficult to draw. Although urban shrinkage is often associated with deteriorated buildings, abandoned and fragmented urban environments, if we choose to look through another lens there are multiple layers of phenomenologically dense experiences of decline that can provide acceptance and perseverance. Whether shrinking cities are distressing cities is a point of contention that urges us to rethink why cities are only ever received positively and linearly through growth, and whether or why shrinkage is seen as the opposite of growth. Should it be?
The Urban Models studio and its final project Caring for Ida-Viru? Tracing Frontiers of Shrinkage explores various questions related to tangible and intangible aspects of habitation in Ida-Viru county. Urban districts and towns of Ahtme, Järve and Kiviõli, where changing policies and approaches in urban governance aim to respond to the surplus of housing caused by the outmigration of people are in focus. Students of urban studies, architecture and interior architecture collaborated in exploring, reinventing and rethinking approaches towards shrinkage, adaptation and re-use. Some try to trace the stories that are subsumed in the industrially toxic air of Ida-Virumaa. Others attempt to take a peek into the everyday life that has somehow frozen in time. The students’ used relevant literature and explored case studies with experimental media and techniques in order to deliver final projects challenging the condition of shrinkage in Eastern Estonia.
Students: Paula Veidenbauma, Ljudmila Funika-Müür, Kush Badhwar, Augustas Lapinskas, Karen Isabel Talitee, Kelli Puusepp, Nabeel Imtiaz, Luca Liese Ritter, Julia Freudenberg, Kristiina Puusepp, Paul Simon, Christian Hörner, Hannah Mühlbach, Loviise Talvaru, Khadeeja Farrukh, Nora Soo, Jannik Kastrup.
Guest critics: Roland Reemaa (https://www.rloaluarnad.com/), Gregor Taul (EKA), Jüri Kermik (EKA), Johanna Holvandus (TÜ)
——————————————————-
Opposing the Desert
EKA courtyard terrace
an interactive installation by Paula Veidenbauma and Ljudmila Funika-Müür
Shrinking cities are aging cities. Enclosed by panels, slippery roads, railway tracks, and liminal landscape, elderly tend to be tied closely with their homes, not receiving enough soft care from the local municipality. While focusing on the topic of the invisibility of loneliness amongst the retried, the project tackles spatial isolation while looking at it from the perspective of the city district of Ahtme. It investigates public space in relation to a private space once inhabited by a senior teacher living in Ahtme’s Sõpruse street Soviet panel building. The installation tackles the findings revealed through critical geography, in parallel exploring the state of social services in Ahtme. How many borders does one have to overcome in order to be cared for? Can public space enable caring relationships between people, place, and materials, towards a city interested in investing resources beyond growth?
———————————————————
Ida
EKA library
illustrated children’s book presentation and readings by Kush Badwahr, Augustas Lapinskas and Karen Isabel Talitee
Ida (meaning ‘east’ in Estonian but also referring to the ancient Germanic root ‘id’ meaning ‘labor, work’) is an eight year old resident of Ida-Virumaa asking herself what she would like to do when she grows up. On her way home from school, she has various interactions – with a soon to retire army officer, a group of young boys, a bird, her visiting aunt and an ex-miner – that relate to their life and work in the region in which they live. The interactions Ida has and the illustrations that make up the book are based on interviews and research exploring the nature of work, unemployment and retirement and its connections to issues of shrinkage and de-growth in the area. Ida is both a metaphor of the contemporary state of the region and a children’s book that makes these topics accessible through an illustrated narrative form.
Underneath the layers
@ the EKA spiral staircase
panorama installation by Kelli Puusepp and Nabeel Imtiaz
As the stones burned in the beginning of the 20th century, the towns in the East of Estonia started to grow. As the terrain in the backdrop was being dug deep, people moved in – families with all their personal belongings. Children played in the parks and their familiarity brought households closer. Memories of good times were made – over on the sidewalks and alleys, behind and in between the walls of Kohtla-Järve homes. As the underground sphere expanded, the mines got deeper, consequently developing the life on the surface. Though the estates grew denser, their expansion was halted by the end of the century. It all fell back inwards, imploding into themselves, throwing the community into an uncertainty. What was left were the remnants of the spaces once inhabited.
