Exhibitions

THE WELL
Maria Metsalu (EST), Jaakko Pallasvuo (FI) & Tarvo Porroson (EST)
19.12.2021—25.05.2022
Opening: 19.12 at 5.30—7 pm
EKA Gallery Billboard, Kotzebue 1, open 24/h

Join us for the “The Well” exhibition opening at EKA Gallery Billboard on December 19 at 5.30 pm. The billboard is located on the EKA building at Kotzebue street 1. Opening is at EKA cafeteria, and the entrance is via a glass door next to the billboard.

Part of the performance “The Well” at Kanuti Gildi SAAL, three artists are exhibiting a pseudo-archaic photo series of the same name at EKA Gallery Billboard. Eighteen metal sheets etched with text and illustrations make up two books that are part of the performance. 

In “The Well” the preconceived notions regarding the structure and meaning of the protagonist’s reality have disappeared into the abyss and the anxiety in which she has become aware of her finitude, an ontological insecurity has taken effect. She has no family, no friends, no connections. The world has become overwhelming in its complexity so she is being lowered into the well by her four psychoanalysts – AJ, Brian, Kevin and Nick. Her job while lying on her leather couch in the bottom of the well is to write and give the world a structure. She is a composer. She is a magician and an alchemist.

Metsalu and Pallasvuo have been having writing sessions from the beginning of 2021 and have created the text in the project. With the help of the blacksmith Tarvo Porroson, a selection of these texts has found their place on different objects of which two books form this exhibition.

“The psychoanalysts send down a notebook and tell me it would be good for me to keep a journal. I draw flowers in the notebook. I draw horses. I draw medieval weapons. I draw pictures of what I think the psychoanalysts look like. I draw their humors: blood, yellow bile, phlegm and black bile. All of my psychoanalysts fall in love with me. I send my notebook back to them, the one with all the drawings, and they fight over the book, they tear pages out and hang them on the walls of the cottages where they’ve settled. They have to live here, in isolation with me, until the treatment is complete. They love me so much, and they don’t want to let me go. I sleep in the well. I wake up in the middle of the night and the psychoanalysts are gone, they are inside the house, maybe sleeping, maybe fucking each other.”

Thanks to: Kanuti Gildi SAAL, Taavi Teevet, Paul Klooren, Robin Siimann, Pire Sova
Supported by Kanuti Gildi SAAL

Tõnis Saadoja’s exhibition “September, October, … ” opens in the WIELS Project Room, Brussels. The exhibition opening takes place on December 1 at 18.

In the painting series “September, October, …” the artist’s focus lies equally on two aspects – how to portray an unfunctional environment and how to paint a picture that is primarily about painting?

“I’m interested in the poetic dimension of an image and the conditionality inherent in the painting process provides one possibility to amplify this,” says Saadoja. “Painting is, first and foremost, a potential that may lead to new connections and meanings. It can also lead back to old routes and there’s nothing wrong with that either. But inside every repetition lies something new and gradually everything drifts away from its initial course.”

The exhibition in the WIELS will be open until December 19.

Tõnis Saadoja participated in the WIELS residency programme in 2019. Every year two Estonian artists are selected via open call to take part in the programme as part of the WIELS and the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art’s collaboration project. Right now Ingel Vaikla is working in Brussels. In 2022 Krista Mölder and Sandra Kosorotova will take part.

In December the Urban Studies department organizes two public events. The student exhibition “Fitness and the city” (opening 7 December, 15.00) encompasses topics ranging from housing and care to normativsity and semiocapitalism to ask how “fitness” produces value in the contemporary city.

On 18 December, a student-led
walk through Tallinn’s Paljassaare will explore how neoliberal urbanism and
resistances to it shape this contested urban landscape. Resulting from two separate resarch studio courses, the exhibition and the walk illustrate Urban Studies’s twin emphasis on critical theory and field research. More info on the program’s homepage.

Please join us on the 7th of December, 15:00 for the final evaluation of “Fitness and the City,” a research studio course by Urban Studies. The evaluation takes form of an exhibition opening in A500 (the open space near the terrace).

