05.11.2026Artist Talk: Katya LesivThursday 05 November, 2026Faculty of Fine Arts
Koht: A-403 Aeg: 5.11 kell 12:00-13:00
Katya Lesiv (1993) is a visual artist and photographer, currently living and working between Ukraine and Finland.
Lesiv works with the topics of cyclicality, physicality, emotional and sensitive experience, and motherhood. Her artistic practice explores the sense of presence through materiality of a variety of disciplines and media, including photography, art book, installation, object, text, graphics and moving image. Performative method, often rooted in routine rituals, is a way to encapsulate and share intimate experiences while safeguarding personal space. In her practice, Lesiv works with the body of the book, which often serves as the final form of her work.
23.10.2026Seminar: Neeme Lopp “The Question of Aesthetic Democracy”Friday 23 October, 2026Institute of Art History and Visual Culture
On 23 October at 16:00, the first public seminar of the EKA research grant “Art and Politics: Tracing the Evolution of Estonian Transition Culture” will take place in room A403.
Neeme Lopp, a researcher involved in the project, will give a presentation titled “The Question of Aesthetic Democracy.”
Over the past few years, research projects affiliated with the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) and other Estonian universities have introduced and developed the concept of aesthetic democracy. This concept has been particularly useful in analysing Estonian culture during the transition period (1986–1998), and for good reasons. In his presentation, Neeme Lopp will explore the scope and philosophical foundations of aesthetic democracy as a conceptual tool, asking how it might also be applied to other historical periods.
14.10.2026KVI research seminar: Annette Zimmermann “Big Tech Oligarchy, AI Doom, and How to Reimagine The Future of Creative Labor”Wednesday 14 October, 2026Institute of Art History and Visual Culture
On 14th October Annette Zimmermann from UW–Madison will give a talk about:
Why having AI at our fingertips is not the same as having it in our hands—and how to move past corporate “participation-washing.”
What practical tools from my “AI Democratization Playbook” enable non-expert citizens and creative communities to shape technological progress.
How we can collectively imagine a tech-enabled future that serves human flourishing and the common good rather than elite wealth concentration.
Why museums, universities, and other parts of civil society can work effectively together to chart a better future trajectory for AI beyond speculative hype vs doomsday discourse.
Followed by a Q&A moderated by Anders Härm.
Annette Zimmermann’s research interests cover a range of topics within the philosophy of AI and machine learning, political philosophy, moral philosophy, social and moral epistemology, philosophy of law and philosophy of science. At UW–Madison, Professor Zimmermann serves as a RISE-AI Thought Leader, is a member of the University’s interdisciplinary cluster in the ethics of computing, data, and information, and an Affiliate Professor at the Department of Statistics. Zimmermann also serves on the Steering Committee of the UW Center for Humanistic Inquiry into Uncertainty and AI. Before joining UW–Madison’s Department of Philosophy, Professor Zimmermann was a Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. In addition, Professor Zimmermann was a permanent Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy at the University of York in the United Kingdom, and a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, with a joint appointment at the Center for Human Values and the Center for Information Technology Policy. Zimmermann holds a DPhil (PhD) from the University of Oxford.
Professor Zimmermann is the author of the book Democratizing AI (2026). Zimmermann’s research has been published in the Canadian Journal of Philosophy and in Philosophy and Public Affairs, and their public writing has appeared in the New Statesman and in the Boston Review. Professor Zimmermann frequently advises policy-makers and technologists working on contemporary ethical and political issues surrounding AI and other forms of technology, including UNESCO, the OECD, the Australian Human Rights Commissioner, the German Aerospace Center, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the UK Parliament, and the UK government’s Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation. Zimmermann has been named on the ‘100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics’ List and has received the American Philosophical Association’s Public Philosophy Award.
This autumn’s Open Architecture Lecture Series is curated by Mira Samonig, a doctoral student at the EKA Faculty of Architecture and one of the curators of the 2026 Tallinn Architecture Biennale, under the overarching title Standby.
Standby considers how space and architecture are never fully revolutionary in themselves, just as they are neither merely static backdrops. The series looks at spaces in which social, political and material capacities are maintained in suspended readiness and not exhausted by programmed function.
The second lecture will be on Thursday, 15th October at 6 pm by Gabu Heindl: “Radical democracy in thinking, building, maintaining”.
