Category: Craft Studies

Towards Patterns of Making
Eik Hermann, Juss Heinsalu, Kärt Ojavee

The current publication introduces the key findings of the MUUSA: Synthesis and Modelling of Material Research project and situates them in a broader context. The opening text, an interview with anthropologist Tim Ingold, challenges prevailing ideas about the relationship between material practice and academic theory, while offering alternatives. This is followed by an introduction to the conceptware underlying the work and an overview of the project’s progression. This publication helps to better conceptualise different practices of making and research, and supports the teaching of new practitioners.

MUUSA brought together two artist-designers, Juss Heinsalu and Kärt Ojavee, philosopher Eik Hermann and several cross-disciplinary external experts. The project and its results were first shown as an exhibition (held in November 2024 at MUUSA Studio in Tallinn) and are now also presented as a publication.

Publishing of Towards Patterns of Making has been supported by the Estonian Academy of Arts, and the previous project was funded by the Estonian Ministry of Culture’s creative research grant. 

The launch will be held in English.

Being / Becoming
Põhjala tehas, Marati 5-3, 2nd floor
Exhibition open June 4–14, everyday 11:00–19:00
Opening: Wednesday, June 3, 18:00

From materials to maker,
from environment to mind.
Through the fingertips into an object,
which then finds its way back to the environment again.

The practice of craft is one of interconnection: between material and body, environment and society, thought and action. Craft extends beyond the production of a physical object – it shapes the ways we relate to the world around us and to one another.

The exhibition Being / Becoming presents works by the first year students of the Craft Studies MA program. Developed alongside one another over the past year, the works emerge through conversations between materials and makers, processes and practices, experiments and outcomes – shaped through sharing spaces of making, thinking and exchange.

Being is existing in the same space with others. Becoming is an endless process of change until we decide to lay a pause on it.

Participating: Astrid Davis, Þórey Björk Halldórsdóttir, Carmen Kremm, Anna Larionova, Athaly Lens, Marco Manfredino, Teresa RA, Anna-Maria Saar, Kay Shek, Laura-Maria Vahimets

In curatorial dialogue with: Anu Vahtra
Graphic design: Andrew Kuus-Hill & Linda Morel

Thank you: Juss Heinsalu, Kärt Ojavee, Põhjala tehas
Supporters: Craft Studies, Estonian Academy of Arts, Punch Club OÜ

Throughout the exhibition we have a few events organised for the public, including tours, workshops and a finissage:

Tours
Sunday, June 7, 11:00–12:00
Sunday, June 14, 15:00–16:00
In English & Estonian
* Free participation

Workshops
‘Materializing the Handwriting. The Workshop’ by Anna-Maria Saar

The hand-stitching workshop develops participants’ awareness of their personal working methods through hands-on experimentation with different materials. It supports learners more broadly in understanding and articulating their intuitive choices as makers.

Sunday, June 7, 13:00–13:45
Wednesday, June 10, 18:00–18:30
Thursday, June 11, 18:00–18:30

* Workshops take place in the exhibition space, free participation with prior registration: anna-maria.saar@artun.ee. Materials are provided on site.

Finissage
Sunday, June 14, 16:00–19:00

Moulds for the Wilderness / Vormid tühermaale
Odie Lap Chun Chow
Location: Hanger, Põhjala tehas, Marati tn 5, Tallinn
Opening 8.05 at 18:00
Visting hours: 8.05–19.05 WED-SUN 11:00-17:00
Defence date: 12.05 at 10:00

Moulds for the Wilderness is a showcase of Odie Lap Chun Chow’s journey into mould making, inspired by ceramic casting production and self-experience in identity seeking. Gypsum, clay, and photography became the materials Odie used to explore and reflect on his struggle to find self-identity, bound to the city he came from. Here, he raises the question of whether moulds give limits or freedom to one, and whether one can create their own “wilderness”, a space without borders.

Perfect Dupes / Täiuslik duplikaat
Maia Hellman
Location: Kopli tn 2a
Opening: 9.05 at 18:00
Visiting Hours 9.05–30.05 THR-SUN 14:00-19:00
Defence date: 12.05 at 15:00

The remnants of the honey shop linger here, in the elongated shelves that run the walls and the price stickers from the beekeeping and gardening equipment they once sold. The same shelves now hold objects that arrived here with their own histories. Second-hand tableware, ceramic pieces, raw materials. Things that have passed through other hands before reaching these shelves. Some of them have passed through mine.