The story traces the history of socio-spatial formations and disintegration of the society that once formed Kohtla-Järve.
——————————————————
Nothing Power: where absent matter matters
A-500
exhibition by Luca Liese Ritter and Julia Freudenberg
In Ida-Virumaa, shrinkage refers to the complex consequences of going away, becoming less, fading into thin air. People move, things disappear, services close, concrete panels decay and houses are demolished. What remains in those places that were inhabited by heterogeneous matter is a void. But this emptiness is not empty in the sense of a nothingness, a nirvana; rather, it continues to be quasi-present, conceivably retaining many of its material aspects and thus its place in the fabric of socio-material relations that shape the experience of living in and coping with urban shrinkage.
Our project explores the affective flows between what is gone and what remains, and seeks to highlight the complicated intertwining of cause and effect that residents and policymakers must navigate as they confront the challenges of population loss and subsequent over-provision of housing infrastructure.
—————————————————-
…so we can keep on watching eesti laul in the future
A-400
house by Kristiina Puusepp and Paul Simon
In the future, Ida-Virumaa will see rapid transformation. The excavation of oil shale, one of the main social and economic pillars of the region, is not in keeping with the reality of the climate crisis. The concept of a ‘just transition’ demands a change-over satisfying both workers rights and environmental care. Originally being required by labor- and environmental activists, the term is meanwhile used by different governmental actors. In Ida-Virumaa, the EU supports the endeavor of a just transition with 340 Million Euros. While the funding will not directly finance housing, by striving for a future-oriented industry, it is the base structure for securing homes for local residents. Despite attempts for widespread participation of just transition, the transformation is mostly directed by demands and plans from external groups and higher institutions. By thematizing the ambiguous relationship between this ‘outside’ and the local population, the project raises the question how we should position ourselves in the process of transition.
—————————————————–
The Last Layer, the Next Layer? Signs for those who choose to stay
B-205
video installation by Christian Hörner and Hannah Mühlbach
When exploring the abandoned flats of Kohtla-Järve, we came across an outstanding phenomenon of personal expression and appropriation of space: through its multiple colors, patterns and layerings, wallpaper became the collage-like visual theme of our experience as explorers of Ida-Virumaa shrinking cities’ interiors. Inspired by the creativity and self-expression of those who have left the area, our search for shrinkage re-centered around the idea of creating something for those who still live in the cities that de-grow. We began to play with the idea of decorating facades of abandoned buildings with wallpaper in a graffitti-like manner, as a vehicle of intention, resistance and visibility. This next layer on Ida-Virumaa loses the fatality of linear decline until disappearance and points to an alternative future where abandoned buildings become monuments of persistence rather than unwanted obstacles for liveability. Our installation represents the hypothesis that people, when provided with the means to care for their cities, can re-frame narratives of shrinkage and create an optimistic outlook on Ida-Virumaa’s future.
——————————————————
The Other side of the Coin: Must Shrinkage be Only Tormenting?
A-200
mixed media by Loviise Talvaru and Khedeeja Farrukh
Emptiness becomes even more emptier because of our need to define society through community. Kiviõli, one of the many mining towns in Ida-Virumaa, is categorized as an example of urban shrinkage, where dilapidated conditions of facades, rustic reminders of laundry lines, empty apartment buildings, sounds of sea gull penetrating the otherwise silent urbanity urges an outsider to call this environment tormenting. But is that really so?
Must shrinkage be only tormenting? Why is shrinkage antagonistic to growth? Isn’t growth also tormenting? Through this project, a process of personal experiences, of how we perceived shrinkage and how our experience changed it, is depicted. There came a point in our research where we realized that this top-down trajectory of perceptions is quite acute and that urbanity is not an abstraction only to be lived on papers, rather it is an everyday experience. So, we went back to Kiviõli. For good. And for surprises.
Our approach is not an end-point, but a device of researching, where our visits to Kiviõli enabled an important aspect of experimentation and co-creation, transforming our approach towards shrinkage.
——————————————————
Help yourself with Energy
B-205
video and installation by Nora Soo and Jannik Kastrup
The electricity meter operates between the public and the private realm. Subject to regular control, it softly breaks their boundaries. In economically deprived regions like Ida-Virumaa its reading frequently decides the fate of the inhabitants, pressuring those who are financially incapable to upgrade to more efficient devices.
