Category: Photography

On Friday, 20 June at 5:00, the exhibition of artists’ films “Once More I Would Like To Return” * will open in the large gallery of the Tartu Art House. The exhibition is being curated by Marge Monko and designed by Karel Koplimets.

The exhibition features five films by artists that deal with home and the memories, longing and melancholy associated with it in various psychological and aesthetic registers.

The motifs of leaving home and longing for home are as old as human history. On a personal level, fleeing or being forcibly displaced is a tragic event that leaves a mark on the rest of our lives, even if we manage to adapt well. “They don’t know that they will never really fit in. No, never. Some part of them can´t be fully present, something left behind in the old country that won’t allow them to really settle in elsewhere, to put down roots,” writes the Lithuanian-American avant-garde film-maker Jonas Mekas in his memoir I had nowhere to go. Mekas has captured his experiences as a refugee and his search for self in a new homeland through his experimental film-making.

“Artistic film is a phenomenon that situates itself outside film industry formats but uses the (audio)visual means of expression offered by the moving image. In her book War is not a woman’s face, Svetlana Alexeyevich uses the term “luminous force” from optics to describe the difference in experience of war between women and men. The more luminous a lens is, the greater its ability to record an image in poor lighting conditions. Hopefully, the films selected for the exhibition will help to illuminate those layers of homesickness and longing that are overshadowed by the great narratives of history,” explains Marge Monko.  

*The title of the exhibition is borrowed from Marie Under’s poem “The Refugee”, written while she was in exile in Sweden.

Participating artists: Noor Abed, Paul Kuimet, Jonas Mekas, Marge Monko and Anna Scherbyna.

Thank you: Kaisa Maasik, Brigita Reinert, Eesti Kunstimuuseum, AS GoProperty, Valge Kuup OÜ

The exhibition is being produced in collaboration with the Photography Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

The exhibition will be open until 20 July.

www.kunstimaja.ee

facebook.com/kunstimaja

The Tartu Art House (Vanemuise 26) is open Wed–Mon 12.00–18.00. All exhibitions are free of charge.

The exhibition activities in the Tartu Art House are supported by the Tartu city government and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Public screening of the short films by the 2nd year students of the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts will take place at 10:00AM on Monday, May 26th in Cinema Sõprus (Vana-Posti Street 8, Tallinn).

Films were made during the Art Project 3 course, supervised by Paul Kuimet, Lauri Laasik, Mattias Veermets and Jevgeni Berezovski.

The screening is free and everyone is welcome!

More info: Paul Kuimet, paul.kuimet@artun.ee

Fine Arts Assessment Marathon 30.04.–20.05.2025

The spring assessment marathon is here! For three weeks, you can once again experience works produced by students in the Faculty of Fine Arts as their term projects are presented: every day there will be a fresh showcase of university students’ works on display.

Works in animation, contemporary art, installation and sculpture, painting, photography, graphic art and scenography curricula will be on display. On almost each evening of the marathon, a new exhibition will be installed and in the following evening the exhibit will give way to the next one. Hopefully, viewers will be able to keep up with the pace of the young artists.

The assessments will take place in the main building of EKA (1st & 2nd floor general areas and EKA Gallery; Põhja pst 7, Tallinn) and ARS Project Space (Pärnu mnt 154, Tallinn).

On the assessment day, the exhibitions at EKA Gallery are open from 2 pm to 6 pm, on Sundays the exhibitions are open from 12 pm to 4 pm. NB! EKA Gallery is closed on May 1st.

SCHEDULE

Wed 30.04. Photography BA I, supervisor Madis Kurss (EKA Gallery)
Thu 02.05. – Sun 04.05. Drawing and anatomical drawing, Fine Arts BA I, supervisors Matti Pärk, Maiu Rõõmus (EKA Gallery)

Mon 05.05. Drawing, Fine Arts BA II, supervisor Tõnis Saadoja (EKA Gallery)
Mon 05.05. Anatomical drawing, Scenography and Animation BA II, supervisor Maiu Rõõmus (1st & 2nd floor general areas)
Mon 05.05. Drawing, Scenography BA II, supervisor Eero Alev (1st & 2nd floor general areas)
Tue 06.05. Drawing, Fine Arts BA III, supervisor Britta Benno (EKA Gallery)
Wed 07.05. Photography BA I, supervisor Marge Monko (EKA Gallery)
Thu 08.05. Scenography BA II, supervisor Liina Keevallik (EKA Gallery)
Fri 09.05. – Sat 10.05. Scenography BA I, supervisor Mark Raidpere (EKA Gallery)

