Open Lectures
28.04.2025
Contemporary Art and Context: Ingel Vaikla
Ingel Vaikla: You Have Become the Space – Cross-Disciplinary Translation Between ‘the Built’ and ‘the Displayed’
Artist and filmmaker Ingel Vaikla talks about her PhD research in Arts You Have Become the Space – Cross-Disciplinary Translation Between ‘the Built’ and ‘the Displayed’ that investigates modernist architectural environments, their role in fostering strong communities, and the representational strategy which conveys the existential dimension of a place. Drawing from literary translation theory, this research employs cross-disciplinary translation to transfer the formal, sensorial, historical, and conceptual characteristics of built environments into moving image practice. This approach encourages an understanding of space not merely as a subject but as an active metaphor for sociopolitical dynamics, where architecture represents past ideologies and community embodies contemporary values.
Ingel Vaikla (1992, Tallinn) is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Brussels, working primarily with video, 16mm film, and found footage. Her artistic practice explores the representation of architecture through its relationship with communities, seeking a visual language that goes beyond observing architecture as a sculptural form. Instead, she aims to convey the existential, conceptual, and ideological qualities that spaces embody. Ingel is a former resident of the HISK postgraduate program (2018–2019) and WIELS Contemporary Art Centre (2021) and is currently in the end phase of pursuing her PhD at PXL-MAD/UHasselt. Her audiovisual works, including The House Guard, Roosenberg, Double Exposure, Papagalo, What’s the Time?, EUR42 and Moi aussi, je regarde have been screened internationally at film festivals and art institutions such as IDFA in Amsterdam, Kunsthalle Wien, EKKM in Tallinn, Beursschouwburg and Bozar in Brussels, Manifesta 13 in Marseille, Videonale in Bonn, Tramway in Glasgow, the European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, and the Busan International Video Art Festival, among others.
Contemporary Art and Context is a lecture series hosted by MA Contemporary Art and features talks by artists, curators, and researchers, offering diverse perspectives on contemporary art practices and their societal contexts.
The lecture takes place in English, everyone is welcome to join!
Contemporary Art and Context: Ingel Vaikla
Monday 28 April, 2025
Ingel Vaikla: You Have Become the Space – Cross-Disciplinary Translation Between ‘the Built’ and ‘the Displayed’
Artist and filmmaker Ingel Vaikla talks about her PhD research in Arts You Have Become the Space – Cross-Disciplinary Translation Between ‘the Built’ and ‘the Displayed’ that investigates modernist architectural environments, their role in fostering strong communities, and the representational strategy which conveys the existential dimension of a place. Drawing from literary translation theory, this research employs cross-disciplinary translation to transfer the formal, sensorial, historical, and conceptual characteristics of built environments into moving image practice. This approach encourages an understanding of space not merely as a subject but as an active metaphor for sociopolitical dynamics, where architecture represents past ideologies and community embodies contemporary values.
Ingel Vaikla (1992, Tallinn) is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Brussels, working primarily with video, 16mm film, and found footage. Her artistic practice explores the representation of architecture through its relationship with communities, seeking a visual language that goes beyond observing architecture as a sculptural form. Instead, she aims to convey the existential, conceptual, and ideological qualities that spaces embody. Ingel is a former resident of the HISK postgraduate program (2018–2019) and WIELS Contemporary Art Centre (2021) and is currently in the end phase of pursuing her PhD at PXL-MAD/UHasselt. Her audiovisual works, including The House Guard, Roosenberg, Double Exposure, Papagalo, What’s the Time?, EUR42 and Moi aussi, je regarde have been screened internationally at film festivals and art institutions such as IDFA in Amsterdam, Kunsthalle Wien, EKKM in Tallinn, Beursschouwburg and Bozar in Brussels, Manifesta 13 in Marseille, Videonale in Bonn, Tramway in Glasgow, the European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, and the Busan International Video Art Festival, among others.
Contemporary Art and Context is a lecture series hosted by MA Contemporary Art and features talks by artists, curators, and researchers, offering diverse perspectives on contemporary art practices and their societal contexts.
The lecture takes place in English, everyone is welcome to join!
10.04.2025
KVI Open Lecture: “Life in Spite of Everything: Decolonial Approaches to Writing and Research”
In this public talk, Victoria Donovan will introduce how decolonial thinking has informed her research and projects, as well as her new book Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East (2025). Life in Spite of Everything is a cultural portrait of Ukraine’s east before it was devastated by Russia’s full-scale invasion. It is a history on foot through the beautiful Donbas region, a celebration of its past and present, and its people’s tenacity, creativity and independence. Victoria will discuss the book in conversation with the historian and curator Linda Kaljundi (Estonian Academy of Arts).
Victoria Donovan is a Professor of Ukrainian and East European Studies and the Director of the Centre for Global (Post)socialisms at the University of St Andrews. She works at the intersection of heritage studies, urban history, visual anthropology, and the public humanities. She is the co-producer of academic research, literature, exhibitions, archives, community workshops, and artistic practice exploring the industrial history and heritage of eastern Ukraine and the UK. She is the author of Chronicles in Stone: Preservation, Patriotism, and Identity in Northwest Russia (2019); Limits of Collaboration: Art, Ethics, and Donbas (2022); and Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East (2025).
