Category: Gallery

Graphic design 3rd years students present their project “Wack Dystopia” at EKA Billboard Gallery

On November 20 at 8 PM 3rd-year graphic design students will present their project “Wack Dystopia” at the EKA Billboard Gallery. The course is supervised by Norman Orro. EKA Billboard gallery is located outside on Kotzebue street. The exhibition will remain open until January 31.

In 2015, Mark Fisher coined the term “boring dystopia” to describe the mundane underbelly of the hypercapitalist London society. The first “Blade Runner” movie is already set in history, in November 2019.

Now on the brink of 2020, we live in a WACK DYSTOPIA where truth seems debatable and most news is underlined with the hashtag #notonion.

WACK DYSTOPIA is life in a glimmering technocracy, haunted by a medieval mindset.
WACK DYSTOPIA is a gut feeling, that nothing makes sense anymore.
WACK DYSTOPIA is not a forecast, but a critique of the present.

The metamodern condition finds us in limbo between utopias and dystopias. Both are simplistic caricatures and neither seem real or attainable. To move forward we first have to look truth in the eye. To get real we need to look to the absurd…

In the words of Aldous Huxley ”The trouble with fiction… is that it makes too much sense. Reality never makes sense.”

Participating students: Adam Asztalos, Kersti Heile, Elisabeth Juusu, Roven Jõekäär, Karmo Järv, Anneli Kripsaar, Syret Kärt, Liisi Lasn, Sigrid Liira, Laura Martens, Mikk Tanel Oja, Aliz Stocker, and Johann Georg Villmann
Headline font: Aliz Stocker

Supervisor: Norman Orro

Vlog-performance “THE STORY: chatty get ready, what I eat, workouts (realistic day-in-a-life)” by Netti Nüganen on December 27 at 8 PM at EKA Gallery

A vlog-performance, “The Story…” follows a journey of a character who takes on a trip to ungraspable and alienating lands. Surrounded by the heat and landscapes of California, the protagonist shares with the audience her most banal, trivial and expectable everyday actions. But somehow, by highlighting this banality, something magical is created – a parallel universe where the experience of the known everyday is turned upside down into absurdity, becoming perhaps more relatable than the reality itself. Appearing both in the video and on stage, the character watches the audience watching her throughout these familiar, yet alienating situations.

Netti Nüganen has graduated from the choreography department in SNDO, Amsterdam. Through her video and stage works, she tells stories about characters like a weightlifter, a teenager vlogger, a detective or a cowboy, approaching their banal habits through mystification. While finding comfort in contradictions, displacement, and pluralism, she treats everything known with careful deconstruction and everything unknown with vigilant attention.

Video montage by Ando Naulainen and Netti Nüganen
The performance is in English

Doors: 8 pm
Performance: 8.30 pm
The entrance is from Kotzebue street

Mon-Fri at 3–7 PM

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 contemporary art, prints, installation, sculpture and painting curricula will be on display. On each morning of the marathon, a new exhibition will be installed and in the 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. On December 21 at 3 pm, there will be an auction with artworks from the painting department.

03.12 – Scenography, supervisor Ene-Liis Semper

04.12 – Photography, supervisors Annika Haas and Tõnu Tunnel

05.12 – Installation and Sculpture, supervisors Kirke Kangro and Taavi Talve

06.12 – Painting, supervisors Kristi Kongi, Holger Loodus, Mihkel Maripuu, Merike Estna

09.12 – Installation and Sculpture, supervisors Art Allmägi and Jass Kaselaan

10–13.12 Contemporary Art: Studio, supervisors Liina Siib, Marge Monko, Raul Keller, Taavi Talve, Jaan ToomikHind

16.12 – Painting, supervisors Holger Loodus, Maiu Rõõmus, Raul Rajangu, Kaido Ole, Tiit Pääsuke, Aapo Pukk

17.12 – Painting, supervisors Jaan Toomik, Mihkel Ilus, Mihkel Maripuu, Heldur Lassi

18.12 – Graphic Art, supervisors Viktor Gurov, Ann Pajuväli, Oliver Laas

19.12 – Graphic Art, supervisors Liina Siib, Maria Erikson

21.12 – Painting auction, doors at 15 pm, auction at 16 pm

Join us for the opening of the solo exhibition and performance on Thursday, November 5 at 8 PM. The exhibition will remain open until November 30.

