WORKSHOP: “Jewellery Workshop Inspired by Ethnography”

The winter assessment marathon is here! For three weeks, you can once again experience works produced by students in the Faculty of Fine Arts as their term projects are presented: every day there will be a fresh showcase of university students’ works on display.

Works in animation, contemporary art, installation and sculpture, painting, photography, graphic art and scenography curricula will be on display. On almost each evening of the marathon, a new exhibition will be installed and in the following evening the exhibit will give way to the next one. Hopefully, viewers will be able to keep up with the pace of the young artists.

The assessments will take place in the main building of EKA Gallery (Kotzebue 1, Tallinn) and the new EKA monumental studio (1st floor of Kotzebue 1, Tallinn).

On the assessment day(s), the exhibitions are open from 2 pm to 6 pm, on Sundays the exhibitions are open from 12 pm to 4 pm.

SCHEDULE

Mon 1.12. Drawing, Fine Arts BA I, supervisor Matti Pärk (EKA Gallery)
Tue 2.12. Drawing, Fine Arts BA II, supervisor Eero Alev (EKA Gallery)
Wed 3.12. Drawing, Fine Arts BA III, supervisor Tea Lemberpuu (EKA Gallery)
Thu 4.12. Sculpture, Fine Arts BA I, supervisors Laura Põld, Taavi Talve (EKA Gallery)
Thu 4.12. – Fri 5.12. Scenography BA III, supervisor  Mark Raidpere (Kotzebue 10)
Fri 5.12. – Sat 6.12. Contemporary Art MA I & II, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Merike Estna, Viktor Gurov, Tuukka Kaila, Eve Kask, Kristi Kongi, Karel Koplimets, Paul Kuimet, Camille Laurelli, Holger Loodus, Laura Põld, Sten Saarits, Liina Siib, Taavi Talve, Jaan Toomik, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo (EKA Gallery)
Sun 7.12. – Mon 8.12. Contemporary Art MA I & II, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Merike Estna, Viktor Gurov, Tuukka Kaila, Eve Kask, Kristi Kongi, Karel Koplimets, Paul Kuimet, Camille Laurelli, Holger Loodus, Laura Põld, Sten Saarits, Liina Siib, Taavi Talve, Jaan Toomik, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo (EKA Gallery & Kotzebue 10)
Tue 9.12. Contemporary Art MA I & II, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Merike Estna, Viktor Gurov, Tuukka Kaila, Eve Kask, Kristi Kongi, Karel Koplimets, Paul Kuimet, Camille Laurelli, Holger Loodus, Laura Põld, Sten Saarits, Liina Siib, Taavi Talve, Jaan Toomik, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo (EKA Gallery & Kotzebue 10)
Wed 10.12. Painting, Fine Arts BA I, supervisors Karl-Kristjan Nagel, Tõnis Saadoja (EKA Gallery)
Thu 11.12. Graphic Art, Fine Arts BA II & III, supervisors Britta Benno, Charlotte Biszewski, Liisi Grünberg, Viktor Gurov, Eve Kask, Liina Siib (EKA Gallery)
Thu 11.12. Graphic Art, Fine Arts BA II & III, supervisors Charlotte Biszewski, Viktor Gurov,Eve Kaaret, Madis Kaasik, Eve Kask, Pawel Schulz (Kotzebue 10)
Fri 12.12. Graphic Art, Fine Arts BA II & III, supervisors Kadi Kurema, Marten Prei, Paul Rannik (EKA Gallery)
Sat 13.12. Drawing, animation BA I & photography BA II, supervisor Lilli-Krõõt Repnau (EKA Gallery)
Sun 14.12. – Mon 15.12. Photography BA I, supervisor Annika Haas (EKA Gallery)
Tue 16.12. Painting, Fine Arts BA III, supervisors Angela Maasalu, Jaan Toomik, Mart Vainre (EKA Gallery)
Tue 16.12. Photography, BA II, supervisor Kalle Veesaar (Kotzebue 10)
Wed 17.12. Painting, Fine Arts BA II, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Holger Loodus, Tõnis Saadoja (EKA Gallery)
Thu 18.12. Animation BA I, supervisor Lilli-Krõõt Repnau (EKA Gallery)

On Wednesday, 26 November at 17:00, a public panel discussion will take place at the Telliskivi Roheline Saal as part of the exhibition “Invisible Stones. A Young Artist’s Look on Industry.” The international seminar reflects on residencies and fieldwork conducted in Kohtla-Järve shale oil industry during spring and summer of 2025. The discussion explores how artists’ experiences can spark dialogue on environmental issues, and how art and practice-based research help to understand and open up relationships with industrial landscapes.