Tampering with the electricity meter is therefore a common disruptive practice.
However in the spheres of en vogue online life coaching, energy is portrayed as a personal property that can be manipulated according to spiritual practices, detached from economic and political circumstances. Does it mean that anyone can achieve anything being only restricted by imaginary boundaries? Paradoxically, the imaginaries of inhabitants in Ida-Virumaa are limited in a situation of energy poverty. Within this dichotomy of energy as a contested public good and as an individualized spirituality lies one of the challenges of neoliberal capitalist societies. The (video) installation plays with diverging concepts of energy by audiovisually overlapping and rearranging these distinct narratives.
05.04.2022 — 10.04.2022
festival…showcase
“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
Tuesday 05 April, 2022 — Sunday 10 April, 2022
“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.
25.03.2022 — 31.03.2022
Maarja Tõnisson’s Exhibition-performance “Sula”
The theme is inspired by a science-fiction approach and Stanisław Lem’s science fiction novel “Solaris” (1961), in which a research object in outer space, a strange ocean, replicates humans and elements known to the earth. An undefined and constantly transforming unknown substance becomes a distorted mirror of man’s own absurd ambitions.
Maarja Tõnisson’s Exhibition-performance “Sula”
Friday 25 March, 2022 — Thursday 31 March, 2022
The theme is inspired by a science-fiction approach and Stanisław Lem’s science fiction novel “Solaris” (1961), in which a research object in outer space, a strange ocean, replicates humans and elements known to the earth. An undefined and constantly transforming unknown substance becomes a distorted mirror of man’s own absurd ambitions.
22.03.2022 — 31.03.2022
Guide Tours at the Jubilee Exhibition “Perspectives” in the gallery at Põhjala Factory
Guided tours at the Jubilee Exhibition of the Department of Accessory Design “Perspectives” in the gallery of Põhjala Factory with Stella Runnel.
22.03 Tuesday 5.30–7 pm
24.03 Thursday 4.30–6 pm
25.03 Friday 5 –7 pm
30.03 Wednesday 6–7 pm
31.03 Thursday 5–7 pm
Please register first
Guide Tours at the Jubilee Exhibition “Perspectives” in the gallery at Põhjala Factory
Tuesday 22 March, 2022 — Thursday 31 March, 2022
Guided tours at the Jubilee Exhibition of the Department of Accessory Design “Perspectives” in the gallery of Põhjala Factory with Stella Runnel.
22.03 Tuesday 5.30–7 pm
24.03 Thursday 4.30–6 pm
25.03 Friday 5 –7 pm
30.03 Wednesday 6–7 pm
31.03 Thursday 5–7 pm
Please register first
23.03.2022
Fine Arts Movie Night 1
and suddenly it all blossoms | Synopsis
The film “and suddenly it all blossoms” is a journey through the complexities of our time, shifting between hopes, desires, and doubts around our present moment. It follows a voice whose perspective on our disconcerting global situation unfolds as a meditation, guided and prompted by the exhibition’s artworks. The set itself – a Tarkovskian ecosystem of a decommissioned power station, an abandoned paintball field, warehouses, bird colonies, cruise ships and railway lines amongst empty lots and wastelands – exists as a metaphor for the ruptures of Soviet ideals and capitalist hopes. Presented as one continuous shot, the film is a reflection of standing on thresholds in a world suspended between old and new times. The drifting narrative remains tied closely to its setting, learning and growing from the Latvian and Baltic context, where ‘worlds have ended’ many times over through centuries of occupations, wars and economical upheavals, rebirths, and reinventions.
and suddenly it all blossoms, 2021, Latvia, 1 h 14 min
Directors: Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, Dāvis Sīmanis
Director of photography: Andrejs Rudzāts
Script: Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel
Sound: LAFAWNDAH
Language: English (with English, Latvian, Russian, French or German subtitles)
Produced by Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art.