Lecture will be held in cooperation of Institute of Art History and Visual Culture and Estonian Doctoral School for Humanities and Arts Project “Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies” (2021-2027.4.04.24-0003) is co-funded by the European Union.
KVI Open Lecture: “Life in Spite of Everything: Decolonial Approaches to Writing and Research”
Thursday 10 April, 2025
In this public talk, Victoria Donovan will introduce how decolonial thinking has informed her research and projects, as well as her new book Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East (2025). Life in Spite of Everything is a cultural portrait of Ukraine’s east before it was devastated by Russia’s full-scale invasion. It is a history on foot through the beautiful Donbas region, a celebration of its past and present, and its people’s tenacity, creativity and independence. Victoria will discuss the book in conversation with the historian and curator Linda Kaljundi (Estonian Academy of Arts).
Victoria Donovan is a Professor of Ukrainian and East European Studies and the Director of the Centre for Global (Post)socialisms at the University of St Andrews. She works at the intersection of heritage studies, urban history, visual anthropology, and the public humanities. She is the co-producer of academic research, literature, exhibitions, archives, community workshops, and artistic practice exploring the industrial history and heritage of eastern Ukraine and the UK. She is the author of Chronicles in Stone: Preservation, Patriotism, and Identity in Northwest Russia (2019); Limits of Collaboration: Art, Ethics, and Donbas (2022); and Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East (2025).
Lecture will be held in cooperation of Institute of Art History and Visual Culture and Estonian Doctoral School for Humanities and Arts Project “Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies” (2021-2027.4.04.24-0003) is co-funded by the European Union.
03.04.2025
Open Architecture Lecture: Ingo Kowarik
The 2025 Spring semester session of the Open Lectures ”City as novel ecosystem” focuses on landscape architecture and, more specifically, urban nature.
The lecture series is being put together by landscape architects Karin Bachmann, Merle Karro-Kalberg and Anna-Liisa Unt, who have co-founded and edited the landscape architecture magazine ÕU for 7 years and are currently leading the project “Curated Biodiversity”, which experiments with ways to make urban landscaping more diverse as an environment. Therefore, the open lectures in the spring will also turn their attention to the quality of the space between buildings and, using the speakers’ words and creations, show how to make the city more biodiverse and enjoyable and how people and other species that call the city their home can live in symbiosis.
Next week, on April 3rd at 6:00 PM, Ingo Kowarik will give the next open lecture of the spring semester, “Wild Urban Nature: Challenge or Opportunity?”.
Cities have long been wrested from the wilderness, and traditional urban design often contrasts sharply with nature. Yet even highly urbanised areas can become places of wild nature, as seen in an unintended experiment in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. After 1945, many areas lay fallow, and in West Berlin, redevelopment progressed much more slowly than elsewhere. The study of urban revegetation — and its potential for quality of life and biodiversity conservation — made Berlin a cradle of modern urban ecology. The “Berlin School of Urban Ecology” uniquely integrates ecology, planning, and design. This approach, together with community-based activities, has enabled vast areas of urban wilderness to be woven into the city’s green system, despite growing land competition. The fusion of wilderness, design, and management has created distinctive green spaces that connect people with nature while supporting climate adaptation.
Ingo Kowarik studied landscape planning at TU Berlin and led the Department of Ecosystem Science/Plant Ecology for over 20 years. As Berlin’s honorary State Commissioner for Nature Conservation and Land Management, he was also involved in numerous green projects.
The lectures are intended for all disciplines, not only for students and professionals in the field of architecture.
All lectures are held on Thursdays at 6 pm in the EKA main auditorium. All lectures are in English and free of charge.
Schedule of the Spring 2025 lectures:
March 27. Toposcape: Justyna Dziedziejko & Magdalena Wnęk https://toposcape.pl/
April 3. Ingo Kowarik https://www.tu.berlin/en/oekosys/about/team/ingo-kowarik
April 10. Jan van Schaik https://www.janvanschaik.com/
April 24. Taktyk https://taktyk.net/
Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Faculty of Architecture of EKA presents a dozen unique practitioners and valued theorists in the field in Tallinn every academic year.
The lecture series is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Open Architecture Lecture: Ingo Kowarik
Thursday 03 April, 2025
The 2025 Spring semester session of the Open Lectures ”City as novel ecosystem” focuses on landscape architecture and, more specifically, urban nature.
The lecture series is being put together by landscape architects Karin Bachmann, Merle Karro-Kalberg and Anna-Liisa Unt, who have co-founded and edited the landscape architecture magazine ÕU for 7 years and are currently leading the project “Curated Biodiversity”, which experiments with ways to make urban landscaping more diverse as an environment. Therefore, the open lectures in the spring will also turn their attention to the quality of the space between buildings and, using the speakers’ words and creations, show how to make the city more biodiverse and enjoyable and how people and other species that call the city their home can live in symbiosis.