Seminar is part of Erasmus+ project Ecological Sustainability in Fine Arts Education (EcoSenda). EcoSenda investigates the connections between ecological sustainability and teaching methods in visual arts, aiming to find ways to address ecological topics in higher art education.

The session brings together Pascal Marcel Dreier (Academy of Media Arts Cologne), Nathan Schönewolf (Academy of Media Arts Cologne), Sten Saarits (Estonian Academy of Arts), and Anita Kremm (Estonian Academy of Arts). The discussion will be moderated by Kirke Kangro (Estonian Academy of Arts).

The event is for free! Coffee and snacks will be available.

The peer-review of Kim Morgan’s artwork in the exhibition Anatomy of Dust will take place on December 4, 2025, at 15:30 – 17:00, at Valge maja, Kotzebue 10, V308.

The peer-reviewers are Dr. Maiju Loukola (Uniarts, Helsinki) and Professor Liina Siib (EKA, Tallinn).
The thesis supervisors are Dr. Tüüne-Kristin Vaikla (Tallinn, Estonia) and Jan Peacock, Professor Emerita (NSCAD University, Halifax, Canada).

Kim Morgan invites you to the public presentation on her artwork in Anatomy of Dust, a two-person exhibition with Estonian Artist Juss Heinsalu, at the Hobusepea Gallerii, Tallinn, August 27 – Sept 22nd.   During this exhibition Morgan also used the site of the gallery as a research/lab/studio space to present, examine, and discuss her ongoing doctoral research.

This presentation is the second peer-review of her practice-based doctoral artistic research titled Examining, Diagnosing, and Creating, Public Art Installations for Complex Spaces; such Health Care Facilities.  Kim Morgan will discuss her artistic research, reflections and method of working that resulted in the exhibition installations. With this body of work and ongoing research and activities, Morgan proposes that site-specific relevant art installations situated in health care facilities have the potential to enhance our understanding of the human body and shift our experience and relationship to these complex spaces.  And, hopefully, to promote a new sense of health, care, and well-being.

Kim Morgan is a doctoral student at the Estonian Academy of Arts and Professor at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Halifax, NS, Canada.

For more information on Anatomy of Dust exhibition https://hobusepeadraakon.ee/en/archive/

Join 10 EKA students in a 6 hour happening through a Youtube stream or by peeking in through the glass wall at EKA White House, address Kotzebue 10

On Sunday, November 30, 10 EKA students come together to create a co-living space where no-one is more equal than the other. The inspiration for the happening, which is a final project of Exhibiting: Artist as a Nomad course, is derived loosely from Foucault’s sovereign panopticon. Foucault argues that in contemporary society, citizens have developed an inner consciousness through the act of constant monitoring by the power. The 10 students take this notion to the extreme by placing cameras around their nest, which will record their every movement. Thus every individual will develop a moral codex within themselves, but is also monitored by the actions of the group.

You are welcome to join the physical exploration of this philosophy through a Youtube stream or by watching it through the glass wall in Kotzebue 10. Join us via this Youtube channel, but you can peek into the real life scene here.

The participating students want to express their gratitude to Anita Kodanik and Laura de Jaeger, the mentors of the course.

The students are equally grateful to Ihan Toomik, manager of EKA monumental studio, for providing a space for the happening.

