Open Lecture: Leonarda Da Costa Custodio on Decoloniality and Design

Leonardo Custódio, PhD, is a Brazilian post-doctoral researcher at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. He also co-coordinates the Anti-Racism Media Activist Alliance (ARMA Alliance) and the Finland-Based Activist Research Network. The  title of this talk will be “A Conversation on Decoloniality and Design.” 

He is an an educator and expert on communication for development and social change. He supports individuals and organizations to understand, develop and promote uses of means of communication available for internal and external strategies grounded on the principles of human rights, social justice, mutual learning and respect. For that, he applies research-based knowledge and dialogue-centered skills to organize workshops, lectures, talks and consultancies designed specifically to the participants’ needs.

Inga Lāce’s research specialises in modern and contemporary art across Soviet and Post-Soviet Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia as well as its diaspora, with a particular focus on migration and transnational connections. She was C-MAP Central and Eastern Europe Fellow at MoMA, New York (2020-2023) and has an extensive history of curating internationally, with previous projects including the Latvian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2019); Survival Kit (2017-23); Portable Landscapes at Villa Vassilieff, the Latvian National Art Museum and James Gallery at CUNY (2018); Riga Notebook at Muzeum Sztuki (2020); It Won’t Be Long Now, Comrades! at Framer Framed (2017); Performing the Fringe at Konsthall C (2020) and Pori Art Museum (2021).

Making a Museum Being a Guest

In this talk Inga Lāce will talk about her experience and work as Chief Curator at the Almaty Museum of Arts, a new private museum opening in summer of 2025 in Almaty.

She will particularly speak about

Qonaqtar, a group exhibition drawn from the museum’s collection which explores the connections and tensions between hospitality and migration, with a focus on Kazakhstan, Central Asia and neighbouring regions.

The title of the exhibition Qonaqtar (Konaktar) originates from the Kazakh qонаq (qonaq), meaning ‘guest’, derived from the Turkic root kon- (to ‘land’ or ‘descend’). It embodies the deep-rooted tradition of welcoming guests with warmth and respect, reflecting nomadic customs where hosting travellers was essential for survival in vast, often harsh landscapes. Guests can also be of a different nature of course, and hospitality can be abused, which is where the exhibition nods at the often forced migration campaigns of the Soviet Union where the act of hosting for Kazakhstan and Central Asia wasn’t a choice. Most notably, the Russian settlement in Central Asia in the nineteenth century, or the displacement of Koreans to Central Asia in the 1930s, and sending Soviet dissidents to Karaganda, stories that also, in one way or another, contributed to the society and art scenes of Kazakhstan.

Guests becoming locals and hosts and locals becoming guests somewhere because of fleeing or displacement is an endless theme of migration yet here it opens up a highly region-specific prism.

Co-funded by:

You are invited to the opening of Andra Jõgis’ exhibition “Seven Years of Watermelon Sugar” at the Okapi Gallery on December 10th at 6 PM.

The theme of the works in Andra Jõgis’ “Seven Years of Watermelon Sugar” exhibition is time, and how life can only be lived one day at a time. There are no shortcuts or cheat codes, no skipping over Mondays or slowing down Fridays. Every day must be lived one by one, and perhaps therein lies the value of the ordinary. The series on display includes seven works, each composed of approximately 365 individually crafted cubes, meaning each piece contains a year’s worth of glass sugar cubes. 

The title of the exhibition, inspired by Richard Brautigan’s book In Watermelon Sugar, also alludes to Jõgis’ contemplation of repetition and how we fill our days. Is filling one’s life with similar activities or materials — like endless reruns of the same show — a form of dedication or a kind of madness? How much time is reasonable to give away?

Andra Jõgis is a glass artist who has been working in the Glass Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts since 2020, currently as an associate professor and head of the department. She also completed her Master’s degree there in 2014. She regularly participates in exhibitions with her independent works, both in Estonia and abroad. Jõgis’ art is mostly narrative, addressing themes of the everyday and the fragile nature of life. In addition, she is one of the three designers of the brand MSK Glass, which creates functional glass forms.

Thanks: Okapi Gallery, Estonian Academy of Arts, EKA Glass, the Jõgises, Alyona Movko-Mägi, MSK Glass  

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia

Looking for an exciting international study experience? Estonia’s top universities — Tallinn University, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonian Business School, and Estonian University of Life Sciences — invite you to an online info session!

Whether you’re seeking a bachelor’s or master’s programmes, this event is your gateway to world-class education and vibrant student life in Estonia.