Fine Arts Movie Night 1
Wednesday 23 March, 2022
and suddenly it all blossoms | Synopsis
The film “and suddenly it all blossoms” is a journey through the complexities of our time, shifting between hopes, desires, and doubts around our present moment. It follows a voice whose perspective on our disconcerting global situation unfolds as a meditation, guided and prompted by the exhibition’s artworks. The set itself – a Tarkovskian ecosystem of a decommissioned power station, an abandoned paintball field, warehouses, bird colonies, cruise ships and railway lines amongst empty lots and wastelands – exists as a metaphor for the ruptures of Soviet ideals and capitalist hopes. Presented as one continuous shot, the film is a reflection of standing on thresholds in a world suspended between old and new times. The drifting narrative remains tied closely to its setting, learning and growing from the Latvian and Baltic context, where ‘worlds have ended’ many times over through centuries of occupations, wars and economical upheavals, rebirths, and reinventions.
and suddenly it all blossoms, 2021, Latvia, 1 h 14 min
Directors: Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, Dāvis Sīmanis
Director of photography: Andrejs Rudzāts
Script: Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel
Sound: LAFAWNDAH
Language: English (with English, Latvian, Russian, French or German subtitles)
Produced by Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art.
14.03.2022
Tour of the EKA Accessory Design Jubilee Exhibition “Perspectives”
Today, on March 14, at 5 pm, a tour of the jubilee exhibition “Perspectives” of the Department of Accessory Design of EKA will take place with the artistic director of the exhibition, Helen Sirp, at Põhjala Factory Gallery.
The “Perspectives” exhibition focuses on works from the last 5 years, focusing on footwear, bags, gloves, headgear, artifacts, material experiments, bindings and mini-installations. In addition to the students and alumni of the Estonian Academy of Arts, students from three visiting universities: London College of Fashion, Kolding Design School and Detroit College for Creative Studies also play with the concept of paths and the idea of traveling.
The three-dimensional abstract accessory landscape of the competition-exhibition “Perspectives” of the students and alumni of the department has been created by internationally renowned creative designer and stylist Helen Sirp.
EAA accessory and volume
EAA accessory on Instagram
Tour of the EKA Accessory Design Jubilee Exhibition “Perspectives”
Monday 14 March, 2022
Today, on March 14, at 5 pm, a tour of the jubilee exhibition “Perspectives” of the Department of Accessory Design of EKA will take place with the artistic director of the exhibition, Helen Sirp, at Põhjala Factory Gallery.
The “Perspectives” exhibition focuses on works from the last 5 years, focusing on footwear, bags, gloves, headgear, artifacts, material experiments, bindings and mini-installations. In addition to the students and alumni of the Estonian Academy of Arts, students from three visiting universities: London College of Fashion, Kolding Design School and Detroit College for Creative Studies also play with the concept of paths and the idea of traveling.
The three-dimensional abstract accessory landscape of the competition-exhibition “Perspectives” of the students and alumni of the department has been created by internationally renowned creative designer and stylist Helen Sirp.
EAA accessory and volume
EAA accessory on Instagram
18.03.2022 — 05.06.2022
“We’ll Be Right Back…” at Tallinn Art Hall
Tallinn Art Hall welcomes you to a cheerful last exhibition before the extensive renovation works of its main building. We’ll Be Right Back, You Just Keep Playing! brings together different generations of artists based in Estonia.
You are welcome to the opening of the exhibition on Friday, 18 March at 6 pm!
“While the renovation of its main building is taking place, Tallinn Art Hall will move from Freedom Square to Lasnamäe. We thought that the last show before we left should be a cheerful “See you soon!”. That is why the title We’ll Be Right Back is supplemented with You Just Keep Playing. No matter how crazy the world is around us, our children and the children within us need to be able to play; otherwise, they will not grow,” says Tamara Luuk, curator of the exhibition.
Having a child means dedicating a large part of your life to them. And, if you happen to be an artist, the inner child sneaks into your creation in every possible way: as a co-creator, entrusting their fantasies to you or sublimating your own tenderness and care. But not only that. Although Estonian art usually tends to be rather serious, you can indeed find joyful play in it – not only in the subject matter of the works of art, but also in their structure and development, their lines, colours and volumes. It is also found in the artist’s idea, to which the viewer adds their own experience, because it is very important for an art lover to be willing to play along! Only then can we join Raul Meel, the most venerable and one of the oldest artists in this exhibition, in saying that “the precondition for eternal life is noticing the beauty in playing”. Before awaiting a happy reunion, we will play one last round in our good old Art Hall building, after which we will welcome you in the Lindakivi pavilion in Lasnamäe. Please keep playing! We’ll just be away for a little while.