Sun 11.05. – Mon 12.05. Contemporary Art MA I, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Viktor Gurov, Maris Karjatse, Camille Laurelli, Marge Monko, Laura Põld, David K. Ross, Liina Siib, Taavi Talve, Jaan Toomik, Anu Vahtra (EKA Gallery)
Tue 13.05. – Wed 14.05. Contemporary Art MA I, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Viktor Gurov, Maris Karjatse, Camille Laurelli, Marge Monko, Laura Põld, David K. Ross, Liina Siib, Taavi Talve, Jaan Toomik, Anu Vahtra (EKA Gallery)
Thu 15.05. Graphic Art BA I, supervisors Charlotte Biszewski, Caroline Pajusaar, Mark Antonius Puhkan, Mirjam Varik (EKA Gallery)
Fri 16.05. Graphic Art BA II, supervisors Viktor Gurov, Eve Kask (EKA Gallery)
Sat 17.05. – Sun 18.05. Animation BA and MA (EKA Gallery)

Mon 19.05. Painting BA I, supervisors Eero Alev, Anna Škodenko, Jaan Toomik (EKA Gallery)
Tue 20.05. Sculpture BA I, supervisor Anna Mari Liivrand (EKA Gallery)
Thu 22.05. – Sun 15.06. Painting BA II, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Alice Kask, Holger Loodus (ARS Project Space, open Wed–Sat 12–6 pm Sun 12–4 pm)

The Last Spring at the Central Market and the Exhibition in Keskpuur

A new exhibition is now open at the Keskpuur gallery on the second floor of the Central Market building in Tallinn. The artist Jana Mätas’ “Oli siis siin nagu midagi. Või siis ei ole” (There Was Something Here, or Maybe Not) invites viewers to reflect on the past, present, and future of the Central Market through materials, while contemplating the ever-present change in everything. The exhibition will remain open until April 6.

“When preparing for the exhibition, I visited the market quite often. I have always enjoyed environments that are a bit neglected and untidy, but right now, I enjoy it even more the more I think about neatly arranged cobblestones, aesthetically pleasing sales counters, and high-gloss white furniture. The people in these places are different, too.

And then one day, I remembered that the gravel roads leading to my childhood country house came from all directions. The cars passing by always drove with a white cloud behind them. All the plants by the roadside were covered with a thick layer of dust. I remember walking barefoot on the gravel road, the dust thick between my toes, and my calves were gray up to my knees. One had to walk very carefully so that it wouldn’t hurt too much on the soles. Sometimes, among the dusty stones, you could find ones that sparkled.”

Jana Mätas is an artist living and working in Tallinn, whose works are rooted in the physical world surrounding humans. Her pieces often begin with found objects, materials considered of little value, or abandoned items. The artist works largely intuitively to create surreal, worlds that exist outside of words. She has studied Estonian language and literature at the University of Tartu, dance at the Viljandi Culture Academy, and graduated with a BA in photography from the Estonian Academy of Arts (2021). Since 2023, she has been studying contemporary art at the same institution (MA). *Oli siis siin nagu midagi. Või siis ei ole* is her first solo exhibition.

In her works, Jana Mätas combines various material arts, craft techniques, light, space, literature, photography, and moving images.

Keskpuur is a gallery located on the second floor of the Central Market building in Tallinn. The new construction of the Central Market will begin this coming summer, and the market, along with the gallery, will disappear.

Graphic design: Jana Mätas, Grete Kangro

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.

https://www.vonna-michell.com

EKA Department of Photography invites everybody to the screening of the film “Failed Emptiness” on March 5th at 18.00.
Duration: 66”
Location: A-101
A discussion with the film’s director Mika Taanila will follow after the screening.
______

“Failed emptiness” (2024) describes a three-week vacation in the middle of a heatwave. The protagonist prepares reports that begin to bother her more. The deeper she sinks into the report, the deeper she gets into herself.
______

Mika Taanila (1965) is a filmmaker and visual artist based in Helsinki. Taanila’s works have been shown at major international group shows, such as La Biennale di Venezia (2017), Aichi Triennale (2013), Documenta (2012), Shanghai Biennale (2006), Berlin Biennale (2004), Manifesta (2002) and Istanbul Biennial (2001). Solo shows include Padiglione de l’Esprit Nouveau in Bologna (2020), EMMA Espoo (2018), Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki (2013–14), Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2013), TENT, Rotterdam (2013), Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (2008), Dazibao, Montréal (2007) and Migrosmuseum, Zurich (2005).