Vaarik’s sixth solo exhibition is a continuation of her solo exhibition “Possessed” (2017). The expressive, provocative, daring and heartfelt show is about being a woman, a mother, about saving the world, raising children and cuddling. The artist is observing her close relationships and is seeking for conclusions to save the world.

“Skin is our contact with the world. Scroll up to your sleeves and stroke your arm with your hand. This is a feeling. We feel and learn to feel our bodies through strokes, pamper and cuddles. Sometimes there’s no need to overthink! Weird feelings create weird thoughts. But if you know it’s only that–a feeling–and you stop forcing yourself to collaborate with your brain, you can only feel without attributing linguistic meaning. Things are simply as they are. If we start to over-explain something we can mess it up.
We can try to save the world, but if we grow our children to be empathetic, they are doing it naturally. All humans grow inside their moms! I am lucky I was held tight.” – Marta Vaarik

Marta Vaarik (b. 1986) is an artist, photographer and self-proclaimed blond trickster based in Tallinn, Estonia. She holds a BFA degree in painting from the Estonian Academy of Arts and is currently studying Contemporary Art in the same university. She did an exchange program in UDK studying under professor Josephine Pryde. The current solo show at EKA Gallery is her sixth and she has participated in group shows in Berlin and Estonia. She works in the mediums of painting, photography, performance, and video.

Thanks: Sandra Mäesepp, Rebecca Künnis, Ülle Vaarik, Aadam Taaksalu, Andrus Vaarik, Kelly Turk, Margit Lõhmus, Sveta Grigorjeva, Piret Karro, Rasmus Neljand, Krislin Ots, Big Boy, Gunnar Laal, Taavi Lepp, Pire Sova, Johannes Luik, Kersti Heile

Exhibition title: Sveta Grigorjeva

Graphic design: Kersti Heile

The exhibition is supported by A. Le Coq.

The rescue from destruction of Dolores Hoffmann’s fresco ’Morning’ at the Cinema ’Rahu’ (’Peace’) in Kopli, Tallinn.

The exhibition is open from August 6 at the Gallery of the Estonian Academy of Arts at Põhja pst 7. The theme of the exhibition is a 74 m² fresco by Dolores Hoffmann that she completed as her graduation project – no longer in one piece today.

In 1963 Dolores Hoffmann, a future renowned monumentalist, professor and famous stained glass artist, painted an enormous mural ’Hommik’ (’Morning’) at the newly opened cinema ’Rahu’ (’Peace’). The earliest known Soviet era monumental fresco was painted on the basis of a draft graduation project from the ESSR State Art Institute. The artist used her friends and peers as models, the brothers Arrak, Jüri Palm, Evi Sepp and many others. She also included Ernest Hemingway, an idol writer for the youth of that era.

In 2019 the dilapidated cinema building was demolished to be replaced by a modern shopping centre. The 74 m² monumental work of art by Dolores Hoffmann would have been demolished in the process had the Department of Cultural Heritage and Conservation of the Estonian Academy of Arts not made it its mission to rescue at least parts of the fresco – about half of the painting was dismantled and preserved and pieces of it are kept in the Estonian Academy of Arts Museum.

This exhibition in the Estonian Academy of Arts Gallery on 6.8.–7.9.2019 tells the story of the rescue of the fresco ‘Hommik’. The monumental mural will be shown as a projection with the rescued fragments ‘planted’ into it. The exposition gives another chance to look at the artwork as a conditional whole – something that no longer exists and to contemplate the preservation and appreciation of cultural heritage.

Exhibition team: Hilkka Hiiop, Reeli Kõiv, Frank Lukk, Andres Uueni, Taavi Tiidor, Maris Veeremäe

The exhibition is accompanied by a book under the same title, compiled by the Estonian Academy of Arts Cultural Heritage and Conservation Department and the Estonian Academy of Arts Museum.
The book gives a detailed and abundantly illustrated insight into the dismantling process of the giant fresco by Dolores Hoffmann in all its complexity. It also tells the story of this monumental painting including its historical context, the process of creation, an analysis of the painting, its critical reception, its afterlife etc, as well as the philosophy of conservation and the history of the dismantling of frescos. The book is supplemented by direct quotations from an interview with Dolores Hoffmann.

