“Whispering with Eyes Closed” at EKA Gallery 10.01.–02.02.2025

WHISPERING WITH EYES CLOSED
EKA Gallery 10.01.–02.02.2025
Opening: 9.01.2025 at 6pm
Open Tue–Sat 12–6 pm Sun 12–4 pm, free entry

Artists: Victor Flavell (FR), Minni Havas (FI), Kadri Joala (EE), Tõnis Jürgens (EE), Ats Kruusing (EE), Sanna Nissinen (FI), Marc Sauvageot (EE)

The international group exhibition “Whispering with Eyes Closed” deals with being asleep and dreaming, and the unlimited possibilities experienced during this time. The main characters depicted in the works have suddenly fallen asleep or are already dreaming, embarking on journeys into the unknown. The viewer experiences a foreign world through someone else’s hazy gaze, letting go, giving up control. The boundaries between the imaginary and the real blur and a leap into the void is made, creating sometimes conscious, sometimes unconscious images.

Curator: Kaisa Maasik
Exhibition design: Kaisa Maasik
Graphic design: Fatima-Ezzahra Khammas

Technical support: Ats Kruusing

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Sadolin Estonia.
Opening drinks from Põhjala Brewery.

There will be two curatorial tours part of the exhibition:
– on Thursday, January 9 at 5pm, with the artists, in English
– on Wednesday, January 15 at 2pm, in Estonian

See photos of the opening here.

“Throw Ratio”
EKA Gallery 20.12.2024 from 5 to 9 pm, free entry

We warmly invite you to the final exhibition of the course “Moving Image in Space” by EKA Visual Communication students.

During the semester, the students have delved into the technical and creative aspects of projection art, creating three stylistically different works that expand the boundaries of projection art.

Participants: Paula Hõbe, Marie Kanger, Marianne Lapin, Kristi Markov, Kadri Raudmägi, Greta Ruga, Inna Rõžihh, Siim-Aoum Villido, Kert Väljak, Karolina Kapinus

Supervisor: Alyona Movko-Mägi

Discover visual music techniques in abstract visuals, experience animations inspired by historical patterns, and immerse yourself in an installation inspired by the world of video games.

Each work offers a unique perspective and invites visitors to think along and discover new worlds created by moving images in space.

See you at the gallery, where art and technology meet in an exciting way!

On 20 January at 15:00 Risto Paju will defend his thesis “The Art of Late Medieval Stone Carving in Tallinn: Fragments – History and Interpretation” (“Tallinna hiliskeskaegne raidkivikunst. Fragmendid – ajalugu ja tõlgitsemine”).

The public defence will be held in EKA (Põhja pst 7), room A501. The defence will be broadcast on EKA TV.
The defence is in Estonian.

Supervisor: Dr. Anneli Randla (Estonian Academy of Arts)
External reviewers: Prof. Kersti Markus (Tallinn University), Dr. Erki Russow (Tallinn University)
Opponent: Dr. Erki Russow

Thesis is available HERE.

There are works of art and architecture that draw attention with their exceptional state of preservation, but there are also many that have survived only as fragments. This thesis examines the 15^th– and 16^th-century carved stone fragments from Tallinn, which are located in the collections of the Tallinn City Museum and the Tallinn City Urban Planning Department, as well as in situ within the city.

The main body of the thesis consists of published articles, each focusing on a selected fragment and aiming to reconstruct its original whole based on existing data, and place it into its historical context. The final part of this thesis discusses the exhibition of fragments in the Carved Stone Museum, which opened in 2016 under the Tallinn City Museum, and suggests approaches for future exhibitions. The analysis is based on the studies by Jacqueline Lichtenstein and Cesare Brandi concerning the relationship between the fragment and the whole.

Defence Committee: Prof. Hilkka Hiiop (Head of the Committee), Dr. Anu Allas, Prof. Krista Kodres, Prof. Juhan Maitse, Prof. Kurmo Konsa

On Friday, January 3rd 2025 at 17:00 the group exhibition “Abundance” opens on the second floor of T1 shopping center (next to the central atrium).

The exhibition includes works by Emily Greenwood, Ulvi Haagensen, Cecile Hübner, Heleliis Hõim, Erki Kasemets, Sandra Kosorotova, Gary Markle and Sigrid Viir.

“Abundance” delves into the themes of invisible systems in the age of consumerism. By organizing an exhibition in a shopping center, a question of dealing with the existing surrounding arises. How do we work both with and against the overwhelming presence of consumerism and capitalism? The exhibition acts as a space to take time, observe and briefly escape from the sea of information. It aims to slow down visitors and make them reflect on their surroundings.

The exhibition is curated by Piret Arukaevu, Sylvia Burgess, Maia Hellman, Kaur Järve, Marite Kuus and Mariam Mestvirishvili as part of the Curatorial Studies Seminar, led by Brigit Arop, at Estonian Academy of Arts.

