Book presentation and discussion: Jurriaan Benschop’s Why Paintings Work

Come to the book launch and panel discussion on March 31 at 6 PM!

Jurriaan Benschop’s Why Paintings Work was published in Estonian at the end of 2025 – now Kristi Kongi and Kaido Ole will discuss the book and painting, with the conversation moderated by Anu Allas. Everyone is welcome to listen and take part in the discussion.

In the book, Benschop navigates the multifaceted landscape of contemporary painting. By presenting the work of numerous contemporary painters, including Kaido Ole and Kristi Kongi, he seeks to answer the question of why a painting has an impact at all. In what way is it meaningful and convincing? He examines the visible aspects of painting, such as subject matter and use of color, and relates them to the invisible factors of art – the artist’s motivations, worldview, and background. The book touches on many themes that emerge when viewing contemporary painting: nature, the body, materiality, touch, identity, memory, and spirituality.

The book is published by the Estonian Academy of Arts, translated by Katrin Laiapea, edited by Neeme Lopp, and designed by Maria Muuk.

We will gather for the presentation and discussion in the new event corner of the EKA Library. We kindly ask you to sign up, so we know how many will be attending: https://forms.gle/h6aXonQvRpFiEHHW9

Time: March 31 at 6 PM
Place: EKA Library

The discussion will be held in Estonian, with no translation available.

“Carmen Electra” – like a bolt from the blue!

The band ants1 will perform their musical “Carmen Electra” at EKA Gallery three more times in March! The act combines contemporary dance, colorful costumes, disturbing music, and scandalous statements into its magical world. The libretto was collaboratively written by members of ants1, with the lead role performed by the eternally young and immortal Anumai Raska.

“Carmen Electra explores themes that feel both familiar and melancholic to a generation coming of age in a time when Europe is once again at war. It is a time when leaders of great nations won’t acknowledge climate change, when carrots cost more in Estonian grocery stores than in Belgium – even though the average income here is three times lower,” says a rabbit who wished to remain anonymous, commenting on the background of the production. “What will become of us like this?”

The band ants1 is a collective that emerged from the Estonian Academy of Arts, whose members work in various fields of contemporary art. When they come together, the collective is called ants1, whose music connects contemporary social problems with the painful yet fun language of punk music.

The musical “Carmen Electra” is not recommended for children under 12.

Performers: Ekke Janisk, Ats Kruusing, Andreas Kübar, Eke Ao Nettan, Anumai Raska, Henri Särekanno, Mattias Veller
Costumes by: Lisette Sivard
Light design by: Leon Allik
Sound design by: Roman Belov
Co-producer: elektron.art
Supported by: Estonian Cultural Endowment, City of Tallinn

Performances will take place on March 25, 26 and 28 at the EKA Gallery (Põhja pst 7, Tallinn). The performance is in Estonian with English subtitles. Entrance through the EKA lobby (from Põhja puiestee).

Tickets are available at Fienta:
https://fienta.com/ants1-muusikal-carmen-electra-156400

More info: https://elektron.art/projects/carmen 

On March 12 at 6 pm, Finnish engineer, scientist and environmental researcher Eero Paloheimo will give a special lecture “Ecological city planning” in the EKA auditorium.

Eero Kalervo Paloheimo has defended his doctoral theses at the University of Munich and the University of Helsinki.

He worked at the company Eero Paloheimo & Matti Ollila from 1965 to 1994, and then was a professor (timber construction) at the Helsinki University of Technology from 1995 to 2000. In 2009, Paloheimo founded Eero Paloheimo EcoCity Ltd., a company specializing in the research and construction of eco-cities.

As a researcher of environmental problems and sustainable development opportunities, Paloheimo has traveled throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. Since 2007, he has consulted on the establishment of eco-cities in China, based on the ideas he originally presented in his book “Syntymättötien sukupolvien Eurooppa” (1996, in Estonian 2004 ). He has also repeatedly introduced the possibilities of establishing eco-cities in Estonia.

Paloheimo served as a representative of the Green Party Vihreä Liitto in the Finnish Parliament from 1987 to 1995 and has been a member of several authoritative international committees dealing with environmental problems.

He is the author of more than ten books on the nature and state of the world.

The lecture will be held in English and is free and open to all interested parties.