The artists: Kimathi Agbanu, Evelyn Fugli, Jure Kralj, Anne-Lise Krekels, Andrea Mathijs, Ramas Ramales, Villem Saar, Maximilian Schmidt, Kateryna Tyschenko, Jacob Gabriel Weiner, Viktória Weiszová, Martina Zito

“Getting lost means recognising that space can act upon us; that we can learn from it instead of only trying to control it. To come to terms with unfamiliar worlds and repeatedly recreate our points of reference is a formative experience.”
Franco La Cecla, Perdersi, 1988

Our starting point was the act of getting lost. We approached walking as a research method. Throughout the semester, we explored overlooked, often abandoned and marginal urban areas of Tallinn through direct, on-site investigation: observing without predefined expectations, recording spatial and material details, and organising these findings into practice-based research.

We visited and documented places such as Krulli, Paljassaare and Kopli, paying close attention to textures, atmospheres, objects and the transitional conditions of these environments. From this fieldwork — from what we noticed, collected and experienced — our immersive exhibition emerged.

On 29 November, from 15:00 we invite you to experience a fragment of our collective walks inside the unique Hundipea building.

Engage with the space through movement and direct observation, as we did in the field!

Location: Hundipea Kakaoladu Paljassaare tee 20, Tallinn

Date and time: 29.11.2025, 15:00 – 21:00

Team:

Elisabeth Mägi
Eliis Kuusk
Johanna Fink
Mila Mielau
Ronja Aurora Siitonen
Mare Eijkelkamp
Moritz Kaiser
Anna Sara Demeter
Anu Jakobson
Janske De Vriendt
Saana Ott
Laura Rajalin
Elise Kõiv

What can we learn about love and repair through the development of arts-based programs in a psychiatric institution? What is the role played by art by generating innovative forms of knowledge, engagement, and education? What are the differences and similarities of the Estonian and Portuguese cases integrating arts-based programs in mental healthcare? And what kind of impact can be generated by these programs in patients, participants, the city, and in ourselves?

In this event we will look into particular cases of arts-based projects co-developed in portugal by the PhD researcher Lígia Fernandes (research focused on love and relational systems), and we will watch the film “On being human” by Laura Liventaal, developed during the PLAY(THE)GROUND residency, at Lisbon’s Psychiatric Hospital Center.

We will further foster a roundtable discussion about the role of creative and experimental initiatives in collaboration with psychiatric institutions and their impact in communities, residents and participants, with guest professionals, artists and researchers.

Both the screening and discussion are held in English.
Moderated by Maarja Mõttus. 

On Tuesday, 2 December, the Estonian Academy of Arts will host the opening of two exhibitions and an evening discussion focusing on the capacity of contemporary art to reinterpret difficult history and heritage.

At 17:00, at the outdoor gallery of EKA exhibition “New Frames for a Monument: The Past as Artistic Material”  will open (02.12.2025–25.01.2026), which introduces artists’ proposals for preserving and reframing three monumental artworks that are at risk of destruction. This will be followed by a tour led by Kirke Kangro and Ülo Pikkov of the short exhibition “The Monument and the Fairy Tale” (1.12.–5.12.2025) in the EKA foyer.

At 18:00, a science café will begin in the event area of the EKA foyer, featuring a roundtable discussion inspired by the artistic interventions presented in the exhibitions and by the experiences gathered during the creation of the works.

We live in a time when monuments cannot be ignored. Across the world, there are debates about their meaning and about whether and how to display contested memorials in public space. Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine has brought one of the centres of monumental conflict to Eastern Europe. In Estonia, most Soviet-era monuments—especially those commemorating World War II—have now been removed.

The discussion will examine the capacity of contemporary art to engage with dissonant heritage and the memory conflicts embedded within it in public space—while also exploring the broader societal potential of contemporary art. The conversation takes its starting point from the three artistic design competitions held within the project “How to Reframe Monuments”, which experimented with different ways of reframing various kinds of controversial heritage—a memorial, a painting, and a sculpture. To date, only one of the artistic interventions has materialised: the reframing of the Tehumardi memorial.

Across the three art competitions, a total of 17 artists participated in 2024–2025.
Those involved in conceptualising the Tehumardi memorial complex on Saaremaa—now partially dismantled—were Kirke Kangro, Neeme Külm, Anna Mari Liivrand, Johannes Säre, Kristina Norman, and Taavi Piibemann.
Anna Škodenko, Hanna Piksarv, Jevgeni Zolotko, Kati Saarits, and Sigrid Viir proposed solutions for reworking the monumental murals from 1955 located in the former passenger terminal of Tallinn Airport.
Trevor Kinna, Bob Bicknell-Knight, Hasso Krull, Camille Laurelli, Samuel Lehtikoinen, Ülo Pikkov, and Yiyang Sun created digital artworks inspired by the memorial “Vyatchko and Meelis Defending Tartu” (1950/1956) located in Tartu.