Exhibition is open from 03.01–17.01.2025.

Open hours:
Tue–Fri 16:00–20:00,
Sat–Sun 12:00–20:00

Finissage event on Friday, January 17th at 17:00, programming will begin at 17:30.

Information about public programming during the exhibition will be announced on the Facebook event – https://www.facebook.com/events/2404807066531874

Graphic design by Andrew Hill.

The exhibition is supported by the Estonian Academy of Arts, department of Art History and Visual Culture and Craft Studies.

Special thanks to T1 Mall of Tallinn and SUHE bar.

Ezio Manzini, a world-renowned advocate for sustainability and social innovation in design, will give a public lecture “Livable proximity. A design-orienting scenario” on Tuesday, December 17, starting at 4:00 PM in room A101.

In the past century, the spatial organization of modern societies has been dominated by the effects of an idea of efficiency based on specialization and the economy of scale. In the name of efficiency, some areas have specialized: those where to work, those where to have fun, those where to study, and those where to go back to sleep. We can refer to all of this as the scenario of distance.

Over time, however, it clearly emerged that the application of this scenario was leading to very serious environmental and social problems. Therefore, for long time some cases appeared in which this model began to clash with other ideas and practices, driven by the need to bring together what had been separated and to reconnect what had been disconnected. That is, to bring services, workplaces and people’s homes closer together. These new ideas and practices, i.e. these social innovations, can be seen as the beginning of a new, emerging scenario: the scenario of proximity.

Although the problems of the society of distance were evident for long time, until 2019, the ideas and practices that had led to the definition of the scenario of proximity have slowly advanced. Then the pandemic arrived and, paradoxically, the same sanitary distancing it required has shown everyone how important physical proximity is: the social role of neighborhood services; the advantage of working close to where you live; the importance of having good relationships with the tenants next-door. In short, the value of the scenario of proximity has been recognized by a growing number of people and institutions

The lecture discusses this scenario of proximity, showing how it has emerged from the grassroots social innovations of the past 20 years, and how, in some large cities, it has become a reference for action, sometimes using the expression “15-minute city”, with the creation of new proximity systems capable of responding to many, if not all, the daily needs of citizens.

Finally, underlining how the strategies for approaching this scenario are profoundly place-based, the lecture also identifies some common traits and focuses on one of them.

The conceptual background on which the lecture is based can be found in: “Design, When Everybody Designs”, MIT Press 2015, “Politics of the Everyday.” Bloomsbury, 2019 (both are also published in China) and Livable Proximity (Egea, 2022)

For over three decades Ezio Manzini has been working in the field of design for sustainability. Most recently, his interests have focused on social innovation, considered as a major driver of sustainable changes. In this perspective, he started DESIS: an international network of schools of design, active in the field of design for social innovation for sustainability.

In 2024, the Design Research Society awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Presently, he is President of DESIS Network and an Honorary Professor at the Politecnico di Milano. He has been a guest professor in several design schools worldwide, as (in the past decade): Elisava-Design School and Engineering (Barcelona), Tongji University (Shanghai), Jiangnan University (Wuxi), University of the Arts (London), CPUT (Cape Town), Parsons -The New School for Design (NYC)

His most recent books are: “Design, When Everybody Designs”, MIT Press 2015; “Politics of the Everyday.” Bloomsbury, 2019; “Livable Proximity” Egea, 2021, “Plug-ins: Design for City Making in Barcelona” (with Albert Fuster and Roger Paez, Elisava and Actar Publishers 2023; Fare Assieme, Una nuova generazione di servizi pubblici collaborativi (con Michele D’Alena), Egea, 2024

The Design Open Lecture series 2024 is part of Sandra Nuut and Ruth-Helene Melioranski’s Design Issues course. It is public and open to all.

EKA Design Showcase will take place on January 23, 2025.

For the eighth year, we are celebrating the best collaboration projects of Estonian Academy of Arts students with companies and public sector organizations. All EKA cooperation partners and future design enthusiasts are welcome.

Register for the event here.

The presentation will feature innovative product and service concepts, prototypes and ready-made solutions created by EKA Faculty of Design students over the past year for companies and organizations.

The projects to be presented have grown out of the EKA Faculty of Design’s entrepreneurial collaboration program LAETUS, which brings together fresh ideas from a new generation of designers and challenges from companies and public organizations.

The most impactful and innovative projects will also be awarded.

You are welcome to the Design Showcase and gain new knowledge and inspiration on how to take your organization’s products or services to the next level in cooperation with EKA through new generation design and open innovation.