• Insights into studying in Estonia and our international programmes
• General information, accommodation and student life
• Scholarships to support your studies

• 17:00: Studying and living in Estonia
• 17:20: Universities presentations
• 18:40: Q&A and wrap-up

You are warmly invited in the exhibition “Respiratory Rate” by Chloé Geinoz and Eleftheria Irene Kofidou opening on the 12th of December at 19.00 in Vent Space.

The artists are interested in the poetical connotations that draw inspiration from the space’s prior use as the ventilation room of the Tallinn Art Hall Gallery (Tallinna Kunstihoone). A week long residency period creates the possiblity to work on site and bind together the room’s history with the artists’ personal experiences and memories. The goal is to build a sound installation that reflects their thoughts regarding controlled airstream, breathing as a right and its violation. The installation consists of a collage of previously recorded sounds and site specific recordings, as well as sculptural pieces intertwined with ready made objects. The artists wish to create a space that enables and encourages interactive relations between the viewers and the installation.

Exhibition is open 12-23.12 and 27-30.12
12-15

Chloé Geinoz (b. 1998) is a Tallinn-based interdisciplinary artist from Switzerland, Fribourg. Her main areas of interest are video-performance, video installation, photography and performance.
The subjects that particularly attract her attention revolve around the occult, spirituality, nature, witchcraft and mystery.

Her work is based on a series of investigations and reflections combining art, literature and science, prior to the production of her video work.

In 2022 she graduated with a BA in Visual Arts in Ecal (Lausanne, Switzerland) and since 2023 she is currently studying Contemporary Art MA at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Eleftheria Irene Kofidou (b. 1995) is a Greek artist based in Tallinn, who is mostly working with installations, performance art and text. Her art practice is often interconnected with poetry and focuses around processes of layering meanings, sociopolitical connotations related mostly to her background and exploring ways that language triggers movement.

Eleftheria obtained an MFA in Visual and Applied Arts from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) in 2021 and she is currently studying Contemporary Art MA in the Estonian Academy of Arts (2023 – ).

DREAM | LAND | FILL
December 9 2024, 9:00–16:00
Starting point Maleva 2A.

Join us for a day in Paljassaare to dive into the  dreams and actualities tied to the plenteous lands of the peninsula. DREAM | LAND | FILL is a collage of 13 individual projects by Estonian Academy of Arts Urban studies master students, sharing stories, insights and imaginaries from Paljassaare.

As the sea is filled to be ready for use and development, a pressing question remains: ready to build on it, but for whom? What kind of dreams are projected onto this “dreamland” and whose dreams are they? Which dreams are being put aside? We will shed light on investors and explorers, land-fillings and floodings and both human and non-human actors changing the peninsula.

Through our diverse projects and approaches, we aim to grasp the complexities of experimentation and speculation, of gambling and playing, of desire and urbanising and ruralising.

What might possible futures look like for both communities and ecosystems, humans and more-than-humans?

Be ready for an exciting pilgrimage of seven hours and eight kilometres on varied terrain! Please bring along headphones and power banks, snacks and warm beverages, and dress warm! 

Join us for a day in Paljassaare to dive into the  dreams and actualities tied to the plenteous lands of the peninsula. DREAM | LAND | FILL is a collage of 13 individual projects by Estonian Academy of Arts Urban studies master students, sharing stories, insights and imaginaries from Paljassaare.

As the sea is filled to be ready for use and development, a pressing question remains: ready to build on it, but for whom? What kind of dreams are projected onto this “dreamland” and whose dreams are they? Which dreams are being put aside? We will shed light on investors and explorers, land-fillings and floodings and both human and non-human actors changing the peninsula. 

Through our diverse projects and approaches, we aim to grasp the complexities of experimentation and speculation, of gambling and playing, of desire and urbanising and ruralising.

What might possible futures look like for both communities and ecosystems, humans and more-than-humans?

Be ready for an exciting pilgrimage of seven hours and eight kilometres on varied terrain! Please bring along headphones and power banks, snacks and warm beverages, and dress warm! 

Paula Schüler | land_fill_wastescape | audio walk on Kopli hill 

Anna Dzebliuk | Hope(less/full) place | audio-installation Garage town

Ləman Məmmədli | Retracing Legacy | tour of Paljassaare Recycling Centre 

Paula Fischer | How to build a community? | presentation at Hundipea 

Annabel Pops | Wolf-leap | presentation at Hundipea 

Melissa Lee | Breathing in Density | audio ride to Special Conservation Area 

Timmo Mahlke | Seaside desires | self-guided walking tour on Paljassaare board walk 

Antónia Stretavská | Cattle Trails | exploration between Saartevahe wetlands       

Yiğithan Akçay | Ruin Park | Immersive installation in a ruin

Verdha Anjum | Urban Development Meets Nature | VR display at Väike Haak beach meadow

Paulina Gilsbach | Water(’s) Pressure | audio walk on the grounds of Tallinna Vesi

Adeolu Afolabi | Green Trails on Steel Rails: Adaptive Reuse in Motion | placemaking on the railroad

Anna Böhmová | Paljassaare attracts dreamers | video installation on Liivamadala street

Studio is supervised by Andra Aaloe and Keiti Kljavin.