Moderator: Gregor Taul (Estonian Academy of Arts)

Discussion participants: Kirke Kangro, Neeme Külm, Ülo Pikkov, Sigrid Viir, and Anna Škodenko

The exhibitions and discussion are part of the joint research project “New Frames for a Monument” (2024–2026) of the Estonian Academy of Arts and Tallinn University. The goal of the project is to create new approaches to reinterpreting monuments and other forms of dissonant heritage, bringing together knowledge and expertise from multiple fields (historical and art historical research, conservation and heritage studies, as well as contemporary art and creative research practices) and engaging various stakeholders and communities.

Please register for participation by 28 November 2025 HERE.

The event is free, and all those interested are welcome.

Drinks and snacks will be provided at the science café.

What is Palestinian literature talking about today? And who is it talking to? Hazem Jamjoum and Heba Hayek, curators of the November issue of Vikerkaar magazine devoted to Palestinian literature, discuss the role of art in dark times – in the Middle East and around the world.

On December 10th at 4 p.m., an open lecture entitled “Palestinian Literature Today” will take place in the EKA foyer event area. The lecture takes place in English. It will be followed by a discussion and moderated by Hille Hanso. 

Hazem Jamjoum is a cultural historian, archivist, and teacher based in London. He is the managing editor of the recently established publishing house Safarjal Press. His translation of Ghassan Kanafani’s “The Revolution of 1936–1939 in Palestine” published by 1804 Books won the 2024 Palestinian Book Award. Her translation of Maya Abu al-Hayyati’s novel “No One Knows Their Blood Type” was published by CSU Poetry Center in 2024.Heba Hayek is a writer, workshop facilitator, and communications consultant based primarily in London. She seeks out stories that challenge traditional archives and imposed conditions of visibility. Her debut book, “Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies” won the 2022 Palestine Book Award. The White Review, Middle East Eye, and The New Arab named it Book of the Year 2021.

From 21 November to 4 January, the Palm Hall of the Tallinn Botanical Garden will present the exhibition “BOTEXSEMANTIC GARDEN / HORTUS BOTEXEMANTICUS” by Kadi Kibbermann and Piret Valk, lecturers from the Department of Textile Design at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

The exhibition presents experimental textile installations that tell the story of the role and meaning of plants in the lives of the artists – about the materials obtained from plants and their survival strategies.

The exhibition responds to the challenge of adapting to a world in which intergenerational memory is being replaced by instructions and rules; great stories have become impoverished language abbreviations and direct contacts have become virtual. Algorithms have become landmarks in plant-blind artificial landscapes.

The support-root of artists of maintaining balance with the real world are their contact with nature and relationships with other species. They explore what could be learned from plants through practical interest, poetic interpretations and artistic practice based on them. The inspiration is the diversity, essential and distinctiveness of the plant world – forms, patterns and textures; their necessity for people and the environment; their ability to adapt to change and survive even in very difficult conditions. The works combine knowledge and practical experience to show the importance of plants as an endless source of resources – as fertilizer, providing role models and seeds of ideas, as fibers and natural colors; and as communication with plants, health and balance. Plants help to remember and depict stories that affirm identity.

To adapt to today’s world, a new language of communication – BOTEX has been created in the context of the exhibition. Botany + textile + poetry + meanings = BOTEX semantics.

There are BOTEXophies growing in the BOTEXemantic garden.

BOTEXophies are synthesized from plants and textiles.

BOTEX is spoken by plant-loving BOTEXegees, to translate plants and their strategies through BOTEXophies.

BOTEXophies are named and organized into the BOTEXonomic system: INDEX BOTEXEMANTICUM.

The exhibition is open until the 4th of January 2026.

More information about the opening hours of the Palm House and greenhouses can be found at: https://botaanikaaed.ee/en/opening-hours/