I am my own space. I will be space for you, and you for me. We will gather in this room to offer ourselves and the other a space that listens and responds. We meet the challenge of embodying a practice that shapeshifts with the participants’ body-selves. To respond and be response-able. We are aware that bodies materialize – become – within relations, that the body and space share a story of formation. Space and body tune and tone one another, hold one another. What kind of space are we crafting here with our presences and engagements, for oneself and for others? Space is always an affective doing. We invite into play on the porous boundary of self and space, where the self-process becomes part of the we-process and the other way around (if and when did they become separated?). If you dare to open the surfaces of your cells, diverse body tones field into space, touch others and re-form the boundaries of our practice and inform what becomes emergent. I add a heightened squeal. Here, space can also ooze into you. Re-pattern you. If you decide to let it. What kind of space do you need for becoming…?

***

From March 10–14, ARS Art Factory Studios 98 and 53 will transform into inclusive spaces for embodied being and engagement. Daily somatic artistic research sessions focused on contemporary embodiment – Spacetuning. A Practice of Co-Becoming – are held and open for joining.
Spacetuning. A practice of co-becoming is the 2nd artistic research project of Joanna Kalm’s doctoral studies at Estonian Academy of Arts.

Rooted in body-based self- and other-perception, the practice brings attention to the materialization process of body-selves in relation to the environment and offers possibilities for alternate ways of co-becoming. The practice is embodied by dance artists Helina Karvak, Joanna Kalm, Nele Kotli, Laura Kvelstein, and Rasmus Stenager Jensen. Together, they take on the challenge of embodying a space that listens and responds, capable of transforming alongside the body-selves present.

The practice welcomes diverse forms of participation guided by an individual’s perception of the moment, while inviting awareness of one’s role as a witness, experiencer, and co-creator.

Schedule of practice room:

10.03 3pm open space*, 4-6pm practice, 6pm open space

11.03 3pm open space, 4-6pm practice, 6pm open space

12.03 11am open space, 12-2pm practice, 2pm break, 3pm open space, 4-6pm practice, 6pm open space
13.03 3pm open space, 4-6pm practice, 6pm open space

14.03 11am open space, 12-2pm practice, 2pm break, 3pm open space, 4-6pm practice, 6pm open space

*The room is open one hour before and after practice in support of calm and gradual arrival into embodied presence and the space, affording free time for being-engaging and for becoming acquainted with the surroundings.

Register your participation: https://fienta.com/et/o/5991

 Spacetuning. A practice of co-becoming is based on somatic self- and other-awareness, supports embodied being-engagement and somatic sense-making, which in turn grounds the collaborative process of how the practice framework forms and is formed in relations. One of the key focuses of research and practice is response-ability – to one’s own process and to the group members as well as to spatial dynamics. Given that the body and the environment are co-emergent and in intra-active relationships, to what extent do we allow ourselves to truly participate in this co-becoming? Do we know how and dare to affect the becoming of the environment with our own processes? And to what extent is the environment (as a socio-material process) capable of considering and responding to the differences of its participants? Thus, this practice is an attempt to move beyond the invisible and silent boundary (is it real or habitual?) between oneself and space, where personal processes are kept within (to what extent is personal really personal?), and where the environment tends to perceive and respond only to a small extent. It is an attempt to move from embodied presence and awareness to engagement with – to inclusive action, response and co-becoming, where the body-self is more broadly involved.

Spacetuning. A practice of co-becoming is the 2nd artistic research project of Joanna Kalm’s doctoral studies at Estonian Academy of Arts. Kalm’s artistic research draws on somatic co- and self-regulation theory and is grounded in the organism’s capacity for self-organization—manifesting both at the level of the body-self and the group—with the aim of co-creating inclusive, body-based practices and spaces. One focus of the research is to examine the possible modes of materialization of the body-self, grounded in attentive somatic self-listening and the organically dynamic processes of the body-self (somatic agency). The second focus addresses the intra-active relationship between somatic embodiment and practice conceived (apparatus), asking: what kind of practice supports body-based co- and self-regulation, and how does creative somatic embodiment shape the functioning of practice and shared spaces? Kalm approaches somatic embodiment through posthumanist and new materialist philosophy, as well as through theories of cellular consciousness and organism-oriented ontology.

