Tartmus “On Disappearing And For Vanishing”

On Friday 11 March Tartmus will open the international group exhibition “On Disappearing And For Vanishing”.

Participating artists: Susanne Bürner, Kris Lemsalu, Mikk Madisson, Ivan Moudov, Rabih Mroué, Hito Steyerl, Laivi, Danila Tkachenko and Ivar Veermäe

Curator: Sten Ojavee

On Friday 11 March Tartmus will open the international group exhibition “On Disappearing And For Vanishing”. Works by nine contemporary artists will be shown, all in one way or another dealing with the theme of disappearance from present-day society. The aim of the exhibition is to discover the aspects that facilitate the disappearance of a person and to offer the viewer different approaches to the beauty and the tragedy of vanishing. The exhibition will remain open until 29 May.

There are good and bad reasons for disappearing from society and there are better and worse ways to do it. This exhibition looks at the reasons for disappearance (why people decide to disappear) and the various methods of achieving it. Most disappearances have been shadowed by negative and tragic events that are then broadcast through the media. In parallel with these events, the topic of escaping is also considered, with its aim of leaving a bad situation and striving for a more fulfilling life.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication that works as a guide, containing an introduction to the exhibition and essays explaining the works. The 32-page Estonian and English booklet was edited by Sten Ojavee, and the graphic designer of both the exhibition and the booklet is Viktor Gurov. For visitors the publication is free.

On 14 April, the survival instructor Erki Vaikre will talk about the possibilities of disappearing from Estonian society and the means of surviving. Vaikre will be interviewed by the curator, Sten Ojavee. Guided tours and meetings with the artists will also take place.

Additional information on the exhibition’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1113376842047210/

Press photo: Documentation of the work Teleporting Machine by Ivan Moudov. Photo: Alexander Gerganov

Exhibition design and graphic design: Viktor Gurov

Exhibition team: Marika Agu, Nele Ambos, Rael Artel, Karl Feigenbaum, Margus Joonsalu, Aap Kirsel, Julia Polujanenkova, Kristel Sibul, Ago Teedema and Urmo Teekivi

Lenders: Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, Tallinn

Supporter: Cultural Endowment of Estonia

Special thanks: Retro-Boho-Vintage Stuudio

Thanks: Markus Åström, Christiane Berndes, Virginija Januskevičiūtė, Tartu Art House, Martin Luiga, Rein Muuluka, Valerie Oleynik, AS Retent, Constanza Zähringer, Airi Triisberg and Marcia Vissers

Additional information:
Sten Ojavee
Coordinator of the Exhibition Department
Phone: 00372 5881 7802
Email: sten@tartmus.ee

TARTMUS
Tartu Art Museum
Raekoja plats 18
Tartu, Estonia
Thu 11–21
www.tartmus.ee
www.facebook.com/tartmus
www.instagram.com/tartmus

Jaan Toomik
First Slumber
Art Hall Gallery
4 March – 3 April 2016
After the solo exhibition at the Temnikova and Kasela Gallery that ended in January, in which he snickered about the beauty of aging, Jaan Toomik now steps into the madness of the outside world, which he drags onto a home yard decorated with an idol enthroned on a sawing block and a log that is growing out an axe handle.
Each of Jaan Toomik’s exhibitions is realised in a rhythm and context that is his alone, according to his logic and in a light focused by him. While the interrelation of the artist’s works and message may seem disconnected and uneven to the viewer, it is the next exhibition that reveals the continuity and meaning. And, as Hanno Soans notes, the fact something very significant* is present in the artist’s discontinuity is meaningful. His honesty in the documentation of himself as a place of reflection (Alina Astrova’s astute expression)** is comprised of a large number of premonitions and seemingly irrational connections, which whip both the artist and the interpreters of his work toward ever greater precision. Toomik’s ability is not only to capture and halt feeling and thought, but he has the power to actuate and start them up. The latter is much greater than the intimacy that is visible on the surface. It is the unformulated engine that moves all of us. So who can say they are not affected?
This exhibition continues the characteristic feature of Toomik’s recent exhibitions: alongside the dark and dull colour combinations typical of the artist, we see explosive paintings borne by the intensity of orange and violet. Compared to a fear of the unknown and longing for intimacy that immediately gets under your skin, there is a delayed inevitability and inescapability to the brightness of these paintings. This inevitability has the power to wake people from their slumber and the ability to help the set up the next frame of a long film that talks about life. About life, which as long as it is ticking, is always a sequel that becomes an image.
*Hanno Soans. Elu surmasuunaline voolus. Sirp, 18 December.2015
**Alina Astrova’s press release for Jaan Toomik’s exhibition Smells Like Old Men’s Spirit at the Temnikova and Kasela Gallery 5 November 2015 – 9 January 2016
Art Hall Gallery
4 March – 3 April 2016
Vabaduse väljak 6
Wed-Sun 12 noon to 6 p.m., free
www.kunstihoone.ee
More information:
Jaan Toomik – jaantoomik@gmail.com
Press release compiled by:
Tamara Luuk
tamara@kunstihoone.ee

Croquis.

Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Architecture Open Lecture Series

BorderScaping. An explorative study on the North Moroccan/Spanish border landscapes

Rooted in ‘border landscapes’ research and post-colonial studies, BorderScaping proposes an understanding of the productive interactions between ‘border thinking’ and ‘design thinking’ towards alternative forms of imagination for contemporary border landscapes, beyond existing geo-political and cultural polarizations.