Next week, on April 3rd at 6:00 PM, Ingo Kowarik will give the next open lecture of the spring semester, “Wild Urban Nature: Challenge or Opportunity?”.
Cities have long been wrested from the wilderness, and traditional urban design often contrasts sharply with nature. Yet even highly urbanised areas can become places of wild nature, as seen in an unintended experiment in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. After 1945, many areas lay fallow, and in West Berlin, redevelopment progressed much more slowly than elsewhere. The study of urban revegetation — and its potential for quality of life and biodiversity conservation — made Berlin a cradle of modern urban ecology. The “Berlin School of Urban Ecology” uniquely integrates ecology, planning, and design. This approach, together with community-based activities, has enabled vast areas of urban wilderness to be woven into the city’s green system, despite growing land competition. The fusion of wilderness, design, and management has created distinctive green spaces that connect people with nature while supporting climate adaptation.
Ingo Kowarik studied landscape planning at TU Berlin and led the Department of Ecosystem Science/Plant Ecology for over 20 years. As Berlin’s honorary State Commissioner for Nature Conservation and Land Management, he was also involved in numerous green projects.
The lectures are intended for all disciplines, not only for students and professionals in the field of architecture.
All lectures are held on Thursdays at 6 pm in the EKA main auditorium. All lectures are in English and free of charge.
Schedule of the Spring 2025 lectures:
March 27. Toposcape: Justyna Dziedziejko & Magdalena Wnęk https://toposcape.pl/
April 3. Ingo Kowarik https://www.tu.berlin/en/oekosys/about/team/ingo-kowarik
April 10. Jan van Schaik https://www.janvanschaik.com/
April 24. Taktyk https://taktyk.net/
Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Faculty of Architecture of EKA presents a dozen unique practitioners and valued theorists in the field in Tallinn every academic year.
The lecture series is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
27.03.2025
Textiles 110: Open Lecture by an Artist Duo EJTECH “Being Metamaterial”
On March 27 at 4:30 p.m in room A501
Formed by Judit Eszter Kárpáti and Esteban de la Torre, EJTECH [ˈeɪtɛk’] is an polydisciplinary artist duo working with hyperphysical interfaces, programmable matter, and augmented textiles as media to investigate sensorial and conceptual relationships between subject and object, aiming to rediscover networks of emerging structures and immanent causality within realist metamaterialism.
Sound, space, light and time as material building blocks are paramount elements in their practice, analyzing the process of unfolding patterns between technology and the human body. Driven by material research, resulting in performative installations, multichannel sonic sculptures and dynamic surfaces. Influenced by the philosophy of New Materialism, Holonic Theory and Somaesthetics, EJTECH aims to provide tools for exploring liminality, thirdspace, and the elusive state of now.
Their work has been presented in galleries, festivals and exhibitions such as Japan Media Arts Festival, European Media Arts Festival, Sensorium Festival, Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum, Design Museum Holon, Ludwig Museum, Budapest Kunsthalle, LRRH Gallery, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Trafo House of Contemporary Arts, HayArt Center in Yerevan, Eastopics Gallery, Horizont Gallery, LOM Art Space, iii Instrument Inventors Initiative, Rewire among others.
EJTECH has created commissioned art pieces for cultural institutions and commercial brands such as DIOR, Blade Runner 2049, Dune: part two, Material ConneXion.
They regularly hold workshops and lectures on new media art and creative technology internationally. Founded the Soft Interfaces Lab in 2020 for further research in soft technology and material ecologies at MOME.
The artist duo currently works and lives in Budapest, Hungary.
Textile 110 is a series of events celebrating the 110th anniversary of EKA’s textile design education, as part of which a series of open lectures focusing on textiles will be held, a series of publications will be published, and a selection of works from the EKA Museum’s textile collection can be seen throughout the year.
The lecture series opens up the spectrum of diverse opportunities in the field of textiles, both in design, industry, and creative practices, bringing out different roles and methods of creation in the field through various invited guests.
Supported by the Research Fund of EKA and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Textiles 110: Open Lecture by an Artist Duo EJTECH “Being Metamaterial”
Thursday 27 March, 2025
On March 27 at 4:30 p.m in room A501
Formed by Judit Eszter Kárpáti and Esteban de la Torre, EJTECH [ˈeɪtɛk’] is an polydisciplinary artist duo working with hyperphysical interfaces, programmable matter, and augmented textiles as media to investigate sensorial and conceptual relationships between subject and object, aiming to rediscover networks of emerging structures and immanent causality within realist metamaterialism.
Sound, space, light and time as material building blocks are paramount elements in their practice, analyzing the process of unfolding patterns between technology and the human body. Driven by material research, resulting in performative installations, multichannel sonic sculptures and dynamic surfaces. Influenced by the philosophy of New Materialism, Holonic Theory and Somaesthetics, EJTECH aims to provide tools for exploring liminality, thirdspace, and the elusive state of now.