“To feel the pull of desire is to feel the presence of absence.”
-Anne Carson, “Eros The Bitterweet”

It was the gods’ punishment to separate the whole being into two, condemned to fit the chase of our ideal fullness into one lifetime — and pathetically, we turn back to gods to show us the ways we can be united again. Some say this love belongs only to gods themselves. Still, we defy that notion treacherously, and we face whatever form of divinity we believe in, to plea:
“I wish.”
To wish is to indulge in the lack. The lover does not only wish for the ephemeral sense of fulfillment, but eventually wishing itself serves to satisfy the lover’s hunger. The wish transforms into the sustenance and our appetite refuses to act as a form of weakness, but as devotion.
The exhibition “The Wishing Well” is simultaneously a practice ground and a receipt of reverence. Light a candle, throw a coin, count the petals and make your wish.

opening 05.03.2026 at 6PM

06.03. – 12.04.2026

open Wed-Sun 12.00-18.00

KETT gallery / Aparaaditehas, Kastani 42, Tartu

Irmak Semiz (b. 1997, Istanbul) is a multidisciplinary artist living in Tallinn, currently pursuing a master’s degree in contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Working primarily through sculpture, installation, and animation, their practice focuses on expressing contradictory identities, decisions, and emotional states, processed through the lens of humor, connection, and myth-making.
Jana Ribkina (b. 1995, Riga) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Riga. Working primarily with ceramics, textiles, and illustration, she explores reflections from her daily life through a playful approach, while drawing inspiration from folklore and fantasy. Her work seeks to weave the personal and the mythical into one continuous thread.

Graphic design: Paul Graßler
The exhibition is supported by the City of Tartu and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

5–31 March 2026

On Wednesday, 4 March at 18:00, Katariin Mudist’s exhibition “Temporary Solution”(Ajutine lahendus) will open at ARS Showcase Gallery.

“Temporary Solution” brings together doorholders collected from various institutions, mainly from Estonia’s cultural field. Doorholders are born out of necessity: something needs to be held open for a moment, something needs to be let through. Yet a temporary solution tends to become permanent without anyone noticing. In this way, an accidental form and material can become surprisingly universal.

The exhibition focuses on small moments of annoyance: when your bike tyre is flat again; when you forget your towel, but discover it at the gym; when you have to return the shirt you ordered; when the internet keeps buffering during a film; when someone explains something you already know; when, at the grocery store, the line you chose is the slowest, or when the doorholder is missing. This annoyance is a minor disturbance that, through repetition, begins to shape attention, movement, and one’s attitude toward space. A door has been kept open for years with the help of an apparently insignificant piece of material. But one day, arms full of things, that familiar wooden block is no longer there. There is a brief delay and mild irritation: something else is quickly found as a substitute, the door is held open again, and work continues. The moment passes and is very likely forgotten immediately.

Over the course of a year, the collected doorholders have held open different kinds of doors (main entrances, side doors, back doors, etc.) and operate according to different principles: as a wedge, as a threshold stopper, or as weight. What unites these objects is that they come from institutions where doors are not merely architectural elements but tools of access and work organisation. Doorholders are small, unofficial spatial interventions that make movement smoother and signal for whom a space “works. ” Removing them and gathering them into one room reveals a layer of temporary solutions on which institutional space quietly depends.

The door to the exhibition is always (temporarily) open.

Katariin Mudist is an interdisciplinary Estonian artist who believes that the most telling things are often those that usually remain behind the door. She is interested in small annoyances that arise, for example, when a door refuses to cooperate- whether it’s an automatic door that won’t open or a missing doorstop. Humour and irony run through her practice. She examines social norms and the practices and meanings of being an artist within the context of the cultural field and its institutions, using material and process-based approaches. She is currently studying in the Fine Arts Studio programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts, searching for common ground between visual and material-centred art. Mudist holds an MA in Contemporary Art (EKA, 2022) and a BA in Media and Advertising Design (Pallas University of Applied Sciences, 2018). She has received the Adamson-Eric Scholarship (2025) and the Young Sculptor Award (2025). In 2026, together with Keithy Kuuspu, she received the main prize of the Visual and Applied Arts Endowment for the exhibition “Unfortunately, You Were Not Selected This Time” (2025) and the performative Awards Gala (2025).

Exhibition team:
Exhibition design and production assistance: Alden Jõgisuu
Graphic design: Katariin Mudist
Supporters: Punch Club, Põhjala, Estonian Artists’ Association
Special thanks: Alan Voodla, Johanna Mudist, Eva Nava, Keithy Kuuspu, Maria Elise
Remme, Helena Pass, and all the institutions from which the collected doorholders originate.