Participating artists are Art Allmägi, Dénes Farkas and Neeme Külm, Edith Karlson, Jass Kaselaan, Alice Kask, Kaarel Kurismaa, August Künnapu, Camille Laurelli, Kris Lemsalu, Raul Meel, Marko Mäetamm, Robin Nõgisto, Kaido Ole, Villu Plink and Silja Saarepuu, Mark Raidpere, Taave Tuutma and Maria-Kristiina Ulas. The designer of the exhibition is Neeme Külm.
Curator’s tour with Tamara Luuk will take place on 19 March at 2 pm. The exhibition We’ll Be Right Back, You Just Keep Playing! will be open until 5 June 2022.
We would like to thank: Art Museum of Estonia, Tartu Art Museum, Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, AS Vunder, PLATO gallery, Linda Looga, Einar Maarits, Aap Tepper, Kristina Õllek, Alexandra Galkina, Sveta Shuvaeva, David Ter-Oganyan, Ivars Gravlejs, private collectors.
Tallinn Art Hall (Vabaduse väljak 8, Tallinn) is open Wednesday to Sunday 11-6 pm, entrance fee €4 / €8 / €12.
The Tallinn Art Hall Foundation is a contemporary art establishment that presents exhibitions in three galleries on the central square of Tallinn – at Tallinn Art Hall and nearby at Tallinn City Gallery and the Art Hall Gallery. The exhibitions of Tallinn Art Hall are installed by Valge Kuup.
www.kunstihoone.ee
www.facebook.com/TallinnaKunstihoone/
www.instagram.com/tallinnarthall/
“We’ll Be Right Back…” at Tallinn Art Hall
Friday 18 March, 2022 — Sunday 05 June, 2022
Tallinn Art Hall welcomes you to a cheerful last exhibition before the extensive renovation works of its main building. We’ll Be Right Back, You Just Keep Playing! brings together different generations of artists based in Estonia.
You are welcome to the opening of the exhibition on Friday, 18 March at 6 pm!
“While the renovation of its main building is taking place, Tallinn Art Hall will move from Freedom Square to Lasnamäe. We thought that the last show before we left should be a cheerful “See you soon!”. That is why the title We’ll Be Right Back is supplemented with You Just Keep Playing. No matter how crazy the world is around us, our children and the children within us need to be able to play; otherwise, they will not grow,” says Tamara Luuk, curator of the exhibition.
Having a child means dedicating a large part of your life to them. And, if you happen to be an artist, the inner child sneaks into your creation in every possible way: as a co-creator, entrusting their fantasies to you or sublimating your own tenderness and care. But not only that. Although Estonian art usually tends to be rather serious, you can indeed find joyful play in it – not only in the subject matter of the works of art, but also in their structure and development, their lines, colours and volumes. It is also found in the artist’s idea, to which the viewer adds their own experience, because it is very important for an art lover to be willing to play along! Only then can we join Raul Meel, the most venerable and one of the oldest artists in this exhibition, in saying that “the precondition for eternal life is noticing the beauty in playing”. Before awaiting a happy reunion, we will play one last round in our good old Art Hall building, after which we will welcome you in the Lindakivi pavilion in Lasnamäe. Please keep playing! We’ll just be away for a little while.
Participating artists are Art Allmägi, Dénes Farkas and Neeme Külm, Edith Karlson, Jass Kaselaan, Alice Kask, Kaarel Kurismaa, August Künnapu, Camille Laurelli, Kris Lemsalu, Raul Meel, Marko Mäetamm, Robin Nõgisto, Kaido Ole, Villu Plink and Silja Saarepuu, Mark Raidpere, Taave Tuutma and Maria-Kristiina Ulas. The designer of the exhibition is Neeme Külm.
Curator’s tour with Tamara Luuk will take place on 19 March at 2 pm. The exhibition We’ll Be Right Back, You Just Keep Playing! will be open until 5 June 2022.
We would like to thank: Art Museum of Estonia, Tartu Art Museum, Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, AS Vunder, PLATO gallery, Linda Looga, Einar Maarits, Aap Tepper, Kristina Õllek, Alexandra Galkina, Sveta Shuvaeva, David Ter-Oganyan, Ivars Gravlejs, private collectors.
