International Inspiration #3: Anna Novikov

The series of open lectures titled “International Inspiration”, co-organized by the Center for Contemporary Arts Estonia and the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture at the Estonian Academy of Arts, is proud to host our next guest, dr Anna Novikov.  On January 15th, she will give a lecture titled “Nation is the New Black: Patriotic Fashion and Performance in the Post-Communist States” at EKA, starting at 18:00 in the room A501. The lecture will focus on  the transnational revival of patriotic attire linked to patriotic performance that became fashionable in the Post-Communist states of Eastern-Central Europe and Central Asia in the last decade. Dr Novikov will examine visual and ideological links between media, dress, performance and the current development of patriotic fashion and performance in these areas.

The open lecture is followed by a seminar “”My Body is My Runestick and My Tattoos Tell My Story”: Performing Self-Barbarization in the Digital Age” held on January 16 in room A301, starting at 18:00. The seminar will focus on the broader trend in current popular culture of celebrating what the “civilized” Western cultural narrative has previously regarded as “barbarian”, and seeking to return to authenticity, albeit in reconstructed or borrowed forms.

Dr Anna Novikov, originally from Israel, lives and works in Greifswald in Germany, studying the broader sociopolitical context of fashion, including the recent rise in nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe, and its impact on the issues of fashion and identity.

The lecture series is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

On Monday, January 13th, the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture will host a research seminar “Technical Art History and Forgeries” by professor Hilkka Hiiop from the Department of Heritage Protection and Conservation, and Greta Koppel, curator at the Art Museum of Estonia, on the topic of contemporary technical research methods and their impact on the study of art history, as well as the issue of art forgeries.

See the roundtable discussion published in the cultural weekly Sirp.

Join us for the opening of the solo exhibition “Five Volumes” by Paul Kuimet on Friday, January 3 at 6 PM. The exhibition will remain open until January 25.

The exhibition, consisting of film projections, a slideshow, photos and an installation, was first exhibited at Narva Art Residency in 2018. In the accompanying catalogue, curator of the exhibition, Nico Anklam, explores the different meanings of the word volume – it can be a part of a series, the amplitude of sound, and, above all, a property of three-dimensional space: its capacity. The various meanings of the title and its subtleties open the contents of the works at a slow and meditative pace, similar to film projections.
Three 16 mm film projections depict the Pärnu KEK building complex, built in 1969. Golden Home (2017) deals with a block of flats forming part of the KEK complex, which according to Anklam “conjures two different eras and styles of architecture – Socialist and Capitalist – with their specific hopes and promises of advancement. Both seem, again, to be stuck in constant return. This motif slumbers already in the title of the exhibition: volume as a word derives from the Latin volvere – to roll or fold, and its recurrence, re-volvere informs the term revolution.”
Kuimet has been working with space since 2013. He is interested in the connection of architectural space to photography and film, and, in turn, their relationship to the architecture of exhibition space. He also pays great attention to the scenography and choreography of both the visitors and the artworks in the gallery. For Kuimet, the relocation of the exhibition content to a new space and context is important when presenting the works at EKA Gallery: “These five volumes or units, which were laid out in separate rooms in Narva and projected onto double-sided screens have been presented as a single volume at EKA Gallery. In Narva, Display for Optical C-Prints hosted two photographs, but at the current exhibition, it will be used as a kind of pavilion that contains all four projectors.”

Paul Kuimet (b. 1984) is an artist based in Tallinn, Estonia. His work has recently been exhibited and screened at Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; European Central Bank, Frankfurt; KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn; WNTRP, Berlin and BOZAR Center for Fine Arts, Brussels. In 2018 he participated in the residency programme at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels and will take part in the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York City.

www.paulkuimet.ee

Supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Muddis Brewery, A. Le Coq.

13 & Friday: Kraam’s closing party & lives
& 3rd year Graphic Art students’ Group exhibition “Soft Narratives”

Performing: Hello Killu, Riin Maide & Co fashion show, nostalgic costume drama “The Past. The way I recall It”  is an extension to Riin Maide’s  work currently on view at “Soft Narratives” group exhibition at Kraam artist-run space. A poetical-dramatic collective Las Cuervas Trágicas (Hanneleele and Kätlin Kaldmaa), and Lilli-Krõõt Repnau.

Exhibition “Soft Narratives” is open until December 29th.

** Photo: Killu Sukmit

Urban Studies, resesarch studio presentation.

While few outside Berlin know where Schöneweide is, new developments led by the likes of Bryan Adams and Olafur Eliasson position the neighbourhood as a silent frontier of gentrification dynamics in the city. This research studio explores ongoing transformation of this former industrial area, once the base of the famous AEG electrical company. Contra the commonplace reading of gentrification through the lens of ‘hipster’ culture, the studio underlines the roles of state, finance and real estate as drivers of neighbourhood change and displacement. Investigating dynamics of gentrification at the urban edge, the case of Schöneweide serves as an entry point into a wider debate on how diverse groups are vested in reclaiming cities and its intersection with the official political structures – it necessitates rethinking the role of city planners as mediators between the public and private interests.

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

What the mid-twenties pretend to think about?

This Friday 6th of December at 20 the students of Estonian Academy of Arts photography department open the exhibition “Mid-twenties pretend they got it” at Vent Space gallery (Vabaduse väljak 6 back yard).