Their work has been presented in galleries, festivals and exhibitions such as Japan Media Arts Festival, European Media Arts Festival, Sensorium Festival, Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum, Design Museum Holon, Ludwig Museum, Budapest Kunsthalle, LRRH Gallery, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Trafo House of Contemporary Arts, HayArt Center in Yerevan, Eastopics Gallery, Horizont Gallery, LOM Art Space, iii Instrument Inventors Initiative, Rewire among others.
EJTECH has created commissioned art pieces for cultural institutions and commercial brands such as DIOR, Blade Runner 2049, Dune: part two, Material ConneXion.
They regularly hold workshops and lectures on new media art and creative technology internationally. Founded the Soft Interfaces Lab in 2020 for further research in soft technology and material ecologies at MOME.
The artist duo currently works and lives in Budapest, Hungary.
Textile 110 is a series of events celebrating the 110th anniversary of EKA’s textile design education, as part of which a series of open lectures focusing on textiles will be held, a series of publications will be published, and a selection of works from the EKA Museum’s textile collection can be seen throughout the year.
The lecture series opens up the spectrum of diverse opportunities in the field of textiles, both in design, industry, and creative practices, bringing out different roles and methods of creation in the field through various invited guests.
Supported by the Research Fund of EKA and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia
24.03.2025
Artist talk by Tris Vonna-Michell
Artist talk by Tris Vonna-Michell at 17:30 on March 4th in EKA, A-501
The artist is visiting EKA to run a workshop in the department of photography on March 24-26, 2025 together with Henrik Follesø Egeland.
Tris Vonna-Michell (1982) is an artist, publisher and guest professor in Expanded Performance and Installation at the Royal College of Art in Stockholm.
Recent works can be found in public collections such as Serralves Museum, Porto, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Tate Modern, London, and Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
Vonna-Michell has exhibited widely, most recently at the Badischer Kunstverein in Karlsruhe.
Vonna-Michell’s work utilises a plethora of technical devices, modes of presentation and installational approaches, encompassing performance, audio recordings, slide projections, poetry, sound poetry, printed matter, photography and film. Since 2010 he has been co-running the publishing space and analogue studio Mount Analogue.
Artist talk by Tris Vonna-Michell
Monday 24 March, 2025
Artist talk by Tris Vonna-Michell at 17:30 on March 4th in EKA, A-501
The artist is visiting EKA to run a workshop in the department of photography on March 24-26, 2025 together with Henrik Follesø Egeland.
Tris Vonna-Michell (1982) is an artist, publisher and guest professor in Expanded Performance and Installation at the Royal College of Art in Stockholm.
Recent works can be found in public collections such as Serralves Museum, Porto, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Tate Modern, London, and Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
Vonna-Michell has exhibited widely, most recently at the Badischer Kunstverein in Karlsruhe.
Vonna-Michell’s work utilises a plethora of technical devices, modes of presentation and installational approaches, encompassing performance, audio recordings, slide projections, poetry, sound poetry, printed matter, photography and film. Since 2010 he has been co-running the publishing space and analogue studio Mount Analogue.
18.03.2025
Craft Studies Live Reading
On Tuesday, March 18th, we’re reading a series of writings by the EKA Craft Studies MA programme students.
All texts were composed through research, writing and editing supervised by Lieven Lahaye and Else Lagerspetz. The event takes place at the Craft Studies Krulli studio (Kopli 70a, II floor), from 18:00-20:00
There are 8 texts as part of the components required for graduation, reflecting on a diverse range of topics and approaches relevant to the students’ individual practices and the expanded field of design and craft, with links to the making and footwork-handwork-headwork relations.
Belongings
Written by Kati Saarits
This text is exploring local material culture history through the lens of industrial ceramics heritage, touching on questions of how sentimentality settles into material and how surroundings shape our perception of home.
Creature. Maker. Mire.
Written by Alyona Movko-Mägi
Through the entanglement of organic and digital materiality Creature. Maker. Mire explores the bog as an archive — where bodies, landscapes, and crafts are preserved, transformed, and reinterpreted across time.
Reblow toolset
Written by Rait Lõhmus
Reblow toolset examines ways to upgrade premade glass objects and explores the causes of devaluation and potential for revaluations.
Through the hammer, through the body
Written by Elias Sormanen
A deep look into the importance of skill in making, as seen through the craft of a metal hammerer.
Hääbuda, et taas tärgata.
Written by Juulia Aleksandra Mikson
A poetical observation of decay as an integral part of the cyclical process of life, while approaching it with acceptance and a sense of hope.
On Extractivism and Care for Landscapes:
From Mines to Mountains in the East of Estonia
Written by Hannah Segerkrantz
This text explores the post-industrial mountains of mining waste in the east of Estonia through questions about how we relate to our surroundings and their materiality.
Movement Matter. Embodied knowledge in material practices
Written by Iohan Figueroa
Series of dialogues between materials and the way we embody our practice, the importance of contact during the making process.