Lyly Pudi-Padi Pood, Lyly’s IJzerwinkel, La Quincallerie de Lyly
Lyly Letzer
Location: Keskturg Kiosk 168
Opening date: 10.05 at 11:00
Visiting hours: 10.05–17.05
Defence date: 13.05 at 11:00

A “ijzerwinkel”, “quincallerie” or “pudi-padi pood” is a place where you can find glue, a flower, a plate or someone to talk to. // Pudi-padi pood on koht, kust võib leida nii liimi, lilleõie, taldriku kui ka vestluse. // Une quincaillerie est un endroit où on peut tout trouver, un clou, une assiette, un savon et une personne à qui parler. // Ik ga naar een ijzerwinkel om van alles en nog wat te vinden: een tas, een koek of een babbel.

Unfolding Gestures / Avanev käeliigutus
Mariam Mestvirishvili
Location: Angaarinstituut, Põhjala Tehas, Marati tn 5, Tallinn
Opening 8.05 at 18:00
Visiting: 8.05–24.05 WED-SUN 11:00-17:00
Defence date: 13.05 at 15:00

Unfolding Gestures brings together practices of ceramic and textile making, exploring what lies beyond their surface and unfolds through them. By focusing on the process of making, the coexistence of material and maker as beings in their own right becomes visible, resulting in a series of works that reveal the traces of the process and its inherent mundanities.

Beyond Wearability / Kantavusest kaugemal
Peixuan Lin
Location: ARS Kunstilinnak, Stuudio 53, Pärnu mnt 154
Opening 11.05 at 18:00
Visiting hours: 11.05–15.05
Defence date: 14.05 at 10:00

Beyond Wearability builds on the personal experiences and theoretical research of designer Peixuan Lin, exploring how accessories transcend from wearability to becoming fluid symbols of identity. It shows how materials, myths, and everyday use collectively transform accessories into vehicles for personal narratives.

Souvenirs from Home / Suveniirid kodust
Sylvia Burgess
Location: Pika Jala väravatorn, Pikk Jalg 3
Opening: 16.05 at 18:00
Visiting hours 16.05–14.06 THR–SUN 12:00-17:00
Defence date: 14.05 at 14:00

Souvenirs from home is an exhibition of small objects and jewellery drawing on motifs, techniques and materials gathered through the three homes Sylvia Burgess has experienced in the past two years.

KULTIVEERITUD KEHA
Joanne-Heleene Sõrmus
Location: EKA Stenograafia stuudio, B304
Opening: 14.05 at 19:00 (performance)
Defence date: 15.05 at 10:00, A403

At the culmination, the focus shifts away from the body to what remains of it: its traces, forms, and surfaces that are transferred into the garment. Performance KULTIVEERITUD KEHA explores the moment when the body ceases to be the objective and instead becomes a trace – a shell no longer defined by physical perfection, but by the aesthetic and emotional residue left by the pursuit of it.

Extensions / Pikendused
Marite Kuus-Hill

Location: Kopli 70a, II floor/korrus
Opening 12.05 at 18:00

Defence date: 15.05 at 14:00

Extensions is a collection of events surrounding a handmade 4 m x 4 m quilt. This project presents a series of proposals and brings forth open-ended questions about space and space making, while expanding the notion of a quintessential cultural object, the quilted blanket.