Gabu Heindl is an Austrian architect and urban planner, and head of the Department ARCHITECTURE CITIES ECONOMIES at Universität Kassel. She heads the practice GABU Heindl Architecture, which is internationally recognised through scholarships, awards and numerous competition wins. Her practice and research are situated in the fields of housing and public space with a focus on affordability, social justice, climate justice and feminist urbanism. In her lecture, Heindl discusses architecture and urbanism as practices of permanent political readiness within urban space, where design, activism, and critique sustain the ongoing possibility of more just and inclusive futures rather than responding only to moments of crisis.
The lecture is free of charge and will be held in English.
Previous Open Architecture Lectures are available to watch at www.avatudloengud.ee.
The lecture series is supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.
NB! 17th October, 3pm, TAB Shop (Sadama 1, Tallinn)
Together with Drehli Robnik, they will also present their book Nonsolutions: Disputed Closures in the Politics of Architecture, drawing on Siegfried Kracauer and post-Marxist concepts of democratic struggles to discuss nonsolution as a mode of thinking political action in planning under conditions of its impossibility.
The division of cultural heritage into intangible and tangible categories is always arbitrary; after all, our Song Festival Arena, one of the Estonian architectural highlights, is meaningless without our tradition of song celebrations.
It is interesting to note that Estonia has more entries on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List than on the World Heritage List, where only Tallinn’s Old Town and the points of the Struve Geodetic Arc have been included from Estonia.
Estonia is, however, preparing to nominate the wooded meadows for inclusion on the World Heritage List. Wooded meadows are a unique ecosystem that has emerged from the interplay between human activity and nature and has very high natural value. For heritage conservationists, this is a particularly complex undertaking, as there are relatively few physical objects on which to base the assessment of their value. This makes the intangible cultural heritage all the more important – traditions and customs linked to nature, as well as working practices and ways of life born of practical necessity.
The Estonian Academy of Arts, together with its students, has been mapping the values of wooded meadows for several years now and assessing their suitability in line with UNESCO’s expectations as part of the Woodmeadowlife project. A book on the subject is also due to be published shortly.
The Perspectives of Intangible Cultural Heritage series meets once a month, either hybridly or online, and is open to everyone. Featuring lectures and discussions, the series aims to bring together scholars, students and practitioners working on and thinking about the category of intangible cultural heritage and related themes.
Additional information about the lectures and the series:
Elo-Hanna Seljamaa, UNESCO Chair on the Applied Studies of Intangible Cultural Heritage (elo-hanna.seljamaa@ut.ee).
08.10.2026KVI Open Lecture: Sven Spieker & Anders Härm “Curating Socialism”Thursday 08 October, 2026Cultural Heritage and Conservation
The starting point for the discussion is the recently published book Curating Socialism: A Handbook of International Art Exhibitions 1947–1989 (University of Toronto Press, 2026), which examines international art exhibitions organised by socialist states and curatorial practices during the Cold War. In this context, exhibitions are understood not merely as instruments of diplomacy and propaganda, but as complex events shaped by a range of political, cultural, institutional, and personal relationships and factors.
Sven Spieker is Professor of Russian and East European Art and Culture at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on modern and contemporary art with a focus on Eastern Europe and Central Asia, media history, and the historical avant-gardes. Spieker is one of the editors of the book “Curating Socialism”.
Anders Härm is Associate Professor at the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture of the Estonian Academy of Arts and curator in Kumu Art Museum.
The discussion will take place as part of the conference of the Estonian Society of Art Historians and Curators, Art History in Uncertain Times. The full conference programme is available on the EKKÜ website.
05.10.2026Open Lecture: “The importance of Dynamic Evolving Architecture” by Dr. James RitsonMonday 05 October, 2026Cultural Heritage and Conservation
Open lecture “The importance of Dynamic Evolving Architecture” by architectural heritage specialist Dr. James Ritson will be held in the Department of Heritage Protection and Conservation as part of the EU-Repair project on October 5 at 11:00-12:30 in room D-412.
Introduction to the content of the lecture:
Our sustainable future requires us to adapt to new paradigms of a low-carbon circular society. Existing buildings have often been seen as a barrier in creating a sustainable future built environment. However, viewed through the lens of circularity, existing and historic buildings become part of the solution rather than a barrier to our sustainable, low-carbon circular future.