Exhibition open:
5–31 March 2026
Mon–Fri 12–18, Sat 12–16

EKA Doktoral School Conference will take place on 2nd April 2026

Please register by 29th March.
Conference will be held in English.

PROGRAMME

08.40 Registration

09.00 Welcome by Prof. Linda Kaljundi (EKA Vice Rector for Research, Head of Doctoral School)

09.10 Opening Lecture
Moderator Prof. Linda Kaljundi

Dr. Anna Carolina Jensen “In-Between Chaos and Control”(EKA, postdoctoral researcher)

Panel 1: Art History & Visual Culture
Moderator Prof. Andres Kurg

10.10 Rahul Sharma “Border Chronotopes and Third-Positionality: Peripheral In-Between Identities on the Eastern Borderlands in de Montesquiou’s Olga and Olga (2017) and Eksperiment Katja (2020)” (supervisors Dr. Mari Laanemets, Prof. Linda Kaljundi).

10.45 Mie Mortensen “A Philosophy of Sponges: The Influence of Ernst Haeckel on Ivan Leonidov” (supervisor Prof. Andres Kurg).

11.20 Coffee break

11.40 Anneli Porri “How to Explain Pictures… to Ourselves?
Mediating the Artwork and Supporting Meaning-Making in Art History Education” (supervisor Prof. Linda Kaljundi).

12.15 Marten Esko “The Contemporary as Method: Use, Abuse, and Critical Afterlife” (supervisor Prof. Virve Sarapik).

12.50 Rahel Aerin Eslas “The Aesthetics of Nature in Denis Diderot’s Philosophy and Art Criticism” (supervisors Prof. Krista Kodres, Prof. Frédéric Ogée).

13.25 Lunch

Panel 2: Art & Design
Moderator Dr. Jaana Päeva

14.00 Kadri Liis Rääk “The Artist’s Body as a Sensory Threshold” (supervisor Dr. Liina Unt).

14.35 Taavi Varm “The Video Game Creation Process as a Practice of Care for Creative Sustainability and Psychological Well-being” (supervisors Dr. Varvara Guljajeva, Dr. Helen Uusberg).

15.10 Eva Liisa Kubinyi “Wondering Pathways Toward Community-Based Service Designing from Rõuge” (supervisor Associate Prof. Josina Vink).

15.45 Aman Asif “Beyond the Visible Spectrum: Algal Entanglements” (supervisor Prof. Kärt Ojavee).

16.20 Coffee break

Panel 3: Architecture & Urban Planning
Moderator Dr. Eik Hermann

16.40 Alvin Järving “The Value-Space of Extending Building Lifespans: Locating Architectural Practice in a Conflicted Field” (supervisor Dr. Siim Tuksam).

17.15 Jaak-Adam Looveer “Urban Planning in the Comfort Zone: The Case of Tallinn” (supervisors Dr. Siim Tuksam, Dr. Priit-Kalev Parts).

17.50 Roundtable: Dr. Eik Hermann, Prof. Andres Kurg, Prof. Linda Kaljundi, Dr. Jaana Päeva

Contact:

Aljona Gineiko aljona.gineiko@artun.ee

Ragne Soosalu ragne.soosalu@artun.ee

On March 1st, Natalia Mirzoyan’s exhibition “Winter in March” will be opened in Telliskivi Container Gallery.

The art exhibition Winter in March is inspired by the short animated film Winter in March, created at the Estonian Academy of Arts and produced by film studio Rebel Frame. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025 and has since won nearly twenty international awards at animation and film festivals around the world. It also received the Estonian Cultural Endowment’s annual award for Best Animated Film of 2025.

The exhibition expands the poetic and political world created in the film, exploring helplessness and existential fear experienced by individuals living under a repressive regime. The film tells the true story of a young couple from St. Petersburg, Kirill and Dasha. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shakes their lives. Dasha finds the strength to protest, while Kirill withdraws into himself, sinking deeper and deeper into depression. They decide to leave their homeland and set off for Georgia. The journey is metaphysical the train travels along the Russian-Ukrainian border, where the landscape outside the window is filled with symbols of war. Meanwhile, fellow passengers behave as if nothing is happening. Through snowstorms and fear, the most painful moment arrives at the border: will they be allowed to continue? Although they eventually reach Georgia, their greatest fear catches up with them in another way — from an unexpected place.

The exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves in this world of imagery and emotional associations. The space is designed as a journey, leading the viewer from intimate memory fragments into a broader political and poetic dimension. The aim of the exhibition is to create an immersive experience that connects the film and the exhibition into one whole. It is also important to provide the audience with an opportunity to perceive the personal and collective experiences of war, repression, and migration, and thereby initiate discussion about democracy, memory, and resistance.

Artist Natalia Mirzoyan
Curator Santa Zukker
Artist Team: Rebecca Kruus, Alexander Toodu, Kadi Rebane, Annaliisa Lepik, Katrina Oll, Marina Hirv, Dashka Dementeva, Saskia Sikk

Artists: Rover Indigo Bertels-Andréa, Þórey Björk Halldórsdóttir, Denis Kudrjašov, Ivor Mikker, Daniil Musesovs, Elise Marie Olesk, Kertu Rannula, Lotta Karoliina Räsänen, Éric-Olivier Thériault, Kail Timusk, Lume Tuum, Elo Vahtrik, Ats-Anton Varustin, Maria Wrang-Rasmussen

Metamorphosis – simultaneous disintegration and formation; melting, bending, flowing, estrangement from function.

Emerging sculpture explores transformation, transitions, and continuous, uncertain in-between states – in the body, in material, and in space. Traditional techniques and materials encounter synthetic, industrial, and technological elements, generating tension between the organic and the artificial, the rural and the urban, the past and the present.

The works address questions of perception and adaptation: how to find direction in fog, in subterranean layers, or within internal transformations? How do we orient ourselves in a world where the visible is no longer the primary source of knowledge? Can disintegration and fading serve as prerequisites for creation and becoming? What role do ritual, tradition, and vanishing skills play in a technologically charged everyday life? Where does the body end and the environment begin – or does such a boundary still exist?

Established in 2012, the award aims to highlight and recognize emerging sculptors and installation artists currently pursuing their studies. The exhibition presents works created during the 2025/26 academic year by the 14 shortlisted artists. The exhibition is organized by the Sculpture and Installation Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts. A Grand Prix as well as second and third prizes will be awarded.

The exhibition is open to visitors at ARS Project Space from 7–22 March, 12:00–18:00. At the opening of NSPN on 6 March at 4:00 PM, the Grand Prix as well as the 2nd and 3rd prizes will be awarded. A special prize will also be presented by the Estonian Association of Young Contemporary Art.

Exhibition team: Laura Põld, Kirke Kangro, Taavi Talve, Visa Nurmi, Eva Mahhov

Supported by: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonian Artists’ Association, Põhjala, Vaskjala Creative Residency

Special thanks: Kunst.ee magazine, ARS Project Space

Short films developed in 3D and puppet animation techniques by the 2nd year students of animation
EKA Gallery video booth 25.02.–22.03.2026
Open Tue–Sat 12–6 pm Sun 12–4 pm, free of charge

The films present intriguing characters, relatable situations, inner dialogues, beauty and absurdity. Quite literally, they take the viewer on a journey from outer space to a drop of water, from the macro world to the micro world. It is especially fascinating to observe how different techniques influence one another. Digital and material spaces enter into dialogue through form, texture, rhythm and atmosphere.

Step into the cinema space and allow yourself to be carried into the worlds created by these emerging filmmakers.

Participants: Paolo D’Angelo, Ailin Budõlina, Kätri Jaaguman, Maibrit Kaur, Aleksandra Nikolajeva, Tobias Oblikas, Karl Erik Pajo, El Soosalu
3D course supervisor: Hleb Kuftseryn
Supervisors of the puppet animation course: Anu-Laura Tuttelberg and Francesco Rosso.

Screened films:

1. “Fiore (Flower)” (3D) by Paolo D’Angelo
2. “Tangled Senses” (Puppet film) Maibrit Kaur, Aleksandra Nikolajeva
3. “Creature Therapy” (3D) by Maibrit Kaur and Aleksandra Nikolajeva
4. “A Nail in the Table” (3D) by Karl Erik Pajo
5. “Pain Killer” (Puppet film) by Paolo D’Angelo, Tobias Oblikas
6. “Still Raining” (3D) by Tobias Oblikas
7. “One More Time”  (Puppet film) El Soosalu, Kätri Jaaguman
8. “Lost and Found” (3D) by El Soosalu and Kätri Jaaguman
9. “Inner Wolf” (Puppet film) Karl Erik Pajo, Ailin Budõlina

The total duration of the films is 21 minutes.