On December 11, the public review of the third doctoral project by the art and design doctoral student Maria Kapajeva will take place. Peer-review event is based on a book that Maria Kapajeva, published with OPA! Publishing in May 2024.
The event will take place at 14.00-15.30 via zoom.
Zoom LINK (Meeting ID: 989 0757 9603, Passcode: 803718)

Reviewers are Dr. Ingrid Ruudi (Estonian Academy of Arts) and Dr. Malin Arnell (Umeå University)
Supervisors of doctoral thesis are: Dr. Redi Koobak (University of Strathclyde) and Dr. Annika Elisabeth von Hausswolff (University of Gothenburg)

“a year-long scream”, OPA! Publishing, 2024

A collection of texts by Maria Kapajeva that she wrote in Russian and English. She started writing the book on February 24, 2022 – the day the full-scale war in Ukraine began. The book is written in a personal style and deals with themes of identity, collective and individual responsibility and guilt, language and belonging, feminism, and the stories of some of the Ukrainian refugees that the author encountered during the year.

The book is published in three languages as individual copies: Estonian, English and Russian.

Graphic design: Kersti Heile
Estonian language translator: Katrin Hallas
English translation proof-reading: Inese Strupule
Edition of 200 copies per language
The book is supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Academy of Arts

The books in all three languages are available at EKA Library.
They can also be purchased at Rahvaraamat and Apollo bookshops or with a direct order from the publisher via email info@opapublishing.com.

On December 6th from 6 pm A-Galerii will open its annual exhibition of Estonian contemporary jewellery, abstract objects and applied art that leaves plenty of room for interpretation. The materials used in the pieces range from various metals, textiles, and glass to organic materials. The exhibition concept embeds people and social practices addressing what kind of role and meanings given to objects play in curating our own personal reality.

A piece of jewellery and an art object is a valuable and layered conveyor of culture. It has symbolised belonging to a social, religious or political group functioning as a bind in between and a force guiding people to behave in a certain way. Therefore, assigning meaning to a physical object can be very efficacious on a personal and group level. There is a possibility to give meanings to an object that it originally did not have without the viewer.

Through objects, one can propose a hypothesis about the creation of the future. This activity enables us to break away from habitual meanings in relation to items and to consciously play around with them. This is proof that the future has not been fixed even though it might seem this way sometimes. The exhibition encourages the viewer to think about realistic and fictional scenarios about the future through dreaming and interpretation. With this practice new ideas and important meanings are being created.

The exhibition is open from December 6, 2024, to January 11, 2025.

On Friday, December 6th at 11:00, a symposium on postmodernism “Lost in Time Like Tears in the Rain” will take place at the Tartu Elektriteater.

The transition period from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the rise of independence Estonia can be considered in many ways an unique and exceptional period. It was a time of historical openness, where one way of doing things had ceased to exist, but another was just taking off. It was a time of intellectual and artistic possibilities, in spite of the fact that means and possibilities were scarce. And it was at this time that the new postmodernism as a new cultural logic, promising perhaps another kind of diversity, plurality and freedom. A confused thing arrived in a confused time and began to resonate in its own way. What it was or much of it was there at all? That is what Estonia’s leading cultural figures and researchers will give their own perspective on what was in the air and what it was like for them, what postmodernism meant to them then and what it means now.

SCHEDULE

11–12:30 Session I
Peeter Laurits / Ene-Liis Semper / Janek Kraavi / Kiwa / Tõnis Kahu /
Barbi Pilvre

12:30–13 Coffee break

13–14:30 Session II
Hanno Soans / Virve Sarapik / Luule Epner / Andrus Laansalu / Piret
Viires / Marju Lauristin

14:30–15:30 Lunch break

15:30–17 Session III
Hasso Krull / Märt Väljataga / Valle-Sten Maiste / Epp Annus / Raili
Marling / Aare Pilv

17–20 Reception (Lossi 3 lobby)

The event is organized by the Institute of Cultural Studies of the University of Tartu and the Interuniversity Research Group of Contemporary Estonian Culture

The event is supported by the Estonian Science Foundation grant PRG636 “Patterns of development in Estonian culture of transition period 1986–1998)”.