Taanila’s films have been screened at several international film festivals and special events including TIFF Toronto International Film Festival, IFFR Rotterdam, International Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand, Karlovy-Vary Film Festival, Midnight Sun Film Festival, CPH:DOX, IDFA Amsterdam, Oberhausen Kurzfilmtage, Austrian Filmmuseum, Cork Film Festival, ICA and Whitechapel Gallery in London. Ars Fennica Award 2015 was presented to Mika Taanila.

Facebook event

You are invited to the opening of Karlotta Lainväe’s exhibition “Where do I go when I follow the thread?” on February 20th at 18:00 at Uus Rada Gallery.

In the exhibition “Where do I go when I follow the thread?” I invite you to join me on my journey to unravel the secrets of the place I call home. The sea, the forest, the fields and the rocks, they all hold mystery and knowledge deep within. What parts of my family and ancestors are woven into this place and what do I carry forward? The sense of security shining from there is always with me, yet it is fragile and comes with the weight of responsibility to protect it all.

Karlotta Lainväe is an artist studying photography in EKA, in her work she focuses on the human search for security and belonging. She also examines how connections to history, nature, and rituals create a sense of safety that protects us yet remains fragile and easily lost. To bring her ideas to life, she uses photography, handcrafts and installations to create a visual world where viewers can reflect on their own internal and external sense of security.

Opening: 20.02 at 18:00

Exhibition open: 21.02 – 27.02 at 16:00 – 19:00

Uus Rada Gallery

3rd year BA photography students of EKA will open their exhibition “Fragile. Handle with Care” at 18:00 on Monday, December 9th, 2024 in UUS RADA Gallery, Raja tn. 11, Tallinn. 

The exhibition is part of the Assessment Marathon of the Fine Arts faculty of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Exhibition will be open until December 14th, every day from 14:00-18:00.

Time drips steadily, like water to an ancient well, marking moments we might otherwise overlook. A window becomes a portal, framing the quiet passage of days as shadows stretch and retreat. Faint echoes rise unfolding a symphony of sounds that feel both strange and familiar. Memories emerge from forgotten corners, shapes form where none were expected.

In the exhibition “Fragile. Handle with Care” the ordinary transforms into something profound. It asks you to pause, to feel the weight of what is delicate and temporary. Each work is a reminder: the act of seeing, of remembering, of being present, requires care. These moments are fragile. Handle them gently.

The exhibition is a final outcome of the course “Art Project 4”, supervised by Margo Monko and Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo.

Participating artists:

Alina Birjuk
Elias Kuulmann
Karlotta Lainväe
Katerina Rothberg
Irma Holm
Servane Gis
Kristjan Glück
Snizhana Yehorova 

Graphic Design:

Snizhana Yehorova

December brings an opportunity to experience, in an exhibition format, works produced by students in the Faculty of Fine Arts as their term projects: every day there will be a fresh crop of university students’ works on display in the gallery.

Works in animation, contemporary art, installation and sculpture, painting, photography, graphic art, scenography curricula will be on display. On each evening of the marathon, a new exhibition will be installed and in the following evening the exhibit will give way to the next one. Hopefully, viewers will be able to keep up with the pace of the young artists.

The assessments will take place in the main building of EKA (2nd & 3rd floor general areas, 2nd floor drawing classes A-205 and A-206, EKA Gallery; Kotzebue 1), in the new EKA building (Kotzebue 10) and at Uus Rada gallery (Raja 11A).

On the assessment day, the exhibitions at EKA gallery and the new EKA building (Kotzebue 10) are open from 3 pm to 6 pm, on Sundays the exhibitions are open from 12 pm to 6 pm.

SCHEDULE
Mon 2.12. Photography, supervisor Krista Mölder (EKA Gallery)
Mon 2.12. Drawing, supervisor Tõnis Saadoja (2nd & 3rd floor general areas)
Tue 3.12. Drawing, supervisor Eero Alev (EKA Gallery)
Wed 4.12. Drawing, supervisor Ulvi Haagensen (EKA Gallery)
Thu 5.12. Anatomical drawing, supervisors Maiu Rõõmus, Matti Pärk (EKA Gallery)
Fri 6.12. Scenography, supervisor Ene-Liis Semper (EKA Gallery)
Sat 7.12. – Sun 8.12. Scenography, supervisor Mark Raidpere (EKA Gallery)