The texts were written by Hilkka Hiiop, Reeli Kõiv, Andrus Laansalu and Frank Lukk, and edited by Anneli Randla and Maris Veeremäe, designed by Villu Plink. Published in Estonian and in English by Tallinna Raamatutrükikoda, 64 pages.

For more information contact: Hilkka Hiiop – hilkka.hiiop@artun.ee, tel 56 577980

Join us for the opening of ”WinLab” by Mia Tamme and Paul Grünenwald on July 5 at 5 PM. Entrance to the EKA Gallery from the Kotzebue street.

WinLab Is an interactive installation about competitiveness and identity. The interaction is based on a questionnaire: The player is given two options for each question and within a limited time the player has to pick their preference. The choices of each player are recorded to generate a personality evaluation. The exhibition is open until July 31.

Mia Tamme was born and raised in Estonia, Paul Grünenwald in Germany. They are both current students of the Man and Media department at Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Mia works with moving and still images but expands her practice to designing platforms in the shape of interfaces, workshops and events. Paul has studied film and scenography, following a spatial and architectural approach, on the other hand, a theoretical side looking into political structures and participatory systems. They share an interest in pushing design beyond being merely lipstick on a pig. WinLab is their first collaborative exhibition and in many ways a search for their own practice. 

The exhibition is supported by Tallinn Airport and Põhjala Brewery 

In the event of Graduates Elevator pitch selected graduates of the Estonian Academy of Arts will present their final thesis to an expert panel in 7 minutes. The event is a part of the EKAs’ final thesis exhibition TASE. The idea of this event is to rise awareness of choosing the right final thesis subject and to help to interact the outcome of the work with real life in social and entrepreneurial fields.
First tree presentations will be in English and rest of them in Estonian.

Please register here:
https://forms.gle/C4yPVwxZ9detSs3SA

Timetable
15.00 Registration
15.15 Introducion
15.25 Pitching session
17.10 Expert panel
17.30 Closing words & networking

Graduates:
– Arife Dila Demiri “AURA-altering self-perception through interactive light emitting textiles” (textile design). In English
– Nesli Hazal Akbulut “Personal Touch – A Design Concept to Empower Connections” (interaction design). In English
– Mike Ramos “VR ambience experience” (interaction design). In English
– Linda Viikant “From Design – Ocarinas to whistling sculptures” (ceramics)
– Annamaria Rennel “Educational music development for kids” (product design)
– Epp Marta Tarvis “Sustainability of upholstered furniture” (product design)
– Kadi Adrikorn “TACIT PRESENCE. Looking into the Experience of Exclusive Headwear” (fashion design)
– Helmi Marie Langsepp “Not building. Mountains, mountain villages and guests” (architecture and urban design)
– Jaanika Sau “Creating an environment for blind and visually impaired people” (architecture and urban design)
– Varje Õunapuu “The Design and Evaluation of Injection Grouts for the Reattachment of Historic Plaster in St Mary’s Church, Pöide” (cultural heritage and conservation)

The event is funded by European Union Regional Fund.

Estonian Academy of Arts invites to the showing of student films – TASE FILM. The festival is going to take place on June 12 at 6 PM at EKA assembly hall.

The film festival is divided into two parts: the first one focuses on the films made in the cooperation of EKA and BFM students, where the main focus is on the importance of scenography in film. The second part of screening focuses on short films made by students and tries to discover if short films can be seen as portraits, or as a poem, carrying the unique voice and message within them. The program is curated by Mariliis Elizabeth Holzmann.

More information: mariliis.holzmann@artun.ee

Free entry!

Join us for a performance evening “You’re not alone” on 30th of April, 6 PM at EKA Gallery.
Performances are made during an EKA course “You are not alone” mentored by Henri Hütt and Evelyn Raudsepp.

Artists: Andre Joosep Arming, Helena Lepik, Irmeli Terras, Heleliis Hõim, Ryan Galer, Angela Elizabeth Ramírez Fellowes, Mari-Liis Sõrg, Katrin Enni, Aksel Haagensen, Marianne Siilbaum, Sarah Johnston, Jose Aldemar Muñoz Ñustes

EKA Gallery is seeking proposals for the year 2020. We host exhibitions for international and national artists, solo and curatorial exhibitions, performances, events and workshops. EKA Gallery space is rent-free.

More information: https://www.artun.ee/en/academy/exhibitions/applications/

Submission deadline is 30 April 2019.