Lecturer: James Ritson BA (Hons) PGDip MA PhD FRGS, Associate Professor, Senior Academic for Sustainability, University of the Built Environment
James is an architecturally trained building conservator specializing in sustainability and the recording of the historic built environment. He is currently an Associate Professor in sustainability of the Existing Built Environment at the University of the Built Environment. Previously, he was a senior lecturer in the sustainability of the existing built environment at Kingston University, teaching on the Building Surveying, architecture and historic building conservation courses. James is currently a member of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Energy and Sustainability (ICOMOS ISCES) and the ICOMOS UN Sustainable Development Goals Working Group. He was made a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 2010 for work on the sustainability of the built environment. He has published widely on sustainability, health and conservation issues. James is also an expert reviewer for Routledge and the Journal of Architectural Conservation.
The lecture will be held in English and will be recorded for the e-course of the EU-Repair project.
The aim of the EU-REPAIR project is to promote sustainable renovation of buildings in Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, North Macedonia and Serbia.
08.10.2026 — 09.10.20265th Conference of Baltic Art Historians: Art History in Uncertain TimesThursday 08 October, 2026 — Friday 09 October, 2026Institute of Art History and Visual Culture
Conference of The Estonian Society of Art Historians and Curators
8–9 October, 2026
Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhja pst 7, Tallinn
Room A101
The conference aims to explore the voice of art history in relation to both contemporary and historical cultural, social, and political processes. We encourage participants to reflect on the role of art history as a discipline, as well as on the responsibilities of art historians and curators as individuals engaged in public discourse. What is the value of their expertise? How does it relate to power structures and public debate? What roles do traditional and emerging art historical methodologies play in addressing current issues? In what ways are scholarly and curatorial practices shaped by, or actively engaged with, broader social movements and political ideologies?
The conference continues the series of Baltic art historians’ conferences, including Geographies of Art History in the Baltic Region (Tallinn, 2009), (Un)blocked Memory: Writing Art History in the Baltic Countries (Kaunas, 2011), Representing Art History in the Baltic Countries: Experiences and Prospects (Riga, 2016), and Baltic Art Histories: Roles, References, Relations (Vilnius, 2024).
The conference is organized by the Estonian Association of Art Historians and Curators. The main organizer of the conference is Anu Allas, the committee includes Emili Kelle, Hanna Õunapuu, Merike Kurisoo, and Liisa Kaljula.
Programme
Thursday, 8 October
10.30 Gathering and opening words (Liisa Kaljula, Anu Allas)
11.00–12.30 I Panel: Art and Power
Chair Gregor Taul
Baiba Vanaga (Latvian National Museum of Art)
Wilhelm Neumann and the Riga City Art Museum during World War I
Jovita Jankauskienė (Independent researcher, Kaunas)
The Heteronomisation of the Art Field in Authoritarian Lithuania: Cultural Policy, Censorship, and Regimes of Recognition
Giedrė Jankevičiūtė (Lithuanian Institute for Culture Research)
Lithuanian Art under the Sign of Hakenkreuz
12.30–13.30 Lunch
13.30–15.00 II Panel: Continuous Past
Chair Margaret Tali
Ieva Astahovska (Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art)
Decoloniality, Monuments, and Erasing or Understanding the Past
Anu Allas (Estonian Academy of Arts)
Revisiting “Thinking Pictures”: Bildstreit on the Background of War
Ramutė Rachlevičiūtė (Vilnius Academy of Arts)
What Form did Lithuanian Surrealism Take, and How does it Manifest Itself Today?