Collection of public events:

April 17th 18:00
Thesis Assembly
Marite Kuus-Hill & Chloé Gourvennec
Krulli maja, Kopli 70a, Tallinn

May 6th 14:00
Patchnotes: Line Arngaard
Haron Barashed & Marite Kuus-Hill
oh.eka-gd-ma.ee / EKA sea terrace, Põhja pst 7, Tallinn

May 12th 18:00
Twelve Proposals for an Unfolding Event
Lili Maud Dobell & Marite Kuus-Hill
Krulli maja, Kopli 70a, Tallinn

May 13th 18:00 (invitation only)
Quilting Bee and Talking Bird
Jordy Weaver & Marite Kuus-Hill
ETC Space, Niine 8, Tallinn

May 22nd – 23rd 11:00-17:00
Quilt Space
Fair Enough Art Book Fair
Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design
Lai 17, Tallinn

June 3rd 14:00
Patchnotes: Alek Green
Haron Barashed & Marite Kuus-Hill
oh.eka-gd-ma.ee / EKA sea terrace, Põhja pst 7, Tallinn

On Wednesday, the 18th of March, a series of written thesis presentations by the graduating students of Craft Studies will be held across different workshops at EKA. 

There are 8 texts as part of the components required for graduation, reflecting on a diverse range of topics and approaches relevant to students’ individual practices and the expanded field of design and craft, with links to making and to the relations of legwork, handwork, and headwork. In intimate reading sessions around the studios, graduates share fragments from their research and creative practice.

All texts were composed through research, writing and editing supervised by Else Lagerspetz, Lieven Lahaye and Taavi Hallimäe.

17:00 The silent hovering of forks by Lyly Letzer, Smithy, B106.4.

17:30 Fit olemise kunst: Kehaloomepraktika by Joanne-Heleene Sõrmus, Prototyping Lab, B204.

17:45 Hidden in Plain Sight by Marite Kuus-Hill, Graphic Design Department, C305.

18:00 That Which is Carried by the Spaces in Between by Mariam Mestvirishvili, Weaving Studio, D505.

18:15 Orienting Home: exploring the resonance of home in a post-colonial world by Sylvia Burgess, Jewellery Studio, B504.

18:30 Beyond Wearability: Accessories as Fluid Signs by Peixuan Lin, Accessory Studio, B510.

18:45 Held in Suspension: Ceramic Reproduction and The Lives of Found Objects by Maia Hellman, Ceramics Workshop, B602.

19:00 Moulds for the Wilderness: From the Borders to the Void by Odie Lap Chun Chow, Plaster Workshop, D602.1.

19:15 Gathering with food and refreshments, A200.

EKA Craft Studies MA programme invites prospective master’s students to join the programme’s online info session on Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 17:00 EET (local Estonian time).

This will be a good opportunity to hear more about the curriculum, and to meet and ask questions from the people behind the programme.

The online info session will be hosted online over Zoom and the link will be e-mailed out to all registrants 2 hours before the start of the event.

If you would like to attend, please register online through the form below.

Register HERE

Recording HERE

More information about the Craft Studies MA programme: 

• https://www.artun.ee/en/curricula/craft-studies/overview/
• https://www.instagram.com/eka_craftstudies

Admissions period starts on the 1st of February 2026 and application deadline is 2nd of March 2026 at 3pm EET (local Estonian time).

Admissions information here

On Wednesday, 27th of August 2025 at 6 PM, the exhibition Anatomy of Dust, by Juss Heinsalu and Kim Morgan, opens at Hobusepea Gallery.

Anatomy of Dust brings together two artistic practices that meet at the intersection of material investigation, scientific inquiry, and narrative building. Through intricate objects, experimental processes and installations, the gallery transforms into a cohesive spatial experience, a hybrid lab–studio environment, exploring the physical and conceptual forms of matter – from dust and dirt to blood, skin, and ash.

The viewer encounters “material bodies,” human and non-human, and the complex systems and cycles that connect and sustain them – presented in a range of altered micro-macro scales, amplified textures, scientific and medical imaging technologies, archive research and poetic interventions. The gallery’s large front window is used as a living interface between interior and exterior, offering passersby glimpses into the ongoing dialogue between organic and inorganic, life and death, matter and meaning.

“Informed by the experience of vibrant matter at the microscopic level these works offer new forms of body representation and an opportunity to bridge the gap between science, medicine, and art. Equally important to these installations are my propositions for the work to be situated in public space.” – Kim Morgan

“My recent work focuses on meteoritic origins, petrification and speculative conditions that present alternative mineral-based lifeforms. I have been curiously exploring ways to combine metal and ceramic compounds. Additionally, some older lines are included, such as optical devices and breathing clay-lungs animated by air pumps.” – Juss Heinsalu

The project extends beyond the visual: Kim Morgan will be using the gallery space as a studio/lab/research space to discuss her work within the context of her doctoral research, which includes situating the work in public space. A panel for public discussion (presenters TBA) is organised to engage with the scientific, artistic, and speculative ideas underpinning the works.