Program:

14:00 EKA campus tour for interested participants (pre-registration required)
15:00 Exhibition opening in the foyer
16:00 Start of the EKA Design Showcase Gala. Welcome speech by the Dean of the Faculty of Design, Ruth-Helene Melioranski
16:20 Presentations of collaboration projects
17:45 Coffee and snacks
18:15 Presentations of collaboration projects
19:30 Words of gratitude and presentation of acknowledgments
19:45 End of the event

The event will be moderated by Jan Teevet.

Collaborations to be presented:

– How to turn production waste into profit and new products?*
Circular Design MA students of & Granitop OÜ

– Mobility and energy independence – what will the energy consumer’s user experience be like in 2035?*
Interaction Design MA students & Eesti Energia AS

– How might we enable meaningful engagements with Tallinn City’s Digital Twin?
Interaction Design MA students & Tallinn Strategic Management Office

– Join the queue – Rohetiiger`s (Green Tiger) guerrilla campaign*
Visual Communication BA Students & Green Tiger

– From colleague to colleague: job shadowing*
Social Design MA students & North Estonia Medical Centre

– The preoperative journey of a patient undergoing planned major surgery*
Social Design MA students & North Estonia Medical Centre

– Redesign of PERH’s insulation labelling*
Graphic Design BA students & North Estonia Medical Centre

– How might we empower family doctors in the transition to genetics-informed personal healthcare?
Interaction Design MA students & TeamPerMed

– Packaging solutions for Bank of Estonia commemorative coins*
Design Faculty BA and MA students & Bank of Estonia

17:45 – 18:15 Coffee and snacks
18:15 – 19:30 Presentations of collaboration projects

– Designing the outdoor area of Laulasmaa School as a multifunctional space*
Social Design MA students & Laulasmaa School, architects, and the community

– Creating the interior design and visual identity of Sydney Estonian House*
Design and Innovation BA Students & Sydney Estonian House

– An invitation to home – how to reduce loneliness among Estonian returnees?*
Industrial and Digital Product Design BA students & Integration Foundation

– A supportive checklist for independent returnees
Industrial and Digital Product Design BA students & Integration Foundation

– From Classroom to Practice: A Service Design Journey
Industrial and Digital Product Design BA students & Integration Foundation

– The Tallinn Housing Manager Compass
Service Design Strategies and Innovation MA students & Tallinn Strategy Centre

– Tallinn Housing Lab: Co-creating housing solutions for living, not for profit
Service Design Strategies and Innovation MA students & Tallinn Strategy Centre

– Accessible Tallinn: The Housing & Urban Futures Forum
Service Design Strategies and Innovation MA students & Tallinn Strategy Centre

– Design of the State Budget Dashboard*
Digital Product Design BA students & Ministry of Finance

– What to do after the end of the cooperation project – how to implement the ideas?*
Industrial and Digital Product Design BA students & Estonian Manor Builders Association, EKA’s Department of Cultural Heritage & Conservation

– Introduction to Laetus 2.0, Maarja Mõtus

19:30 Acknowledgements and awards ceremony
19:45 End of the event

Presentations marked with * are in Estonian.

The presentations will be in Estonian and English, without translation.

It is possible to participate both on site at EKA (room A101) and watch the broadcast at EKA TV.

Video reminder from last year’s Design Showcase Gala

Students of the Estonian Academy of Arts will open the exhibition of experimental printed fabrics “Viridis (T)exitus / Green (T)exit” at the Tallinn Botanical Garden Visitor Center on December 16 at 5:00 PM.

17.12.2024–30.01.2025

Kassandra Laur, Eleonor Tingas and Nikolai Keller, 3rd year students of the EKA Textile Design department, will present experimental textile works inspired by processes, rhythms and textures occurring in nature. 

The three artists, having different life experiences and approaches, experiment with nature-inspired processes, rhythms, and textures, telling stories of myths, life traces, and future urban biodiversity. The works on display reflect dialogues between natural forms, urban space, and human creativity. The young artists use experimental techniques to offer their personal interpretation of natural processes. These works offer an opportunity for stillness, opening a door for the discovery of three artistic visions. We welcome you to discover nature along with the authors. 

The experimental printed textiles were created in the course Printed Textile Design 2, supervised by Lylian Lainoja and Piret Valk. Digital printing was done by Kiustuudio. We would like to thank Maria Erikson, head of the EKA graphics workshop, and Taavi Teevet, head of the metal workshop. Graphic design by Diana Tammets

The textile design specialty, which celebrates its 110th anniversary this year, is part of the EKA BA curriculum Fashion, Textile and Accessory Design.

https://www.artun.ee/en/curricula/textile-design/

Kassandra Laur‘s lithography print “Ubinapuud” (Apple Trees) is inspired by an old, wild apple garden where century-old trees still bear fruit despite their great age. Their trunks bear scars from the clotheslines and swings once tied to them. Despite the marks left by people and the passage of time, these trees continue to grow. Sometimes it is the weight of their own heavy load of apples that breaks their branches and boughs. These trees contain a deep vitality, and even if their trunks are sawed halfway through, it may not be the end—they can heal themselves and keep bearing fruit.