A Book of Mashed Potatoes
Written by Sofiya Babiy
A contemplation on shades of vanishing through photography, trees, cinema, land, time, death and family.
Craft Studies Live Reading
Tuesday 18 March, 2025
On Tuesday, March 18th, we’re reading a series of writings by the EKA Craft Studies MA programme students.
All texts were composed through research, writing and editing supervised by Lieven Lahaye and Else Lagerspetz. The event takes place at the Craft Studies Krulli studio (Kopli 70a, II floor), from 18:00-20:00
There are 8 texts as part of the components required for graduation, reflecting on a diverse range of topics and approaches relevant to the students’ individual practices and the expanded field of design and craft, with links to the making and footwork-handwork-headwork relations.
Belongings
Written by Kati Saarits
This text is exploring local material culture history through the lens of industrial ceramics heritage, touching on questions of how sentimentality settles into material and how surroundings shape our perception of home.
Creature. Maker. Mire.
Written by Alyona Movko-Mägi
Through the entanglement of organic and digital materiality Creature. Maker. Mire explores the bog as an archive — where bodies, landscapes, and crafts are preserved, transformed, and reinterpreted across time.
Reblow toolset
Written by Rait Lõhmus
Reblow toolset examines ways to upgrade premade glass objects and explores the causes of devaluation and potential for revaluations.
Through the hammer, through the body
Written by Elias Sormanen
A deep look into the importance of skill in making, as seen through the craft of a metal hammerer.
Hääbuda, et taas tärgata.
Written by Juulia Aleksandra Mikson
A poetical observation of decay as an integral part of the cyclical process of life, while approaching it with acceptance and a sense of hope.
On Extractivism and Care for Landscapes:
From Mines to Mountains in the East of Estonia
Written by Hannah Segerkrantz
This text explores the post-industrial mountains of mining waste in the east of Estonia through questions about how we relate to our surroundings and their materiality.
Movement Matter. Embodied knowledge in material practices
Written by Iohan Figueroa
Series of dialogues between materials and the way we embody our practice, the importance of contact during the making process.
A Book of Mashed Potatoes
Written by Sofiya Babiy
A contemplation on shades of vanishing through photography, trees, cinema, land, time, death and family.
27.03.2025
Open Architecture Lecture: topoScape
The 2025 Spring semester session of the Open Lectures ”City as novel ecosystem” focuses on landscape architecture and, more specifically, urban nature.
The lecture series is being put together by landscape architects Karin Bachmann, Merle Karro-Kalberg and Anna-Liisa Unt, who have co-founded and edited the landscape architecture magazine ÕU for 7 years and are currently leading the project “Curated Biodiversity”, which experiments with ways to make urban landscaping more diverse as an environment. Therefore, the open lectures in the spring will also turn their attention to the quality of the space between buildings and, using the speakers’ words and creations, show how to make the city more biodiverse and enjoyable and how people and other species that call the city their home can live in symbiosis.
The first lecture of the spring semester lecture series will take place on March 27 at 6:00 pm in the EKA large auditorium. Architects Justyna Dziedziejko and Magdalena Wnęk from the Polish landscape architecture firm TopoScape will take the stage with a lecture „Park on the Warsaw Uprising Mound – design development method”.
„The topic of this lecture is to discuss the design process we used in the creation of the ‘Park on the Warsaw Uprising Mound’. During the lecture we will discuss strategies aimed at creating a place-related design that supports biodiversity and closed cycle economy, we will define principles for typifying components that constitute the value of a place. The example of the park realises our postulation of an interdisciplinary design process, combining ideas based on the history of a place and nature. We will talk about the practical principles of information selection, interdisciplinary cooperation and guidelines for the construction phase of the park. The example of the Warsaw park shows how a degraded, abandoned and forgotten area, which is a post-industrial type space (brownfield), becomes a vibrant place again.”
The lectures are intended for all disciplines, not only for students and professionals in the field of architecture.
All lectures are held on Thursdays at 6 pm in the EKA main auditorium. All lectures are in English and free of charge.
Schedule of the Spring 2025 lectures:
March 27. Toposcape
April 3. Ingo Kowarik
April 10. Jan van Schaik
April 24. Taktyk
For those registered for optional subjects, the essay submission date is 12.05.2025.
Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Faculty of Architecture of EKA presents a dozen unique practitioners and valued theorists in the field in Tallinn every academic year.
The lecture series is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Open Architecture Lecture: topoScape
Thursday 27 March, 2025
The 2025 Spring semester session of the Open Lectures ”City as novel ecosystem” focuses on landscape architecture and, more specifically, urban nature.
The lecture series is being put together by landscape architects Karin Bachmann, Merle Karro-Kalberg and Anna-Liisa Unt, who have co-founded and edited the landscape architecture magazine ÕU for 7 years and are currently leading the project “Curated Biodiversity”, which experiments with ways to make urban landscaping more diverse as an environment. Therefore, the open lectures in the spring will also turn their attention to the quality of the space between buildings and, using the speakers’ words and creations, show how to make the city more biodiverse and enjoyable and how people and other species that call the city their home can live in symbiosis.