The Moroccan / Spanish border is explored as one relevant observatory of the past and ongoing re-bordering dynamics across Europe’s borders in the Mediterranean and in North Africa.

By addressing a set of emerging “borderscapes’ constellations”, seen both as diachronical narratives and transcalar socio-spatial fields, the lecture intends to unfold the background knowledge for alternative images of change.

Alice Buoli is an Architect and PhD in Territorial Design and Government. Her most recent professional and academic activities lie at the intersection between urban research, design thinking and borderlands studies, with a peculiar interest on the Euro-Mediterranean context and on the Spanish-Moroccan border landscapes. She is currently Experienced Researcher at the Estonian Academy of Arts, in the context of Adapt-r FP7 ITN Program.

http://borderscaping.tumblr.com/

At the Open Lecture Series internationally renowned architects, artists, theoreticians, critics and urbanists from all around the globe give talks to offer fresh perspectives on architecture, design, urban development and critical thought. The lectures are open to everyone interested in the future of our living environment.

www.avatudloengud.ee
The lectures are held in English, free of charge.
The lecture series is supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.

Croquis.

Croquis.

This Friday, we kick off WILD TALKs, the new public lecture series of our department. The speakers of the series could be characterised by two main threads of action. Some of them have created as much havoc as an elk would, wandering into a city, just by ignoring general customs and habits. Others have unearthed things about life by closely studying the periphery. Summing this up, we believe that these speakers have the potential to spark inspiration in not only interior architecture students, but anyone with any relationship to space around them.
First on the WILD TALKs stage will be Berlin-based Dutch guerilla artist IEPE RUBINGH who dumped 500 litres of paint on Rosenthaler Platz, turning the intersection into a huge canvas and making Berliners guess for months whether this was a ‘Guerrilla Advertising Campaign’ or an artwork. Additionally, he is the inventor of the hybrid sport ‘Chess Boxing’ and is the director of the World Chess Boxing Organisation, with clubs in Siberia, London, Los Angeles and Berlin.
In addition to being the opening speaker for WILD TALKs, Rubingh will also run a workshop for the MA course Wild Studio at the interior architecture department.
WILD TALKs is supported by Astelpajunaps and Valmiermuiža. All talks will be in English.

Croquis.
https://www.facebook.com/yllemarks/media_set?set=a.658254700865823.1073741826.100000438963959&type=3

Insitute of Art History and Centre of Contemporary Art, Estonia
Open Lecture Series 2016

• 27. January

Joanna Figiel
(City University London)

• 17. February

Orit Gat
(Rhizome)

• 31. March

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
(Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna & Castello di Rivoli )

• 20. April

Dorothea von Hantelmann
(Berlin)

• 26. May

Jörg Heiser
(frieze d/e)

The lectures take place at the Academy of Sciences main hall at Kohtu 6, Tallinn
Start at 6 pm
Supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia

Next week, this public discussion series will seek to present an understanding of architecture as an agent at the heart of civic debate establishing a sphere of visibility and publicity – explaining contemporary challenges of built environment and role of the architect in making structures public. The talks will be public and open to everybody; the event series will be in English.

In 1980s, the environmental protests both rejected the mass-industrialization of our local resources and galvanized the Estonian independence movement. Analyzing that historical precedent as a starting point, the focus of the discussion will shift to contemporary developments. The talks will inquire into range of issues enabling connections between politics, civic processes, technological developments and built infrastructures in order to establish an understanding of the complex phenomena as space for architectural interventions to deal with its consequences.

The focus on the Phosphorite Debate

With invited designers, planners, paleo-ecologist, environmental activists, geologists and representatives of the mining industry, the panel discussions will focus on society’s relationship with mining – how Estonia and the Baltic Region relate to its mineral resources and the industries involved. Our round table discussions will trace the ideas relating society to its material space and resources. Both extremes of this debate – the condition of mining and not-mining – consist of their inherent material and immaterial infrastructures, technologies and strategic argumentation where visionary thinking meets provisionary control of the environment, while creating complex material, bureaucratic, political, civic conditions to enable or disable the process.

As a result, we seek to render out an operative image or a diagram charting those two opposites, the conditions of mining and not mining with the aim to understand their interrelations as specific parameters for possible further formulations of architectural agendas and ideas on modes of intervention possible in the region.

The Phosphorite Debate is a part of the Baltic Pavilion conceptual framework – the project representing the Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania at the 2016 La Biennale di Venezia International Architecture Exhibition, and the talks programme is led by Johan Tali (Estonia), Jonas Žukauskas (Lithuania), Jurga Daubaraite (Lithuania), Petras Isora (Lithuania), Niklāvs Paegle (Latvia) and Dagnija Smilga (Latvia) from the Baltic Pavilion curatorial team.

The week-long series of talks is organized with support from The Estonian Academy of Arts Department of Architecture and Estonian Center of Architecture, funded by the Cultural Endowment Fund of Estonia.

The events are all in English and take place in the venue rooms of Estonian Centre of Architecture (Põhja pst 27a, Tallinn).

Time schedule and more info on Facebook.

For more info:

Johan Tali

johan.tali@gmail.com