KVI+ARH open lecture: Landscapes of care with wildflowers: Women, plants and domesticity in (post)socialist Romania

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 May 1that 6 pm Iulia Statica will give a lecture “Landscapes of care with wildflowers: Women, plants and domesticity in (post)socialist Romania”.

This research project examines the ways in which women’s domestic and ecological labour under state socialism reshaped urban landscapes in Romania, revealing care as an environmental and gendered spatial practice. It focuses on two semi-domestic spaces of housing blocks—balconies and urban courtyards—tracing how generational knowledge of plants and flowers enabled women to reimagine these spaces in ways that contradicted state planning and pronatalist regulation. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research, the talk explores the ways in which “care” was redefined within this repressive context, mediated in women’s everyday practices linking natality to landscape-making through the intimacies of what we might term “clandestine care”. The project experiments with multiple media, including installation, video and photography, to document and explore the multiple layers of these gendered networks of care.

Iulia Statica is Senior Lecturer at the School of Architecture and Landscape at the University of Sheffield, UK and the 2025/26 Mellon Fellow in Democracy and Landscape at Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Institute in Washington DC. She previously held postdoctoral positions at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, and Cornell University. Her research focuses on the legacies of socialist-built environments in Eastern Europe, particularly mass housing, and the gendered experiences of these spaces. Statica uses documentary film in her research; her film My Socialist Home premiered in her exhibition Archiving the Home in London in 2021. She is the author of Urban Phantasmagorias: Domesticity, Production, and the Politics of Modernity in Communist Bucharest.

The 2025/2026 academic year open lecture series is organised in collaboration between the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture and the Faculty of Architecture, and is connected to the research project Built environments of care from the late Socialist to post-Socialist Estonia (PSG 2025–2029).

The lecture series is supported by:

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

Opening on Thursday, 21 May at 6 pm in the Great Hall of the Kumu Art Museum
(Weizenbergi 34 / Valge 1, Tallinn).
 
Chromatic Drift creates a cohesive perceptual and spatial experience centred on colour, a defining element in the oeuvre of the Estonian painter Kristi Kongi. Works created specifically for this exhibition over the past couple of years, together with the surrounding installation-based environment, evoke both chromatic richness and a poetic mode of being in unmapped territory.
 
At the opening, the launch of the book accompanying the exhibition will also take place.
 
The opening will take place in Kumu’s courtyard, weather permitting.
 
Opening programme on Saturday, 23 May:

Exhibition tours with curator Ann Mirjam Vaikla and artist Kristi Kongi: 12 noon (in English) and 2 pm (in Estonian)
Artist talk with Kristi Kongi at 3:30 pm

The exhibition will remain open until 11 October 2026.

Curator: Ann Mirjam Vaikla
Exhibition design: Mari Hunt, Grete Daut (MARIHUNT architects)
Graphic design: Brit Pavelson
Exhibition installation manager: Tõnis Medri
Coordinator: Anastassia Langinen

May 7-8, 2026 

Venue: Estonian Academy of Arts,  

Room A501 

The symposium aims to explore how references to the mythological underworld engender, maintain, and revitalize the politics of cultural and social critique in contemporary art of the past three decades (post 1991). The focus of the project is the representation and interpretation of chthonic elements, such as devils, spirits, witches and other beings – human or non-human –, associated with the underworld, the subterranean, the primal grounds of being in Baltic folklore and other cultural landscapes.  

The participants of the symposium will be exploring how the employment of these elements in contemporary art has contributed to the development of a new body of socio-political knowledge, including sensitivity, awareness, and insight into a range of urgent issues such as gender inequality, racism, the climate crisis, consumerism, and gentrification. The “underworld contemporary art” engages uncanny imagery and occult allure to attract and engage audiences, challenging the status quo while fostering debate that promotes social change, reinforces democratic values, and cultivates inclusive and safe societies. 

The project is organized by the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, Latvia in collaboration with Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia. Project authors: Dr. Toms Ķencis, Dr. Jana Kukaine, Dr. Ieva Melgalve and doctoral student Maija Rudovska. Supported by Latvian Council of Science “Contemporary Art and Folklore: Unlocking the Underworld” (UNART) (lzp-2024/1-0479) 

Everyone is welcome to attend. 
For the workshops, please register under this link: https://forms.gle/jPLYsRJbSYv6FPSf6  

Visual design: Liana Mihailova 

On May 14, 2026, the Estonian Academy of Arts will host an open conference titled “Metamorphosis as a Creator of the Future” in room A501, featuring internationally acknowledged Italian philosopher Emanuele Coccia as the keynote speaker.

The conference will be held in English.

The conference will focus on the philosophy of Emanuele Coccia, with metamorphosis as the key term. Life is an incessant series of metamorphoses that happen everywhere, and the first natural technology is the cocoon, where preparation for transformation takes place. The keynote speaker at the conference will be Emanuele Coccia. The floor will also be given to artists and thinkers who, through their work, have explored change and its impact on the world around us.