“Fitness” is most commonly thought of as a sculpting of the body through training and exercise. But when considered through the lens offered by the field of urban studies, “fitness” raises broader questions about who we are the and the cities we live in: What are the structures, urban and otherwise, that shape us? What makes life survivable? Is it norms, habits, routines of self-care? It is our environment? Or is it the fear of what we might become? In this exhibition, EKA students Daria Khrystych, Mira Samonig, Luisa Fernanda Ayala Torres, Alexander Nenenko, and Dorothea Müller combine theory, research, and design methods in order to offer a series of unique answers to these questions. The course is part of the Masters of Urban Studies, and is taught by Maros Krivy, Leonard Ma, and Helen Runting.

Event on FB.

Image source: https://nypost.com/2020/09/25/hudson-yards-edge-yoga-by-equinox-is-an-elevated-outdoor-class/

The first solo exhibition of the artist Helena Tääker “Surgery of the Soul” will be opened in Vent Space on November 28 at 6 pm.

The curator of the exhibition is Ketlin Käpp. 

An exhibition of slippers illustrated by  the children from Tallinn Children’s Home awaits visitors at the Nautica Shopping Center

Nautica Center opened an exhibition of illustrated slippers made by the children from Tallinn Children’s Home. Painted slippers were made in cooperation with the Accessories and Bookbinding Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts and the shoes were provided by Võru footwear manufacturer OmaKing.

The slippers illustrated by children of Tallinn Children’s Home were made in cooperation with OmaKing as a continuation of a workshop organized within a joint project of the Accessories and Bookbinding Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) and Tallinn Children’s Home. The children were given a task of designing slippers according to their vision so that they could express themselves through art.

Teana Baskirtseva, a representative of the Nautica Center, said: “It is a great pleasure to have the opportunity to hold such positive exhibitions at our center. We try to help the local community as much as we can, and inspired by this project, we decided that the Nautica Center will support the children of the Tallinn Children’s Home with drawing supplies and a Christmas donation.”

The exhibition features a total of 32 pairs of slippers designed by children participating in the project aged 7-17.

The exhibition of slippers made by Tallinn Children’s Home children is open at the Nautica Shopping Center from November 18 to January 10 on the second floor.

Participants: Johhan Rosenberg, Bosa Mina, Laima Jaunzema, Iris Lillemägi, Sveta Grigorjeva
Sound: Mihkel Kleis
Gallerist: Pire Sova

Join us for the “Kõdu” gallery visit on November 26, 27 and 28 at 8—10pm at EKA Gallery. The guests can move around in the space to meet “Kõdu”.

The age-old phantom Kõdu is living in all organisms while decomposing them from inside. The constant resistance with apparent subjugation will end with the inevitable surrendering.

The performance takes over the gallery space with an installation that changes over time. Johhan works together with the participants based on their artistic practice. Through sensing the body movements the utterer and the uttering become one while provoking the obscure new creatures are brought to life.

:they have not managed to conceive you
and you have already occurred
please be such a hag and tell me
who is it that imagined you;

Johhan Rosenberg (EST) has graduated Choreography at the School For New Dance Development with a background in music and dance studies. In his practice, the functionalities of language and identities become embodied contexts for the process of creating surroundings. Performances become technologies of tearing apart what is already known to develop new autonomies. Through raw vocabulary and playfulness, he layers body, visuals and sound to meet the viewer in the collective consciousness. He’s currently studying Chinese Medicine and is working as a freelance choreographer in Berlin and Tallinn.

Thanks to: Johannes Luik, Hans Gunter Lock,Tener Ilirstrom, Ando Naulainen, Kanuti Gildi Saal, Eesti Tantsuagentuur, Eventech, Kaarli Hambakliinik, Margus Laksberg 

Supported by: School for New Dance Development

Strobe lights are used at the event.

Ticket 5€.
Buy at the door with cash or here: https://fienta.com/et/galeriikulastus-kodu-hag

Free for EKA students!