Tallinn Art Hall (Vabaduse väljak 8, Tallinn) is open Wednesday to Sunday 11-6 pm, entrance fee €4 / €8 / €12.
The Tallinn Art Hall Foundation is a contemporary art establishment that presents exhibitions in three galleries on the central square of Tallinn – at Tallinn Art Hall and nearby at Tallinn City Gallery and the Art Hall Gallery. The exhibitions of Tallinn Art Hall are installed by Valge Kuup.
www.kunstihoone.ee
www.facebook.com/TallinnaKunstihoone/
www.instagram.com/tallinnarthall/
16.03.2022 — 20.03.2022
Exhibition “The Divergence From a Predefined Outline”
Exhibition “The Divergence From a Predefined Outline”
17.03–20.03.2022
Opening at March 16, 6 pm
ARS Art Factory, Studio 112
The art exhibition “The Divergence From a Predefined Outline” by Estonian Academy of Arts Graphic Design and Product Design 2nd year students will be opened on Wednesday, March 16 at 6 pm.
The joint exhibition of the two departments presents a series of works that were initially intended to be exhibited without any common theme or curation in mind. However, accompanied by the abrupt diversion from the European political timeline during the semester, a theme of mapping current temporal and spacial conditions became a perceivable focus point. Keywords such as information warfare, misinterpretation, indeterminacy and artificiality came to the fore. The planned cacophony leans toward a sense of wholeness or a palpable new understanding of the present time, which is represented by 11 artworks.
Participating artists: Ane Laande, Anita Elina Mürisep, Anna Kisseljova, Brigite Helena Sarapuu, Elisabeth Järve, Emma Reim, Gerli Tamm, Hanna Samantha Raidma, Helen Bender, Henry Markus Gregory, Ingrid Tärk, Katariina Kesküla, Katrin Kannu, Kaur Joonas Karu, Kelly Heleen Kaldra, Kertu Liisa Lepik, Laura Tursk, Lauren Teimann, Linda-Maria Varris, Magnus Harjak, Martin McLean, Nicole Winona Mikli, Rasmus Jurkatam, Steven Pikas
Graphic design by Emma Reim, Laura Tursk
Supervised by Sten Saarits
The exhibition is open on four days only (17.03–20.03)
Opening times 1pm – 6pm
Location: ARS Art Factory, Pärnu mnt 154, Tallinn
Special thanks: EKKM, Siim Sander Saar
Supported by Estonian Artists’ Association, Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Design
More info about events at ARS Art Factory: www.arsfactory.ee
Exhibition “The Divergence From a Predefined Outline”
Wednesday 16 March, 2022 — Sunday 20 March, 2022
Exhibition “The Divergence From a Predefined Outline”
17.03–20.03.2022
Opening at March 16, 6 pm
ARS Art Factory, Studio 112
The art exhibition “The Divergence From a Predefined Outline” by Estonian Academy of Arts Graphic Design and Product Design 2nd year students will be opened on Wednesday, March 16 at 6 pm.
The joint exhibition of the two departments presents a series of works that were initially intended to be exhibited without any common theme or curation in mind. However, accompanied by the abrupt diversion from the European political timeline during the semester, a theme of mapping current temporal and spacial conditions became a perceivable focus point. Keywords such as information warfare, misinterpretation, indeterminacy and artificiality came to the fore. The planned cacophony leans toward a sense of wholeness or a palpable new understanding of the present time, which is represented by 11 artworks.
Participating artists: Ane Laande, Anita Elina Mürisep, Anna Kisseljova, Brigite Helena Sarapuu, Elisabeth Järve, Emma Reim, Gerli Tamm, Hanna Samantha Raidma, Helen Bender, Henry Markus Gregory, Ingrid Tärk, Katariina Kesküla, Katrin Kannu, Kaur Joonas Karu, Kelly Heleen Kaldra, Kertu Liisa Lepik, Laura Tursk, Lauren Teimann, Linda-Maria Varris, Magnus Harjak, Martin McLean, Nicole Winona Mikli, Rasmus Jurkatam, Steven Pikas
Graphic design by Emma Reim, Laura Tursk
Supervised by Sten Saarits
The exhibition is open on four days only (17.03–20.03)
Opening times 1pm – 6pm
Location: ARS Art Factory, Pärnu mnt 154, Tallinn
Special thanks: EKKM, Siim Sander Saar
Supported by Estonian Artists’ Association, Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Design
More info about events at ARS Art Factory: www.arsfactory.ee
05.03.2022 — 16.04.2022
Laura Kuusk – How to Move as a Slime Mold?
