Peer-review of Joanna Kalm’s doctoral project “Spacetuning. A practice of co-becoming”

On March 19, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Joanna Kalm’s 2nd artistic research project, Spacetuning. A practice of co-becoming will take place via Zoom (LINK, Meeting ID: 650 0507 1283, Passcode:  902366)

The doctoral thesis supervisors are Liina Unt, PhD (University of Tartu) and Leena Rouhiainen, DA (University of the Arts Helsinki).
The project reviewers are Ilmari Kortelainen, PhD (University of the Arts Helsinki) and Giacomo Veronesi, PhD (Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre).

Joanna 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. Kalm approaches somatic embodiment through posthumanist and new materialist philosophy, as well as through theories of cellular consciousness and organism-oriented ontology.
One focus of the research is to examine the possible modes of being-moving of the body-self, grounded in attentive self-listening and the dynamic processes of the body-self (somatic agency). The second focus addresses the intra-active relationship between somatic embodiment and practice under development (approached as an apparatus), asking: which parameters of practice are supportive of somatic co- and self-regulation? how does an artistic-somatic embodiment approach shape the ways the practice and space function-operate?

Kalm’s 2nd peer-reviewed project Spacetuning. A practice of co-becoming is based on somatic self- and other-awareness in support of embodied being-engagement, which in turn grounds the collaborative process in which the practice framework emerges and is developed 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 an intra-active relation, to what extent do we allow ourselves to truly participate in this co-becoming? 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 silencing boundary (is it real or habitual?) between oneself and space.

The somatic practice sessions Spacetuning. A practice of co-becoming will take place throughout March 10-14 at ARS Art Factory, daily at 4pm and on Saturday both at 12pm and 4pm.

More information and registration: https://fienta.com/et/ruumitoonimine-kaaskujunemise-praktika 

The 2025/2026 academic year open lecture series will be held in collaboration with the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture and the Faculty of Architecture. The theme of this academic year is “Architecture and the Ethics of Care” and the lectures will be curated by KVI Senior Researcher Dr. Ingrid Ruudi.

On March 26 at 6 pm Jos Boys will give a lecture “Doing Disability Differently in Architecture” at room A-501.

Disabled people are almost always treated as an afterthought in built environment education and practice. But what if we instead start from disability, valuing our rich bio- and neurodiversity as a creative generator for design and as a critical means of challenging normative building and urban design? In this talk, Jos will explore how, over the last 18 years, DisOrdinary Architecture has been collaborating internationally with disabled artists, designers and architects to co-develop innovative and even radical ways of thinking and doing architecture.

Dr. Jos Boys is co-founder and co-director, with disabled artist Zoe Partington, of The DisOrdinary Architecture Project, a UK-based platform which brings disabled artists into built environment education and practice to critically and creatively re-think access and inclusion. Originally trained in architecture, she was co-founder of Matrix feminist architecture and research collective in London UK in the 1980s, and currently leads on the development of the Matrix Open online archive. Always a design activist, Jos has also been a journalist, critic, researcher, consultant, educator, photographer and artist; and has published many books and articles. These include authoring Doing Disability Differently: an alternative handbook on architecture, dis/ability, and designing for everyday life (Routledge 2014); editing Disability, Space, Architecture: A Reader (Routledge 2017) and co-editing Neurodivergence and Architecture (Elsevier 2022).

Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Faculty of Architecture of EKA presents a dozen unique practitioners and valued theorists in the field in Tallinn every academic year.

The lectures are intended for all disciplines, not only for students and professionals in the field of architecture.

Spring programme:

• 26.02 at 18:00 in A-101 Kaisa Karvinen “From Care to Concrete: Exhibiting Architecture”
• 26.03 at 18:00 in A-501  Jos Boys (London)
• 9.04 at 18:00 in A-101 Katarina Bonnevier (Stockholm)
• 30.04 at 18:00 in A-101 Emma Cheatle (The University of Sheffield) “Lying in the Dark Room: Architectures of British Maternity”
• 14.05 at 18:00 in A-101 Iulia Statica (The University of Sheffield)

All lectures are held on Thursdays at 6 pm in the EKA main auditorium. All lectures are in English and free of charge.