The exhibition is a conclusion of the working period that was marked by searching visual expression to the perception of one’s environment. The shared experiences and values in social space are interwined into several questions that the authors solve in the gallery space through the works in photographic, video and installative media.

How do we feel in the mental and physical space? What is individual and collective perception? What are the rules settled in this space? Are these rules functional? How can we change them? What is the information space we are located in? Which are the possibilities to use this space of exhibition?

Participating artists: Kristiina Aarna, Mark Cavanagh, Levent Efe, Stina Isabel Gavrilin, Inger-Liis Heinsoo, Zoe Komkommer, Kristina Kuzemko, Una Laurencic, Jana Mätas, Anna Tamm, Kertu Rannula, Diana Olesjuk, Laura Ruuder, Carolin Saage, Hans Jakob Väär.

Curators/guides: Kristiina Hansen, Sigrid Viir, Johannes Säre ja Laura Kuusk.

Vent Space gallery is located at Vabaduse väljak 6 yard in Tallinn.

The exhibition is open from 7.12-19.12 every day 12-19. Opening on 6.12 at 20.00.

On Friday, December 13th as part of the exhibition “Mid-twenties pretend they got it”, Kristiina Aarna will show her work ”Akadeemia tee 4” in the city space. Photo projection will be exhibited on December 13 at 5 pm – 7 pm at the rear wall of Akadeemia road 4 building.

Kristiina Aarna
”Akadeemia tee 4”

Art creates the public sphere, but what exactly does this mean? The first micro-district of Mustamäe was built in 1963. Thousands of people became fortunate enough to have access to warm water and a private kitchen. The plan for modernisation envisaged the creation of a residential environment, which people would not have to leave and where they would spend all of their free time. The 1960s also brought with them a great era for monumental painting in Estonia during which the first prefabricated residential buildings were decorated with pictures. These pictures represented both the synthesis of various Soviet art forms as well as an attempt by local artists to add diversity and variegation to the disjointed humdrum houses. The end walls of the prefabricated buildings on Akadeemia received optimistic sgraffitos by Valli Lember-Bogatkina, Margareta Fuks and Enn Põldroos, two of which are now hidden under a layer of insulation. The aim of my work is to produce a one-time photo-projection on the end wall of Akadeemia 4, thus making the hidden art visible again.

Event on facebook 

The exhibition “Mid-twenties pretend they got it” is open from 7.12.19–19.12.19 every day at 12-19.

It is time to seek out the brightest ideas, because ERKI Fashion Show 2020 is on its way. Estonian Academy of Arts once again presents the biggest fashion event in Estonia, which is a platform for young fashion designers. It helps to encourage young people to present their unique creations to the public. ERKI is hoping to see creative and aspiring young people with crazy and enormously ambitious designs.

Estonian Academy of Arts announces the design competition for ERKI Fashion Show 2020. The collection can have more than one author and everyone can participate if they have graduated from high school and are currently registered in a university, vocational school or college. The ERKI Fashion Show regulation also allows to apply if studies have been completed less than 3 years ago.

The closing date for the competition is March 16, 2020. Those who were selected for the fashion show will be contacted within the following week, not later than on March 23, 2020.

ERKI Fashion Show 2020 will take place on May 23 and the competition for submitting designs begins today, December 9. Designs must be submitted to the guard desk in the lobby of Estonian Academy of Arts or mailed to the address Põhja Puiestee 7. The closing date for the competition is 16 March at 19:00.

Roots of the ERKI Moeshow go back to the early 1980s, when art students organized first theatrical fashion show to shock the audience.

Since then the event has continuously grown, being today a jumping-board for future Estonian fashion creators and also bringing each year to the podium some guest designers from abroad. Our goals are to invest into Estonian talent and its reaching international arena and also with our passionate activities to develop specific fields and society as a whole.

Rules and Regulations
artun.ee/erki-regulations

ERKI website: artun.ee/erki-fashion-show
ERKI on Facebook & Instagram
#ERKIMoeshow

Group exhibition “Soft narratives”
December 6th – December 29th 2019
Kraam artist-run space
Address: Ülase 16 / Madara 22
Thursday to Saturday 4-7pm, Sunday 12-6pm

“Soft narratives”, a group exhibition by students from Graphic Art department, has an opening reception on December 6th at 6pm in Kraam artist-run space.

Artists: Adriaan De Geest, Mark Kristian Hiir, Hanneleele Kaldmaa, Brit Kikas, Jelizaveta Kukoleva, Maria Izabella Lehtsaar, Riin Maide, Liis-Marleen Verilaskja. Supervisor: Lilli-Krõõt Repnau

The exhibition deals with personal and collective memory and site-specific works were created specifically for this room. EKA graphics students’ works combine personal stories and different points of view at Polymer itself, finding eight different ways to fill temporary space with temporary interpretations.

Exhibition “Soft narratives” will be the last one at Kraam artist-run space.

On December 13 will be Kraam’s finishing party feat. Hello Killu, Riin Maide & Co., poetic-dramatic collective Las Cuervas Trágicas (Hanneleele and Kätlin Kaldmaa), Lilli-Krõõt Repnau. More information coming soon!

19 December at 16.00 the works participating will be publicly evaluated.

20.12-26.12 the gallery will be closed.
Exhibition stays open until 29th of December 2019.

** Photo: Maria Izabella Lehtsaar

Kraam artist-run space is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Additional info:
e-mail: kraamspace@gmail.com
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