Programme:

15.00 Opening words and introduction

I session: Contemporary Art and Language as a Form of Transformations

Bjarki Bragason (artist, educator, Iceland University of the Arts):
The Garden That Was: Memory, Ecology and Transformation

Ene-Liis Semper (artist, stage director, educator, Estonian Academy of Arts)
Large-Scale Performances as the Agents of Change in Society

Hasso Krull (poet, essayist, philosopher, Tallinn University)
A Metamorphic Event: Hommages à Artur Alliksaar and Emanuele Coccia

16.00 Coffee break

16.15 II session: Philosophy of Metamorphosis

Marek Tamm (cultural historian, theorist, Tallinn University)

Philosophy as Metamorphosis: Emanuele Coccia

Emanuele Coccia (philosopher, Italy/France, EHESS)

Metamorphosis as the Creator of Future

17.30 -18.30 final panel: Metamorphosis as the Creator of Future

Coccia, Bragason, Semper, Krull, Tamm – moderated by Kirke Kangro

Emanuele Coccia is Associate Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. He has been a visiting professor and researcher at numerous international institutions, including universities in Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Düsseldorf, Columbia University, Harvard, Penn University and New York University. His work bridges philosophy, ecology, contemporary art, architecture, and visual theory, proposing a renewed understanding of life, form, and habitation on a planetary scale.

He is the author of several books translated into many languages, including The Life of Plants (Polity, 2018; Gallimard, 2016), Metamorphoses (Polity, 2021; Rivages, 2020), and Philosophy of the Home (Penguin, 2024; Rivages, 2024) and A Treatise on Modern Love (Flammarion and Einaudi 2026) . Together with photographer Viviane Sassen, he published Modern Alchemy (JBE Books, 2022), a book on photographic theory and image-thinking; with Paolo Roversi, Lettres sur la lumière (Gallimard, 2024), a philosophical epistolary on light as a principle of visibility and creation; and with Alessandro Michele, creative director of Valentino, The Life of Forms. Philosophy of Re-enchantment (HarperCollins, 2024). His forthcoming book, New Natures. Planetary Museums (Park Books, 2026), co-authored with author and curator Béatrice Grenier and architect Jeanne Gang, examines the emergence of planetary museums as living ecologies at the intersection of nature, architecture, and culture.

In 2019 and 2021, he contributed to Nous les Arbres, presented at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris and the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, where he is also a member of the Academic Committee. Together with Olivier Saillard, he curated The Many Lives of a Garment (ITS Arcademy, Trieste 2024) and Borderless (ITS Arcademy, Trieste, 2025), two exhibitions reflecting on the philosophical and social metamorphoses of fashion.

With Yuko Hasegawa, he co-curated Dancing with All at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, centered on ecology, coexistence, and the poetics of movement. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Power Station of Art of Shanghai. In 2024, Coccia was awarded the Mondriaan Prize for his theoretical and curatorial work bridging philosophy, art, and architecture.

Bjarki Bragason (b. 1983) studied at the Iceland University of the Arts, Universität der Künste Berlin and CalArts in Los Angeles. He is Associate Professor and Dean of the Fine Art Department at the Iceland University of the Arts and has taught at institutions internationally since 2014. His work has been represented in numerous solo- and group exhibitions internationally, and is in the collection of museums and private collections.

Hasso Krull (b. 1964) is an Estonian poet, translator and philosopher who has published nineteen books of poetry and eleven collections of essays that include literary criticism as well as writings concerning art, cinema and society. During 1990–2017 he was teaching cultural theory at the Estonian Institute of Humanities (special courses on continental philosophy, psychoanalysis, creation myths and oral tradition). From 2019 he has been teaching creative writing in the Estonian Academy of Arts. His latest books are The Eternal Recurrence (2025) and Twilight Remembrance (2025). He currently works as a researcher at Tallinn University.

Ene-Liis Semper (b. 1969) is an Estonian video, performance, and theatre director, and professor in the Department of Scenography at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2004, she co-founded Teater NO99 with Tiit Ojasoo, where she worked as artistic director and stage director until the theatre closed in 2018. Semper has created numerous set and costume designs for both drama and opera productions, and is known for her visually powerful and grandiose style. Her solo exhibitions have been held at prestigious museums, including the Kumu Art Museum (2011) and the Estonian Museum of Contemporary Art (EKKM) (2024). Her most recent major production projects include the concert-performance “Where Are You?” (2026), “The Master and Margarita” (2024, Riga Dailes Theater), “Macbeth” (2023, Estonian Drama Theatre/ERSO/Estonian Concert), “Now We Can Talk About It” (2023, Theater Expedition), and many more.