The lecture series is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Previous open architecture lectures can be viewed at www.avatudloengud.ee

Kristina Norman invites audiences to the English-language version of her performance The Dew Point at Kanuti Gildi Saal on 18 and 19 March at 19:30. The performance on 18 March will be followed by a public pre-review of the work as part of the artist’s doctoral project, provisionally titled Making strategic entanglements and inhabiting heterotopia within creative practice as research.

Reviewers: Victoria Donovan and Madli Pesti
Doctoral supervisor: Dr. Linda Kaljundi (Estonian Academy of Arts)

The central question of Norman’s research concerns the emancipatory potential of strategically interweaving life stories and spaces as a structure-generating method within her artistic practice. In her doctoral work, Norman aims to analyse and conceptualize how these entanglements of spaces and voices emerge and are activated through creative-practice-as-research, and how they contribute to the deconstruction and decolonization of existing narratives and environments.

The performance The Dew Point was developed around the concept of liminality, which has been extended to spatial and built environments, geographical contexts, everyday and historical experiences and practices, as well as collective historical memory. In this work, Norman employs the entanglement of testimonies and spaces connected to wars and militarism as a method for examining the enduring presence of Soviet militarism and its intergenerational impact.

Against the backdrop of ongoing and accelerating militarization, the piece explores the potential for creating shared sites of memory within a divided society by bringing together spatial environments and voices from different memory communities.

More information about the performance and tickets: https://saal.ee/en/performance/the-dew-point-2006/

EKA library, 6.03.–15.05.2026

Dear friend,

It has been a long time since we last heard from you. Last time we spoke, you were working on some prints in the graphic arts workshop with a roller in your hand and ink on your fingers. How is it going? We would love to see some trials or progress pictures. At the moment we are also in the process of doing some tests. I have added a sample in the envelope. Check it out and tell us what you think!

Let’s keep in touch.

The exhibition shows works from the EKA Print Exchange project initiated by the department of Graphic Art at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Printmaking students from different universities were invited to take part and submit an original print edition. Each print was shipped to Tallinn, sorted and sent back to participants, so everyone received a random selection of ten prints.

The vision of this project was to create new connections between printmaking departments and students through collaboration and sharing physical works. So, we wrote to our penpals and were curious what students of other universities were up to. Depictions of current ideas, projects or any experiments were warmly welcomed as a response.

Four universities participated in the exchange: Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA),
Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO), University of the West of England (UWE), The Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław.

Exhibitions of the Print Exchange have taken place at the universities participating in the exchange, and the first presentation in Estonia took place in June-July 2025 at the TYPA Balcony Gallery in Tartu.

We would like to thank EKA graafika, TYPA, Anna Kodź, Aleksandra Janik and Angie Butler.

Organisers of the EKA Print Exchange: Alona Chuprina, Margarita Feofanova, Chantal Gerschuetz, Merit Himmelreich, Triin Mänd, Helena Pass, Marten Prei, Sandra Puusepp and our supervisor Charlotte Biszewski.

Exhibition design at the EKA library: Sandra Puusepp and Marten Prei. 

3rd-year Graphic Art students are showcasing the artists’ book as an independent medium of visual art and an original artwork. The authors draw from personal experiences and memories, exploring themes of physicality, history, and ethical boundaries:

• Aliisa Ahtiainen presents a grandfather’s life story in risography and a “breathing” book inspired by her grandmother’s experience in a tuberculosis sanatorium.
• Jacqueline-Desiree Rosenthal exhibits a piece made of tattooed pigskin rawhide, raising questions about morality and the parallels between animals and humans.
• Olga Dubrovskaja utilizes her background as an intensive care doctor to explore the experience of death through her own and her colleagues’ perspectives. In her second book titled “Delight”, she focuses on the moments of life.
• Adriana Jinmao Biosca Sánchez examines the volatility of memory through materiality and layers of printing.
• Robin August Vöörmann deals with gender identity, drawing parallels with changes in nature.

Supervisors: Eve Kask, Eve Kaaret (binding) and Viktor Gurov. 

Exhibition dates: 6.03.–15.05.2025

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.