The first lecture of the spring semester lecture series will take place on March 27 at 6:00 pm in the EKA large auditorium. Architects Justyna Dziedziejko and Magdalena Wnęk from the Polish landscape architecture firm TopoScape will take the stage with a lecture „Park on the Warsaw Uprising Mound – design development method”.
„The topic of this lecture is to discuss the design process we used in the creation of the ‘Park on the Warsaw Uprising Mound’. During the lecture we will discuss strategies aimed at creating a place-related design that supports biodiversity and closed cycle economy, we will define principles for typifying components that constitute the value of a place. The example of the park realises our postulation of an interdisciplinary design process, combining ideas based on the history of a place and nature. We will talk about the practical principles of information selection, interdisciplinary cooperation and guidelines for the construction phase of the park. The example of the Warsaw park shows how a degraded, abandoned and forgotten area, which is a post-industrial type space (brownfield), becomes a vibrant place again.”
The lectures are intended for all disciplines, not only for students and professionals in the field of architecture.
All lectures are held on Thursdays at 6 pm in the EKA main auditorium. All lectures are in English and free of charge.
Schedule of the Spring 2025 lectures:
March 27. Toposcape
April 3. Ingo Kowarik
April 10. Jan van Schaik
April 24. Taktyk
For those registered for optional subjects, the essay submission date is 12.05.2025.
Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Faculty of Architecture of EKA presents a dozen unique practitioners and valued theorists in the field in Tallinn every academic year.
The lecture series is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
19.03.2025
KVI open lecture: Bart Pushaw “The Histories and Futures of Alaska Native Art in Estonia”
Bart Pushaw is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. His research, teaching, and curatorial work focus on Arctic and Baltic art histories.
Baltic actors played a critical role in the expansion of the Russian Empire across the Pacific. Starting in the eighteenth century, people from throughout the Russian Empire facilitated the invasion and occupation of Alaska Native homelands until the U.S. acquired “Russian America” in 1867. The imperial initimacies that entangled these edges of the Russian Empire — the Baltic Sea and the Bering Sea — also brought Alaska Native artworks and material culture to Estonia. Today, these objects remain in collections throughout the country. This talk explores the histories that made it possible for Alaska Native art to come to Estonia, and what futures might be possible as museums reconsider their role in rematriation.
Lecture is connected to the joint project of KUMU Art Museum and Estonian Academy of Arts Expedition: Estonian and Indigineity.
Lecture is held in cooperation with KUMU Art Museum and is funded by:
KVI open lecture: Bart Pushaw “The Histories and Futures of Alaska Native Art in Estonia”
Wednesday 19 March, 2025
Bart Pushaw is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. His research, teaching, and curatorial work focus on Arctic and Baltic art histories.
Baltic actors played a critical role in the expansion of the Russian Empire across the Pacific. Starting in the eighteenth century, people from throughout the Russian Empire facilitated the invasion and occupation of Alaska Native homelands until the U.S. acquired “Russian America” in 1867. The imperial initimacies that entangled these edges of the Russian Empire — the Baltic Sea and the Bering Sea — also brought Alaska Native artworks and material culture to Estonia. Today, these objects remain in collections throughout the country. This talk explores the histories that made it possible for Alaska Native art to come to Estonia, and what futures might be possible as museums reconsider their role in rematriation.
Lecture is connected to the joint project of KUMU Art Museum and Estonian Academy of Arts Expedition: Estonian and Indigineity.
Lecture is held in cooperation with KUMU Art Museum and is funded by:
10.03.2025
Conversation evening on Japanese architecture: Yuma Shinohara
Conversation evening on Japanese architecture with Yuma Shinohara
on Monday, March 10 at 5:00 PM in room A-501
The Estonian Association of Architects and the Estonian Academy of Arts invite you to participate in a conversation evening, where Yuma Shinohara, curator of the Swiss Museum of Architecture, will introduce the work of the younger generation of Japanese architects, whose focus is on society and environmental issues. Moving away from the usual image of the architect-author, they have discovered for themselves the charm of working together. The conversation evening will be hosted by Siim Tanel Tõnisson and Saskia Krautman.
Exhibitions curated by Yuma Shinohara: “Make Do With What Is: New Directions in Japanese Architecture” (2024), “Make Do With Now” (2022), “SAY Swiss Architecture Yearbook” (2023), “Beton” (2021) and “Swim City” (2019). Before joining S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, he worked as an editor and curator at the Storefront for Art and Architecture gallery in New York, Ruby Press, the Academy of Arts in Berlin and the Canadian Centre for Architecture.
Yuma Shinohara was invited by the Estonian Association of Estonian Architects – he is a member of the jury for this year’s Young Architect Award.
Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Conversation evening on Japanese architecture: Yuma Shinohara
Monday 10 March, 2025
Conversation evening on Japanese architecture with Yuma Shinohara
on Monday, March 10 at 5:00 PM in room A-501
The Estonian Association of Architects and the Estonian Academy of Arts invite you to participate in a conversation evening, where Yuma Shinohara, curator of the Swiss Museum of Architecture, will introduce the work of the younger generation of Japanese architects, whose focus is on society and environmental issues. Moving away from the usual image of the architect-author, they have discovered for themselves the charm of working together. The conversation evening will be hosted by Siim Tanel Tõnisson and Saskia Krautman.
Exhibitions curated by Yuma Shinohara: “Make Do With What Is: New Directions in Japanese Architecture” (2024), “Make Do With Now” (2022), “SAY Swiss Architecture Yearbook” (2023), “Beton” (2021) and “Swim City” (2019). Before joining S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, he worked as an editor and curator at the Storefront for Art and Architecture gallery in New York, Ruby Press, the Academy of Arts in Berlin and the Canadian Centre for Architecture.
Yuma Shinohara was invited by the Estonian Association of Estonian Architects – he is a member of the jury for this year’s Young Architect Award.
Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
14.03.2025
PhD VITAMIN 2025 – OPEN LECTURES AND CONSULTATIONS FOR DOCTORAL ASPIRANTS
The annual PhD Vitamin conference returns to the Estonian Academy of Arts on March 14, offering a day of inspiration, guidance and discussion for artists and designers considering doctoral studies.
PhD Vitamin is designed to support artists and creative practitioners with a research-driven approach, providing insight into artistic research as a methodology and helping potential candidates in planning on their doctoral thesis proposals. Through a series of public lectures, discussions and one-on-one consultations, experts in the field will share their work and experiences.
This year, the conference will focus on one of the key topics of the art doctoral program – Ecological Critique in Contemporary Art, exploring environmental and ecological perspectives within creative research. Speakers will reflect on how contemporary artistic practices engage with pressing ecological questions, fostering dialogue between artistic inquiry, sustainability, and environmental awareness.
For those considering doctoral studies, PhD Vitamin offers individual consultation sessions with invited experts and researchers. These 30-minute consultations provide feedback and guidance for finishing up a doctoral research proposal. Consultations will be scheduled in time slots following the conference.
The event is open to artists, designers, EKA alumni, graduate students and creative practitioners interested in artistic research methods and postgraduate studies.
Please register through the following LINK.
To participate in individual consultation to discuss your PhD proposal, please fill out the FORM. A detailed consultation schedule will be sent to your email after registration.
PROGRAMME
10:00 -10:30 Gathering, coffee and welcome words
10:30 -11:15 Keynote by Taru Elfving “Site-sensitive research on the shifting shorelines”
11:20 – 11:40 Presentation by John Grzinich “Serious play, experimentation or research? Stories from the field”
Lunch break
12:30 -12:50 Presentation by Britta Benno “Of Becoming a Land(scape). Abstract Geology as a Way of Thinking”
12:55 -13:40 Keynote by Pascal Marcel Dreier “Activist Aesthetic Research”
Coffee break
13:50 -14:15 Discussion and Q&A, moderator Kirke Kangro.
SPEAKERS:
Taru Elfving, PhD, is a curator and writer focused on nurturing undisciplinary and site-sensitive enquiries at the intersections of ecological, feminist and decolonial practices. As artistic director of CAA Contemporary Art Archipelago she currently leads a research residency programme on the island of Seili in the Baltic Sea. Her curatorial projects include Research Pavilion (Uniarts, Helsinki, 2023); Hours, Years, Aeons (Finnish Pavilion, Venice, 2015); Frontiers in Retreat (HIAP, Helsinki, 2013-18); Towards a Future Present (LIAF, Lofoten, 2008). She has co-edited publications such as Contemporary Artist Residencies (Valiz 2019) and Altern Ecologies (Frame 2016). Elfving lives and works in Helsinki.
https://contemporaryartarchipelago.org/about/
Britta Benno is a drawing and printmaking artist living in Tallinn. Benno is constantly extending the fields and combining conventional media with unexpected layers. Benno defended her doctoral thesis Thinking in Layers, Worlding in Layers: Posthuman Landscapes in the Expanded Field of Printmaking and Drawing in 2023. Benno is working as a lecturer in the Estonian Academy of Arts. Her artworks have been exhibited throughout Europe, also in Australia and Canada.
Pascal Marcel Dreier listens to and narrates more-than-human stories. They combine aspects of aesthetic research with activist, forensic, and ethnographic methods, employing a multitude of media such as 3D laser measurement data, bones, game engines, video, sound, and music. Pascal co-founded the non profit research group TRACES Studio for Creative Investigation (Berlin) and is a member of Minding Animals Germany. They studied Media and Fine Arts with a focus on Artistic Research at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and hold an MA in Art & Ecology from Goldsmiths, University of London. Currently, Pascal is assistant professor of Multispecies Storytelling at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and teaches, talks, and holds workshops at universities and art institutions internationally, among them the University of Cambridge, University of Western Australia, University of Siegen, Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, Karlstad University, and Köln International School of Design (KISD).
www.pascaldreier.com
multispecies.studio
traces.studio
John Grzinich (b. 1970 in United States) is an audio-visual artist based in Estonia. His work integrates sound, moving images and site-specific installations to explore perceptions of sound and space, seeking resonances between people and places. Grzinich’s recent focus questions our anthropocentric views through performative and fixed media works by combining earthly agencies, expanded listening practices and participatory engagement.