Entrance from the EKA main door with Covid pass

TO THE EXHIBITION! The students of the 2nd year of the bachelor’s study in interior architecture focussed on creating inclusive exhibition spaces, tutored by architect Johanna Jõekalda. The task of the students was to design an exhibition space based on what they had learned, which would take into account visitors with different special needs to the maximum. 

During the course, students learned to understand the principles of user-oriented design and create an inclusive environment. Spatial solutions were designed with the Estonian National Museum’s exhibition “Kaasav ELU” (“Inclusive LIFE”) in mind, which brings together different gadgets and tools that support the learning and leisure activities of users with disabilities.

In developing their spatial proposals, students used VR technologies to better understand and explain different unique user experiences: VR, allowing for immersive experiences, is an excellent tool for helping to better understand different spatial experiences and designing more inclusive environments. Students’ work was based on the principle that a room that is comfortable for people with special needs is also convenient for all other users.

During the development of the projects, the students received support from the parallel course “Digital Techniques” held at the VR Lab and supervised by Johanna Jõekalda. Daniel Kotsjuba (accessibility), Kärt Ojavee (materiality), Artur Staškevitš (exhibition solutions) and Paco Ulman (digital techniques) shared their experiences of inclusive design. The studio was conducted in cooperation with the Tallinn University “Inclusive LIFE” project, led by Tiia Artla and Jana Kadastik.

See a virtual tour of the works of five interior design students.

From early November, a selection of student works completed during the course (Laura Maria Tõru, Kätlin Lond, Triin Kampus, Anni Kõrvemaa, Viktoria Ugur) is available for everyone to see at the exhibition “Inclusive LIFE” at the Estonian National Museum in Tartu. The student work is presented on a touch screen as a virtual tour, which guides the visitors of the exhibition through more exciting space solutions and shares information on the application of the principles of inclusive design in interior architecture.

The Department of Interior Architecture of EKA would like to thank all those who contributed to the supervision of students and for the exciting opportunity to cooperate with Tallinn University and the Estonian National Museum – together we took a small step towards making the environments and premises of the future friendly to all users.

The exhibition will be open until January 31, 2022, so onwards to Tartu!

6.11.2021–31.12.2021
University of Tartu Narva College gallery
Raekoja plats 2, Narva 20307
Mon-Sun 8.00-19.00

Estonian Glass Artists’ Union’s annual exhibition, which travels between different exhibition spaces in Estonia, will make its debut this year in Narva. It is a sequel to Estonian Glass Artists’ Union’s 20th annual exhibition ¨Colour – RED¨ held in ARS Project Space in 2020. With the follow-up exhibition new time- and site-specific layers and viewpoints are added to the topic of red and its variations that were the main focus in the previous exhibition.

The keywords for Estonian Glass Artists´ Union´s exhibition “Colour – red 2.0” are contrast, confrontation and transition. The exhibition showcases the works from eighteen glass artists, who have interpreted the topic freely by using personal semantics, metaphors and symbolism.

The curator enters the dialog of “Colour – red 2.0” by adding the colour green in the exhibition design.Through confrontation and contrasts a whole is born.

Participating artists:
Aleksandra Ehrensvärd
Anna-Maria Vaino
Birgit Pählapuu
Eili Soon
Eve Koha
Kairi Orgusaar
Kati Kerstna
Kersti Vaks
Malle Hallimäe
Maret Sarapu
Merle Kannus
Piret Ellamaa
Piret Uibotalu
Rait Lõhmus
Riho Hütt
Tiia Põldmets
Tiina Sarapu
Sofi Aršas

Curator and head of organising:
Maarja Mäemets

Organising team:
Aleksandra Ehrensvärd
Andra Jõgis
Birgit Pählapuu
Maria Tamm
Rait Lõhmus

Consultant:
Tiina Sarapu

Light:
Kati Kerstna

Sponsors and supporters:
The Estonian Artists’ Association
Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Estonian Glass Artists’ Union
Moe OÜ (www.moe.ee)
Klaasissepa OÜ (www.klaasissepa.ee)
Punch Club OÜ (https://punch-drinks.com)