For this artwork, old worn sheets have been used, which, like the ancient apple trees, have also seen their share of days. At some point, the sheets and the trees even crossed paths outdoors, when laundry dried on lines strung between the apple trees.

Nikolai Keller’s fictional archaeological rust print “Andalusia Behemoth” describes how archaeological excavations leading up to the construction of the new EKA building were interrupted by a spectacular find – the long-lost and sought-after shroud of the Andalusian Behemoth.

The fossils of the mythical creature found wrapped in cloth shed light on many, yet-unsolved myths and stories in Biblical history. The workers who discovered the remains fell into a state of unexplained and paralyzing nightmares the night after the discovery.

The find raises questions of how it got there. It is believed that a Reval merchant acquired the rare piece of cloth during the time of the Hanseatic League. It is known that valuable goods and treasures arrived here via the League’s trade routes. The cloth has sparked enormous interest, and the Estonian archaeological community and international researchers continue to investigate the case.

The work was exhibited at the opening of the new academic building on EKA Day https://www.artun.ee/en/eka-textile-celebrates-its-birthday-with-the-fictional-archaeological-textile-behemoth/

Eleonor Tingas’s digital print technique “Rhythms and Forms of Life” explores the interplay between nature and urban space, expressing it in a richly detailed and sensitively balanced visual language. The grey and rectilinear forms of the industrial urban landscape gradually merge with the varied and dynamic patterns of wildlife. The restrained geometry of buildings and streets reveal flowing and organic lines that seem to suggest the growth of plants and flowers, evoking the harmony of nature’s invasion and rebirth. The work invites the viewer to experience the contradictions and possibilities, and the rhythms and forms, of the coexistence of nature and man, creating a visually and emotionally affecting whole.

The exhibition is open until the 30th of January 2025.

Opening hours the Visitor Centre of Tallinn Botanical Garden https://botaanikaaed.ee/en/opening-hours/

In December, studio work reviews of the architecture and urban planning curriculum will take place:

Wed, Thu, 11. – 12.12 at 9.00–16.00 room A-400
Interim reviews of master’s studios.

Mon, 16.12 at 10.00-18.00 room A-400
2nd/3rd year “Hotel”.

Instructors Leonard Ma, Tuomas Toivonen, Markus Lähteenmäki (theory and history course).

Tue, 17.12 at 10.00-18.00 room A-400
4th year of Architecture and Urban Planning and 2nd year of Urban Studies MA “(Sub)urban Planning Futures along the Rail – VOL 2: Rail Baltica”.
Instructors Milla Kallio, Efe Ogbeide, Andres Ojari, Sean Tyler, Jonathan Woodroffe.

Wed, 18.12 at 10:00-18:00 room A-400
2nd/3rd year “Shrinking Schools”.
Instructors Kertu Johanna Jõeste, Tristan Krevald, Ra Martin Puhkan, Siim Tanel Tõnisson.

Thu, 19.12 at 10:00-18:00 room A-400
1st year “Shelter”.
Instructors Helena Rummo, Elina Liiva. Graphics section co-instructors Paco Ulman, Madli Kaljuste.

*
Friday, 20.12 evening will end with the traditional LONG TABLE PARTY taking place in room C400 from 19:00-02:00!
Registration and ticket information is here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScMN60trsa00Et57n7yEcEpsnf5GHJtG-X1WU6urqBbiae3nQ/viewform

3rd year BA photography students of EKA will open their exhibition “Fragile. Handle with Care” at 18:00 on Monday, December 9th, 2024 in UUS RADA Gallery, Raja tn. 11, Tallinn. 

The exhibition is part of the Assessment Marathon of the Fine Arts faculty of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Exhibition will be open until December 14th, every day from 14:00-18:00.

Time drips steadily, like water to an ancient well, marking moments we might otherwise overlook. A window becomes a portal, framing the quiet passage of days as shadows stretch and retreat. Faint echoes rise unfolding a symphony of sounds that feel both strange and familiar. Memories emerge from forgotten corners, shapes form where none were expected.

In the exhibition “Fragile. Handle with Care” the ordinary transforms into something profound. It asks you to pause, to feel the weight of what is delicate and temporary. Each work is a reminder: the act of seeing, of remembering, of being present, requires care. These moments are fragile. Handle them gently.

The exhibition is a final outcome of the course “Art Project 4”, supervised by Margo Monko and Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo.

Participating artists:

Alina Birjuk
Elias Kuulmann
Karlotta Lainväe
Katerina Rothberg
Irma Holm
Servane Gis
Kristjan Glück
Snizhana Yehorova 

Graphic Design:

Snizhana Yehorova