For more information contact kati.saarits@artun.ee
PhD VITAMIN 2025 – OPEN LECTURES AND CONSULTATIONS FOR DOCTORAL ASPIRANTS
Friday 14 March, 2025
The annual PhD Vitamin conference returns to the Estonian Academy of Arts on March 14, offering a day of inspiration, guidance and discussion for artists and designers considering doctoral studies.
PhD Vitamin is designed to support artists and creative practitioners with a research-driven approach, providing insight into artistic research as a methodology and helping potential candidates in planning on their doctoral thesis proposals. Through a series of public lectures, discussions and one-on-one consultations, experts in the field will share their work and experiences.
This year, the conference will focus on one of the key topics of the art doctoral program – Ecological Critique in Contemporary Art, exploring environmental and ecological perspectives within creative research. Speakers will reflect on how contemporary artistic practices engage with pressing ecological questions, fostering dialogue between artistic inquiry, sustainability, and environmental awareness.
For those considering doctoral studies, PhD Vitamin offers individual consultation sessions with invited experts and researchers. These 30-minute consultations provide feedback and guidance for finishing up a doctoral research proposal. Consultations will be scheduled in time slots following the conference.
The event is open to artists, designers, EKA alumni, graduate students and creative practitioners interested in artistic research methods and postgraduate studies.
Please register through the following LINK.
To participate in individual consultation to discuss your PhD proposal, please fill out the FORM. A detailed consultation schedule will be sent to your email after registration.
PROGRAMME
10:00 -10:30 Gathering, coffee and welcome words
10:30 -11:15 Keynote by Taru Elfving “Site-sensitive research on the shifting shorelines”
11:20 – 11:40 Presentation by John Grzinich “Serious play, experimentation or research? Stories from the field”
Lunch break
12:30 -12:50 Presentation by Britta Benno “Of Becoming a Land(scape). Abstract Geology as a Way of Thinking”
12:55 -13:40 Keynote by Pascal Marcel Dreier “Activist Aesthetic Research”
Coffee break
13:50 -14:15 Discussion and Q&A, moderator Kirke Kangro.
SPEAKERS:
Taru Elfving, PhD, is a curator and writer focused on nurturing undisciplinary and site-sensitive enquiries at the intersections of ecological, feminist and decolonial practices. As artistic director of CAA Contemporary Art Archipelago she currently leads a research residency programme on the island of Seili in the Baltic Sea. Her curatorial projects include Research Pavilion (Uniarts, Helsinki, 2023); Hours, Years, Aeons (Finnish Pavilion, Venice, 2015); Frontiers in Retreat (HIAP, Helsinki, 2013-18); Towards a Future Present (LIAF, Lofoten, 2008). She has co-edited publications such as Contemporary Artist Residencies (Valiz 2019) and Altern Ecologies (Frame 2016). Elfving lives and works in Helsinki.
https://contemporaryartarchipelago.org/about/
Britta Benno is a drawing and printmaking artist living in Tallinn. Benno is constantly extending the fields and combining conventional media with unexpected layers. Benno defended her doctoral thesis Thinking in Layers, Worlding in Layers: Posthuman Landscapes in the Expanded Field of Printmaking and Drawing in 2023. Benno is working as a lecturer in the Estonian Academy of Arts. Her artworks have been exhibited throughout Europe, also in Australia and Canada.
Pascal Marcel Dreier listens to and narrates more-than-human stories. They combine aspects of aesthetic research with activist, forensic, and ethnographic methods, employing a multitude of media such as 3D laser measurement data, bones, game engines, video, sound, and music. Pascal co-founded the non profit research group TRACES Studio for Creative Investigation (Berlin) and is a member of Minding Animals Germany. They studied Media and Fine Arts with a focus on Artistic Research at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and hold an MA in Art & Ecology from Goldsmiths, University of London. Currently, Pascal is assistant professor of Multispecies Storytelling at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and teaches, talks, and holds workshops at universities and art institutions internationally, among them the University of Cambridge, University of Western Australia, University of Siegen, Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, Karlstad University, and Köln International School of Design (KISD).
www.pascaldreier.com
multispecies.studio
traces.studio
John Grzinich (b. 1970 in United States) is an audio-visual artist based in Estonia. His work integrates sound, moving images and site-specific installations to explore perceptions of sound and space, seeking resonances between people and places. Grzinich’s recent focus questions our anthropocentric views through performative and fixed media works by combining earthly agencies, expanded listening practices and participatory engagement.
For more information contact kati.saarits@artun.ee