Artist tour: Saturday 13.09.2025 at 15 PM in ENG and 16:30 in EST
Panel discussion: Thursday 18.09.2025 at 18 PM (discussion will be held in ENG)

The exhibition will remain open until the 22nd of September.

Juss Heinsalu is an Estonian artist based in Tallinn. His autonomous research-creation process explores the embodiment of life in clay, merging scientific hypothesis, mythological and ethnographic knowledge with material-led studio practice. Heinsalu holds a degree in ceramics from the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) and received his MFA at NSCAD University in Nova Scotia, Canada. Currently, he is an associate professor and the head of the Craft Studies MA programme at EKA.

Kim Morgan is a Canadian visual artist working in multi-media installation and public space. Her work explores the impact of technology on people’s perceptions of time, space, and the body, and the shifting boundaries between the private and the public. Morgan is a professor at NSCAD University, Canada, and a PhD candidate at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Graphic designer: Aimur Takk

Many thanks to: Estonian Academy of Arts, Arts Nova Scotia, The Dalhousie Art Gallery, Heron Vrubel, Eric-Olivier Theriault Raymond, Gary Markle, Bruce Anderson, Kärt Ojavee, Katherine Diemert, friends and family members.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Alyona Movko-Mägi’s solo exhibition Soo is open from June 6 to September 27, 2025, at the Museum of Photography’s Seek gallery, situated in Tornimäe.

The exhibition inaugurates the new season in Estonia’s one-of-a-kind Night Gallery format. During the summer months, the gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday during late evening and nighttime hours: from June to August, 20:00–02:00; in September, 20:00–00:00.

Soo (Estonian for “Bog”) explores the relationship between body and landscape, treating the bog as a layered archive—a place where bodies, stories, and histories accumulate. It is a site of preservation and transformation, where life is held and reshaped. The exhibition invites reflection on the symbolic relationship between embodied presence and terrain, with the bog acting simultaneously as a keeper of memory and a space of change.

At the heart of the exhibition is the female body—as a bearer of life, memory, and belonging. The stratification of bodily experiences—ranging from creation to sacrifice and transformation—intertwines with the landscape, where human traces and narratives blend into visible and invisible layers.

Alyona Movko-Mägi (b. 1984) is an artist whose practice intersects material-based research, expanded photography, and memory embedded in nature. Living and working beside the bogs of Lahemaa in northern Estonia, she gathers and processes materials remembered by the land. Her work weaves together leather, glass, light, photography, motion, and digital forms—bringing forward how time moves through both body and earth, and how care, disappearance, and transformation remain held in matter.

In the artist’s words:
“The bog invites slowness. It gathers silence, light, moisture, and pressure. Movement becomes perception; presence begins to settle in layers. Each pause creates a space for listening—quietly and attentively, without explanation. Photography unfolds here as an embodied act. Light gathers the surface, layering presence. The image does not depict an object, it shapes the conditions for presence and perception, connecting body and space.”

Throughout the summer, the accompanying public program will feature talks on folk heritage, concerts, and workshops on analog photography.

Exhibition Team
Curator: Annika Haas
Sound design: Maksim Adel
Lighting design: Mikk-Mait Kivi
Graphic design: Katariin Mudist
Installation team: Mikk Kivila, Marten Esko, Valge Kuup

Supported by:
The Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), Department of Glass and Department of Photography.
This exhibition is part of the TASE ’25 graduate festival program.

Night Gallery Opening Hours
• June–August: Wed–Sat, 20:00–02:00
• September: Wed–Sat, 20:00–00:00

The Museum of Photography—located behind Town Hall in a former medieval prison—is part of the Tallinn City Museum and the home of Estonian photographic heritage. In its SEEK gallery, contemporary photography enters dialogue with architectural history.

An end-of-the-year exhibition by Craft Studies first year MA students showcasing a broad spectrum of material-led practices.