Laura Kuusk on March 5 – 16 April in Kanal Gallery, Võru.
The first solo exhibition of Laura Kuusk in Võru consists of two of her recent works, with which the artist wishes to create a dialogue with people who are interested in food, clothes, technology and who ask questions about the origin and ways of being of the matter in our environment. She also puts the emphasis on the ways of composing by the nature and by the human.
The installation “How to Move as a Slime Mold” (2021) is built up as a sound cocoon created by a female voice and an ambient sound, walking the visitor through his/her/ their bodies to suggest an experience of becoming an other-than-human organism. The participants are asked to find a comfortable way of interacting with the installation and build their personal experience through spatial and auditory elements. The installation emphasises the idea of reuse and growing through change, not accumulation.
The photo series “Some Notes on Things Around and In” (2019) is taking everyday things and situations as the departure point for the series of still-lives. The main question the artist is asking herself is how to relate to the things and the environment around us at the current situation. How to relate our bodies to the materials that travel with, within or through our bodies? The artist wishes to comment and organise these thoughts visually through an essay in the still life genre. She would like to make the objects speak about the moment in time in which we live now. The idea that everything seems to be reachable within a few clicks is creating an alienation from real objects and the physical environment.
Laura Kuusk (b. 1982) lives and works in Tallinn. She studied semiotics and culture theory at the Tartu University in Estonia (BA in 2005), photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts (MA in 2008) and fine arts at the Annecy Higher School of Art, France (postgraduate diploma in 2014). Kuusk works as the Associate Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts, in the Department of Photography. Kuusk’s fields of interest are the visual and cinematic grammar and the potentials of narrative, she often recycles anthropological visual (found) materials. Kuusk is interested in the decision-making mechanisms within the collective consciousness. Over the last years, she has worked with the experience of the human body in the surrounding environment – in homes, in clothes, in relation to technology. Kuusk mainly uses photography, video and installation mediums in her work.
Graphic designer Henri Kutsar.
Thanks: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Säsi Pruulikoda, Anderson’s Craft Beer, Camille Laurelli, Renzo van Steenbergen, Madis Kurss, Sigrid Liira, Agur Seim, Indrek Kits, Eleriin Seim, Kristel Onno, Janika Solmann, Edina Csüllög, Ago Paabusk, Tiina Mõttus, Robert Kähr, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts Photography Department.
KANAL GALLERY
Liiva 11a, Võru city, Estonia
Thu–Sat 12–18
www.liivaate.ee
Facebook, Instagram @kanalgalerii
Laura Kuusk – How to Move as a Slime Mold?
Saturday 05 March, 2022 — Saturday 16 April, 2022
Laura Kuusk on March 5 – 16 April in Kanal Gallery, Võru.
The first solo exhibition of Laura Kuusk in Võru consists of two of her recent works, with which the artist wishes to create a dialogue with people who are interested in food, clothes, technology and who ask questions about the origin and ways of being of the matter in our environment. She also puts the emphasis on the ways of composing by the nature and by the human.
The installation “How to Move as a Slime Mold” (2021) is built up as a sound cocoon created by a female voice and an ambient sound, walking the visitor through his/her/ their bodies to suggest an experience of becoming an other-than-human organism. The participants are asked to find a comfortable way of interacting with the installation and build their personal experience through spatial and auditory elements. The installation emphasises the idea of reuse and growing through change, not accumulation.
The photo series “Some Notes on Things Around and In” (2019) is taking everyday things and situations as the departure point for the series of still-lives. The main question the artist is asking herself is how to relate to the things and the environment around us at the current situation. How to relate our bodies to the materials that travel with, within or through our bodies? The artist wishes to comment and organise these thoughts visually through an essay in the still life genre. She would like to make the objects speak about the moment in time in which we live now. The idea that everything seems to be reachable within a few clicks is creating an alienation from real objects and the physical environment.