15.00–15.30 Coffee break
15.30–17.00 III Panel: Activating Archives
Chair Ingrid Ruudi
Kai Stahl (University of Turku)
Additional Insights into the History of Estonian Art: The Three Mei Sisters and their Oeuvre
Laine Kristberga (University of Latvia)
Writing the History of What Was Not Supposed to Exist: Performance Art, Canon Formation, and Historiographic Silence in Soviet Latvia
Andra Silapētere (Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art)
Safety Zones and Shifting Timelines
18.00 Open Lecture
Chair Anu Allas
Curating Socialism. Sven Spieker (University of California) in conversation with Anders Härm (Estonian Academy of Arts / Kumu Art Museum)
Friday, 9 October
11.00–12.30 IV Panel: Negotiating Knowledge
Chair Epp Lankots
Andres Kurg (Estonian Academy of Arts)
Architectural Historian in Uncertain Times: Jean-Louis Cohen and Cold War Asymmetries
Virve Sarapik (Estonian Academy of Art)
Negotiating the Canon: Soviet Encyclopedias and the Production of Art Historical Knowledge
Krista Kodres (Estonian Academy of Arts)
(Art) History and “Postmodernism”: Epistemological Uncertainty in the Uncertain 1990s
12.30–13.30 Lunch
13.30–15.00 V Panel: Creative Interventions
Chair Magdaleena Maasik
Linara Dovydaitytė (Vytautas Magnus University)
Emotional Heritage: Affective Encounters with a Dissonant Past in a Museum
Linda Kaljundi (Estonian Academy of Arts)
How to Reframe Monuments – and/or the Practices of Art History and Curating?
Agnė Narušytė (Lithuanian Culture Research Institute)
Artists and Art Historians at War: The Case of Three Films by Darius Žiūra from Ukraine
15.00–15.30 Coffee break
15.30–17.00 Roundtable on Art History Writing in the Baltics
Chair Liisa Kaljula
Kristiāna Ābele (Art Academy of Latvia), Krista Kodres (Estonian Academy of Arts), Giedrė Jankevičiūtė (Lithuanian Institute for Culture Research)
24.09.2026KVI Open Lecture: Baiba Vanaga “From Amateurs to Professionals: Women Artists in Latvia in the 19th Century and Early 20th Century”Thursday 24 September, 2026Institute of Art History and Visual Culture
The lecture offers and overview of women artists who were active in Latvia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, focusing on their education both in Latvia and abroad, their participation in exhibitions, and the reception of their work. The first professionally trained women artists began working in Latvia as early as the 1820s, and several of them participated in art exhibitions in Riga in the 1840s and 1850s. The emergence of women artists was most significantly influenced by the drawing school established in Riga in 1873 by the Baltic German artist Elise von Jung-Stilling.
Baiba Vanaga is an art historian and curator whose research focuses on women artists in Latvia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. She defended her doctoral dissertation at the Art Academy of Latvia in 2015 and has worked at the National Archives of Latvia, Rundāle Palace, various departments of the Latvian National Museum of Art, and the University of Latvia. Since 2024, she has been a curator at the Latvian National Museum of Art.
This autumn’s Open Architecture Lecture Series is curated by Mira Samonig, a doctoral student at the EKA Faculty of Architecture and one of the curators of the 2026 Tallinn Architecture Biennale, under the overarching title Standby.
This autumn open lecture series brings together practitioners and scholars attentive to public agency and to the way standardised spaces of power and capital can be pixelated. Standby considers how space and architecture are never fully revolutionary in themselves, just as they are neither merely static backdrops. The series looks at spaces in which social, political and material capacities are maintained in suspended readiness and not exhausted by programmed function; invited lecturers speak to what these practices are and what they might become across architecture, urbanism, design and theory.
World-renowned architect Alejandro Aravena will open this autumn’s lecture series on 1 October at 6 pm in the EKA Auditorium with his lecture “Elemental’s Toolkit”.
Alejandro Aravena is a Chilean architect, co-founder and partner of the Santiago-based studio Elemental. In 2016, he was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize and appointed Director of the Venice Biennale the same year, previously he taught at Harvard Graduate School of Design. His architectural work is particularly defined by socially engaged and incremental housing approaches that address economic inequality in urban spaces. Elemental is internationally recognised for their design of structurally complete “half a good houses” as a strategy that enables low-cost housing to be built on more expensive land closer to economic opportunity. Drawing from a wide portfolio of completed projects, Aravena will introduce his architectural practice and emphasise architecture as an enabling framework for collective agency.
The lecture is free of charge and will be held in English.
Previous Open Architecture Lectures are available to watch at www.avatudloengud.ee.
The lecture is a collaboration between the EKA Faculty of Architecture and TAB 2026, kindly supported by the Embassy of Chile to Finland and Estonia. The lecture series is supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.
