Category: Narva Art Residency

On October 16, Narva Art Residency will host the largest international fashion exhibition in Narva to date, “Hõimulõim (Tribal Thread),” led by the Fashion Design Department. The exhibition will open as part of the official program of “Narva Finno-Ugric Capital of Culture 2025” and will take place during the most important week of the tribal peoples’ calendar year, Tribal Week.

“Hõimulõim” is an exhibition that weaves Finno-Ugric tradition into contemporary fashion design. It is a tribute to a rich heritage, the survival of which depends on how skillfully we can bring it into our lives today. Tradition does not remain in a closet or archive – it only lives if we let it grow with time, wear it and love it.

The exhibition features the work of designers from nine Finno-Ugric peoples. The works of Sami, Khanty, Udmurt, Mari, Komi, Hungarian, Karelian, Finnish (including Ingrian) and Estonian (including Seto and Võro) creators highlight that clothing can be both a practical object and a carrier of identity and collective memory. Each author asks in their own way what it means to be a Finno-Ugric designer in the 21st century – how to weave one’s tradition into a modern form and what to tell the world about its multi-layered field of meaning. These works also open up ethical choices: what material to use, how to preserve local skills and how to tell the story of one’s people in a way that creates a dialogue even for those who were not born into this cultural space.

The “tribal thread” (hõimulõim) is an invisible but tenacious bond between Finno-Ugric peoples. It does not ask for national borders or political sentiment, but runs deep in the undercurrents – in language, patterns, songs, dance and beliefs”, says the exhibition curator Piret Puppart and adds: “In today’s world, where the song of some peoples is quieter than ever before and the weavers of many patterns have become isolated, this thread between tribal peoples is particularly fragile.”

Various social tensions are increasingly testing the survival of traditions and forcing us to look for ways to keep them alive for future generations. “Hõimulõim” invites us to notice that preserving culture is not only about preserving the past, but also about creating the future. It is an invitation to wear our heritage on a daily basis – be it a piece of jewelry, an object or an ornament – ​​and to understand that every such choice strengthens the thread that connects us across borders and eras.

The exhibition’s interactive, technologically innovative experiences are also exciting. Visitors can discover patterns hidden in dresses created by Piret Puppart using magnets, as well as experience a hologram waterfall dedicated to the world of Votian patterns designed by artist Alyona Movko-Mägi. Hologram art is a little-known technique in the world of conjuring visual elements that cannot be touched with the hand, but can be touched virtually and with the eye. This is the first time this medium is coming to Narva in such a volume.

Finno-Ugric roots also have a wider international reach in the world of design and art than one might think. The Komi compass pattern has found its way into Kandinsky’s paintings, and Udmurt mannerisms into Tchaikovsky’s music. However, only recently was a designer with Karelian roots awarded the Diesel Design Award, while Izhor blood has dressed Estonian Olympic athletes in Athens. The representative of the Mari nationality was behind the knitting collections of the legendary Estonian brand Mosaic for years, and when wearing Adidas shoes, you can feel the Udmurt heart. The Diesel Design Award-winning collection and the best pieces from Helsinki Design Week are also coming to the exhibition that will open soon. The exhibition can be visited until January 11.

Curator: Piret Puppart

Artists: Antrea Kantakoski, vainio.seitonen (Johanna Vainio & Merja Seitsonen), Sigrid Kuusk, Ramona Salo, Dina Andreeva, Natalja Lill, Darali Leli, Eneken Johanson, Stella Tukia, Kaia Kuusmann, Zsófia Papp, Zsófia Papp, Maria Roosiaas, Hanna-Tiina Pekk, Anneliis Reili, Kertu Kivisik, Nadežda Kasatkina, Lana Vakhovska, Karl Joonas Alamaa, Piret Puppart and Alyona Movko-Mägi 

Graphic design: Eva Sepping

Many thanks: Anna Kuznetsova, Muš Nadii, Nikolai Anisimov, Nikolay Kuznetsov, Barbi Pilvre, Jaak Prozes, Žanna Toht, Ekaterina Kuznetsova, Helena Schilf, Natalia Ermakov

Supporters: Estonian Academy of Arts, Fashion Design Department, Tribal Peoples Program, Cultural Endowment, NGO Fenno-Ugria, NART, Narva Finno-Ugric Capital of Culture 2025

In the fall of 2023, international artists from NART will be giving three lectures at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and the second event in this series is coming soon. The artists will talk about what everyday life is like in an art residency and present their work. The lecture will take place on Thursday, November 9th at 17:45 in room A-101. The event will be in English and is free of charge.