In the first semester of the studies, we discuss at length the difference between objects and things — what makes something an object and another a thing? Wikipedia encourages their editors to be “straightforward, just-the-facts, instead of essay-like, argumentative, or opinionated” when explaining and describing the subject at hand. This exhibition is precisely not that. The works in this exhibition are both, neither and in-between. We encourage you, the visitor, to think about the works you see in essay-like, argumentative and opinionated ways, doubting and departing, considering thingness and objectness as up for discussion.

Object or Things II takes place in the studio of the Craft Studies programme at Kopli 70a, Krulli Kvartal, 2nd floor. The opening is on May 30 at 18:00. Visitors are welcome from 13–19:00 on May 31 and June 1,2,3, or by appointment.

For more information, please get in touch with Marite Kuus marite.kuus@artun.ee

Participants: Sylvia Whananaki Treep Burgess, Lap Chun Chow, Margus Elizarov, Maia Margareta Hellman, Nele Kurvits, Marite Kuus, Lyly Letzer, Peixuan Lin, Mariam Mestvirishvili and Joanne-Heleene Sõrmus.

Curators: Juss Heinsalu and Kärt Ojavee

Rait Lõhmus presents the methodology developed during his MA studies with the project Reblow Toolset: “Piiritus / Infinite” – a site-specific glassblowing performance that connects industrial production heritage with contemporary craft. The performative reblowing takes place in the historic Rakvere Distillery and invites to reflect on the invisibility and impact of mass production. The demonstration brings human presence back into a space built on mechanised precision.

Reblow Toolset is a selection of tools and devices for reblowing premade glass objects. Influences from earlier productions and modified equipment are extensions of the designer’s body in a mobile glassblowing studio. The technology redefines and revalues existing glass objects, referring  to collaboration with a previous author, production, era or region.

“Piiritus / Infinite” is the outcome of experimentation, conceptual and tool development during the MA studies. The final project presentation takes place at Rakvere Distillery, an iconic yet vanishing part of Estonia’s industrial heritage. The former production space bridges creator, material, space, eras and heritage.

Reblowing reveals the potential of premade glass objects: resume, retake, reblow, remember, reproduce and reshape.

Supervised by Andres Allik, Triin Jerlei, Juss Heinsalu, Kärt Ojavee

Supported by Estonian Academy of Arts – Craft Studies

Rait Lõhmus’ site-specific glassblowing demonstration “Reblow Toolset: Piiritus / Infinite” is part of the Estonian Academy of Arts’ Craftstudies MA programme and the EKA TASE Graduation Show.

An invitation to the opening of “From Mines to Mountains”, an exhibition by Hannah Segerkrantz on Thursday 15.05 at 18:00 

From Mines to Mountains unfolds as an act of care within an industrially mined landscape often denied tenderness. Anchored in historical, environmental and socio-political research, the project unveils the complex entanglements of Ida-Virumaa, Eastern Estonia—a region reshaped by over a century of oil shale mining. At its core are four hand-sculpted vessels made of clay and glazes from oil shale ash sourced directly from this terrain. Through field research, writings, material experiments, and a visual essay, the project asks what it means to care for a terraformed environment, offering a new perspective through the language of craft. 

With special thanks to: Lina Kaljundi, Juss Heinsalu, Kärt Ojavee, Eik Hermann, Ainar Varinurm, Maksim Olissov, Anne Eelmere, Jaan August Viirand, Ethel Ütsmüts, Tiiu Meiner, Kati Saarits, Marite Helena Kuus, Karl Joonas Alamaa, Taavi Teevet 

Supported by: Estonian Academy of Arts – Craft Studies 

Opening: May 15th, 2025, 18:00 

Exhibition is open by appointment between 15.05-29.06 

Pikk Jalg 3, III floor 

Hannah Segerkrantz is a designer whose practice combines the notion of agency with the re-definition of what we address as our ‘surroundings’. With an interest in the intersection between architecture and radical ecologies, her approach to research is environmental, sensorial and contextual. Whether exploring the cultural background and gestures of architectural materials, or studying the relations between objects, people and local traditions, she offers tools and means for bridging our connection with the environments we inhabit.

hannahsegerkrantz.com