Mon 8.12. New Media, supervisor Sten Saarits (EKA Gallery)
Mon 8.12. Photography, supervisors Marge Monko, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo NB! Uus Rada Gallery, the exhibition will remain open until 15.12.
Tue 10.12. Studio photography, supervisor Tanja Muravskaja (EKA Gallery)
Tue 10.12. Drawing (animation and scenography), supervisor Britta Benno (2nd & 3rd floor general areas, 2nd floor drawing classes A-205 and A-206)
Wed 11.12. Painting, supervisors Tõnis Saadoja, Mihkel Maripuu, Holger Loodus (EKA Gallery)
Thu 12.12. Animation, supervisors Lilli-Krõõt Repnau, Ülo Pikkov, Anu-Laura Tuttelberg (EKA Gallery)
Thu 12.12. Anatomical drawing, supervisors Maiu Rõõmus, Matti Pärk (2nd & 3rd floor general areas, 2nd floor drawing classes A-205 and A-206)
Fri 13.12. Painting, supervisors Karl-Kristjan Nagel, Tõnis Saadoja (EKA Gallery)
Sat 14.12. – Sun 15.12. Painting, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Alice Kask, Mart Vainre (EKA Gallery)

Mon 16.12. Graphic Art, supervisors Liisi Grünberg, Viktor Gurov, Liina Siib, Britta Benno, Eve Kask, Eve Kaaret (EKA Gallery)
Mon 16.12. Photography, supervisors Triin Kerge, Annika Haas (Kotzebue 10)
Tue 17.12. Graphic Art, supervisors Lembe Ruben, Mark Antonius Puhkan, Maria Izabella Lehtsaar, Paul Rannik (EKA Gallery)
Wed 18.12. Sculpture, supervisors Taavi Talve, Laura Põld (EKA Gallery)
Wed 18.12. Contemporary Art, supervisors Marge Monko, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Liina Siib, Taavi Talve, Anu Vahtra, Maris Karjatse, Laura Põld, Holger Loodus, Kristi Kongi, Sten Saarits, Camille Laurelli, Eve Kask (2nd & 3rd floor general areas of the main building of EKA and the new building, Kotzebue 10)
Thu 19.12. Contemporary Art, supervisors Maris Karjatse, Eve Kask, Kristi Kongi, Camille Laurelli, Holger Loodus, Marge Monko, Laura Põld, Sten Saarits, Liina Siib, Taavi Talve, Anu Vahtra, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo (EKA Gallery & Kotzebue 10)

On Monday, 21 October 2024 at 17:00, artist talks by Berit Schneidereit and Saskia Fischer will take place at EKA A-501. The artists will be in Tallinn to conduct masterclasses in the photography department of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Berit Schneidereit’s artistic work revolves around the question of the nature of photography and the physical and bodily act of looking. Rooted in photography, her practice extends to spatial installation and sculpture. Using a variety of techniques, Berit Schneidereit creates constellations of closeness and distance, reality and suggestion, with which she creates a constant oscillation between image space and reality.

Berit Schneidereit (b. 1988, Frankfurt am Main, Germany) studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where she graduated as a master student in 2017. She has been exhibited at Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf; G2 Kunsthalle in Leipzig; Kunsthalle Recklinghausen; CCA in Andratx, Mallorca; at NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein; de Warande in Turnhout, Belgium and Goethe Institut Paris, among others. She received the Stiftung Kunstfonds work grant, the dhCS-studio grant from the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, as well as the van-Rinsum grant for the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris. She lives and works in Düsseldorf.

https://www.beritschneidereit.de/

instagram: beritschneidereit

Saskia Fischer is an interdisciplinary artist working with images, objects, texts, and environments.

Her research is concerned with the paradigms that form and inform landscape as a reflection of cultural and social values. She examines the ways Western understanding separates anthropological urbanity from a colonial concept of nature, reinforcing problematic notions of femininity and what is ‚natural‘. Her working motifs draw on transitory architectures and the fabricated barrier between nature and the commons. This interdisciplinary research is expressed through photographs and installations synthesizing diverse media blending materials and motives from architecture, mobility, urban planning, landscape design, horticulture, gender studies and art history.

Currently working as a lecturer at the Mathilde Planck Stiftung and State Academy of Art and Design, Stuttgart, DE. She has obtained MFA at the Goldsmiths, University of London, UK 2016 – 2018 and studied photography at the Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, DE, 2010 – 2015.

https://www.saskia-fischer.com

https://www.instagram.com/___saskia_/