The November lecture will be delivered by Polish ceramicist Ola Lewczyk and Helsinki-based textile artist Sasha Rotts. During her art residency, Ola plans to explore the memory of Neolithic-era Narva ceramics and build a temporary ceramics kiln. Sasha, who was at the residency for the first time in May 2022, co-created a pop-up exhibition titled “Solid Plot” at the Kreenholm factory this summer, in collaboration with Hilda Karha.

21 September at 17.45 (room A-101).

The first lecture will be given by two artists’ duos.

During their residency, Japanese duo Reico Motohara and Kabo invite people to cook with them to get to know the participants better and learn about their stories.

Olga Wardega and Christoph Zeckel created an audiovisual installatsion at Kreenholm factory for the Station Narva festival. The artists explored what meaning this place has in the memories of Narva people and what happens when nature takes over.

–

In autumn 2023, international artists from the Narva Art Residency will give three lectures at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

They will talk about the practicalities of being a professional artist, what the daily life of an art residency is like and how to get involved in the opportunities offered to artists. Of course, they will also introduce their own creative work.

Lectures take place on three Thursdays at 17.45. They are free of charge and open to all!

The lectures will be held in English.

resAs part of the Tallinn Photomonth programme, London-based Estonian artist Maria
Kapajeva returns to Narva Art Residency with a solo exhibition studying the social
legacy of Krenholm. For 150 years, Krenholm – the textile manufacture that was
declared bankrupt in 2010 – was the most important enterprise in Narva, shaping the
social and cultural as well as architectural atmosphere of the city. The exhibition
focuses on the mill in the late socialist period, when its workshops employed a
collective of 12,000 mainly female workers.
Inspiration for the exhibition was drawn from interviews conducted with former
workers of the mill and from the digitised family albums, diaries, and memorabilia
gathered by the artist during these interviews. By placing this material into the context
of a multimedia contemporary art exhibition, Kapajeva makes the history of the local
working class visible and enhances it with all of the artistic means at her disposal. The
viewer is presented a mill that is filled with lively female collectives and the deafening
rhythm of the looms, but which still seems like a bright and distant dream in today’s
competitive world, where the collective spirit and sense of togetherness between
women is challenged by the individualist and competition-based aims of global
capitalism.
Maria Kapajeva is a London-based Estonian artist who was born in Narva and has
exhibited her work internationally for the last 10 years. As the daughter of a designer
at Krenholm, she spent her childhood at the mill, drawing fabric patterns and
dreaming about the profession of a textile artist. The current exhibition thus takes a
distinctly personal approach, although the main topics of Kapajeva’s art are also
present: appropriation of found objects and highlighting of peripheral histories, use of
textile techniques and focusing on the representation of women, heightened sensitivity
towards social and political matters, and specifically East European feminism.
The exhibition takes its name from March of Enthusiasts, the signature song from the
soundtrack of the Soviet film The Bright Way (1940). This musical film, which starred
the Soviet cinema icon Ljubov Orlova in the role of a female weaver, inspired one of
the Krenholm’s weavers to seek employment at the mill after World War II. The
opening work of the exhibition, which bears the same name and performs reenactments
of the famous film, compares a woman’s loneliness then and now and
presents to the public for the first time the collaboration of Maria Kapajeva and dance
artist Maarja Tõnisson in the abandoned interior spaces of the former textile mill.
The exhibition is curated by Tallinn-based Liisa Kaljula, whose interests include
socialist-era art and post-socialist contemporary art dealing with the recent history of
its own region.
The exhibition is accompanied by a diverse trilingual public programme, including
Maria Kapajeva’s master class, artist talks, and curator’s tour, as well as an
educational programme for the schools of Narva and a lecture by Reverse Resources
on contemporary global textile production.
The opening of the exhibition will take place 8 September at 6 pm on the ground floor
of the Narva Art Residency at Joala 18.
On 8 September a special coach will be organized from Tallinn to Narva for the
opening of the exhibition. The coach leaves at 2 pm from the Russian Cultural Centre
at Mere pst 5. For further information and registration: koordinaator@fotokuu.ee.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Academy
of Arts, and Narva Gate OÜ. The entire public programme is supported by The British
Council in Estonia.
Maria Kapajeva’s solo exhibition, The Dream is Wonderful, Yet Unclear, will be open at
the Narva Art Residency until 8 October 2017 (T–S 12–6 pm).
Further information:
Liisa Kaljula
Exhibition curator
5162688
Maria Kapajeva
www.mariakapajeva.com
Tallinn Photomonth
www.fotokuu.ee