Laura Kuusk (b. 1982) lives and works in Tallinn. She studied semiotics and culture theory at the Tartu University in Estonia (BA in 2005), photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts (MA in 2008) and fine arts at the Annecy Higher School of Art, France (postgraduate diploma in 2014). Kuusk works as the Associate Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts, in the Department of Photography. Kuusk’s fields of interest are the visual and cinematic grammar and the potentials of narrative, she often recycles anthropological visual (found) materials. Kuusk is interested in the decision-making mechanisms within the collective consciousness. Over the last years, she has worked with the experience of the human body in the surrounding environment – in homes, in clothes, in relation to technology. Kuusk mainly uses photography, video and installation mediums in her work.
Graphic designer Henri Kutsar.
Thanks: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Säsi Pruulikoda, Anderson’s Craft Beer, Camille Laurelli, Renzo van Steenbergen, Madis Kurss, Sigrid Liira, Agur Seim, Indrek Kits, Eleriin Seim, Kristel Onno, Janika Solmann, Edina Csüllög, Ago Paabusk, Tiina Mõttus, Robert Kähr, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts Photography Department.
KANAL GALLERY
Liiva 11a, Võru city, Estonia
Thu–Sat 12–18
www.liivaate.ee
Facebook, Instagram @kanalgalerii
04.03.2022
Flash Exhibition “On the Other Side” 4 in Narva Incubator Object
The weekly EKA International Workshop for Art Students in Narva ends with a flash exhibition “On the Other Side” by young artists from France, Lithuania, Finland and Estonia.
The exhibition can be viewed at the Narva Incubator at Linda 2 on Friday, March 4 from 6 pm to 11 pm. The master class was conducted by professors Ene-Liis Semper and Patrick Laffont de Lojo.
The city of Narva, located on the Russian-EU border, suffered greatly in the hostilities of the Second World War, and from there Narva’s identity is based on the knowledge that there is an invisible, lost city behind, under and inside the visible city. The border identity of the city has been associated for centuries with a meeting of different cultures and stories from the past, which can be read from the urban space. Some stories are hidden inside the buildings, some echo us on the other side of the river, from Ivangorod.
Narva is a friendly and open city – come and see what it looks like over here!
The master class in Narva took place within the framework of the international project ERASMUS (BIP). The master class was organized by the Visual Thought Laboratory of EKA in cooperation with the EnsAD (École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs) in Paris, the University of Helsinki Uniarts and the Dailes Academy in Vilnius.
The last train back to Tallinn will leave on March 4 at 8.27 pm.
Many thanks for the help: Narva Vaba Lava, OÜ Linda Kaks, OÜ Narva Gate, Innovation and Creative Center Objekt, Allan Kaldoya and Jaanus Mick.
Flash Exhibition “On the Other Side” 4 in Narva Incubator Object
Friday 04 March, 2022
The weekly EKA International Workshop for Art Students in Narva ends with a flash exhibition “On the Other Side” by young artists from France, Lithuania, Finland and Estonia.
The exhibition can be viewed at the Narva Incubator at Linda 2 on Friday, March 4 from 6 pm to 11 pm. The master class was conducted by professors Ene-Liis Semper and Patrick Laffont de Lojo.
The city of Narva, located on the Russian-EU border, suffered greatly in the hostilities of the Second World War, and from there Narva’s identity is based on the knowledge that there is an invisible, lost city behind, under and inside the visible city. The border identity of the city has been associated for centuries with a meeting of different cultures and stories from the past, which can be read from the urban space. Some stories are hidden inside the buildings, some echo us on the other side of the river, from Ivangorod.
Narva is a friendly and open city – come and see what it looks like over here!
The master class in Narva took place within the framework of the international project ERASMUS (BIP). The master class was organized by the Visual Thought Laboratory of EKA in cooperation with the EnsAD (École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs) in Paris, the University of Helsinki Uniarts and the Dailes Academy in Vilnius.
The last train back to Tallinn will leave on March 4 at 8.27 pm.
Many thanks for the help: Narva Vaba Lava, OÜ Linda Kaks, OÜ Narva Gate, Innovation and Creative Center Objekt, Allan Kaldoya and Jaanus Mick.