Marek Tamm is professor of cultural history in Tallinn University and head of the Institute of History, Archaeology and Art History. His primary research fields are cultural history of medieval Europe, theory and methodology of history, and cultural memory studies. He has recently published Breakthroughs in Cultural Psychology (ed. with Jaan Valsiner; Tallinn University Press, 2024), The Fabric of Historical Time (co-authored with Zoltán Boldizsár Simon; Cambridge University Press, 2023), and The Companion to Juri Lotman: A Semiotic Theory of Culture (ed. with Peeter Torop; Bloomsbury, 2022).

Event on Facebook

Opening: May 9, 2026, from 19:00 until sunset

We are a group of EKA students, all of whom are from different major cities around the world and we invite you to a get-together with us on May 9 at 7:00 p.m. on the beach near the Logi sauna. The exhibition takes place within the course “Exhibition: Artist as Nomad”. 

______________________________

Only Temporary unfolds as a brief gathering shaped by light, time, and presence. The exhibition brings together works that shift, dissolve, or exist only for a limited duration. This concept is to resist permanence and inviting attention to what cannot be held.

Somewhere between intervention and coexistence, the artworks hover in an ambiguous space. At times they might be appearing parasitic, at others in quiet sync with their surroundings. Visitors are invited to encounter them intuitively: to stumble upon, to observe, and to question.

This is not a fixed moment, but a passing one. A shared experience shaped by change, perception, and the act of letting go. As daylight fades, so does the opening. The event follows a natural rhythm, ending with the disappearance of light. 

In a society of ultra-modernity and hyperconnectivity, what does it mean to resist acceleration?

Between infinite production and the rejection of speed, the works produced question our relationship to technology and nature, particularly in the era of valuing fast production and quick reward over process and slowness.

Acceleration promises transformation yet produces cyclical redundancy.

Slowness appears as an alternative, yet risks disappearance.

We must imagine other ways of being, and investigate how one might exist within a system saturated with the homogenization of forms and algorithmic repetition.

This exhibition does not aim to resolve this tension.

It sustains it.

It stages practices that oscillate, overflow, and evade.

It does not propose a solution but rather creates a space for transgression by observing the inherent slowness of the garden.

Allowing us to construct a world where other rhythms, forms, and futures become conceivable.

This exhibition was made possible by the generosity of Kopli 93, community and educational garden. The central theme of the exhibition was heavily influenced by our collective perception of the vast, mystical space. We would like to thank Kristin Lang and the other gardeners of Kopli 93 for warmly welcoming and educating us, and the community of Kopli for allowing us to exhibit in their neighborhood.

Exhibiting artists: Esther Borrett, Nancy Bettina Beard, Coco Corbineau, Sadhbh Connolly, Kimberly Jüschke, Karolin Mägedik, Chloe McDougall, Elise Muchowski, and Tin Trong Nguyen.

Exhibition team: Oleksandra Aleksieienko, Panna Becker, Yann Mazzalovo, Daria Zaitseva”

On 7 May, from 12:30 to 14:00, the pre-review of Art and Design doctoral student Mariliis Siigart’s first doctoral project will take place at the EKA Materials Lab, White house, room 003 (Kotzebue 10).

The supervisor of the doctoral project are Kärt Ojavee, PhD (EKA) and Grete Arro, PhD (Tallinn University)
The reviewers are Katrin Männik, PhD (TLÜ), and Helen Orav-Kotta, PhD (TÜ).

Bladderwrack Metamorphosis is the first peer-reviewed creative project in Mariliis Siigart’s artistic research doctoral thesis, Experimental Biocomposites and Their Application in Sustainable Design and in Raising Consumer Awareness through Education.

As a practical case study, the project examines algae-based biomaterials and their possible applications. The work focuses on material creation as an iterative process of formation. Where choices related to substances, procedures, conditions and intended use influence the properties, possible applications and meaning of the biomaterial being developed.

This case study provides a foundation for further research aimed at developing an analytical approach to material creation and, on that basis, designing didactic and methodological solutions through which the creation and interpretation of biomaterials can be applied both in technology education within basic education and more broadly in design and educational contexts.

Moulds for the Wilderness / Vormid tühermaale
Odie Lap Chun Chow
Location: Hanger, Põhjala tehas, Marati tn 5, Tallinn
Opening 8.05 at 18:00
Visting hours: 8.05–19.05 WED-SUN 11:00-17:00
Defence date: 12.05 at 10:00

Moulds for the Wilderness is a showcase of Odie Lap Chun Chow’s journey into mould making, inspired by ceramic casting production and self-experience in identity seeking. Gypsum, clay, and photography became the materials Odie used to explore and reflect on his struggle to find self-identity, bound to the city he came from. Here, he raises the question of whether moulds give limits or freedom to one, and whether one can create their own “wilderness”, a space without borders.

Perfect Dupes / Täiuslik duplikaat
Maia Hellman
Location: Kopli tn 2a
Opening: 9.05 at 18:00
Visiting Hours 9.05–30.05 THR-SUN 14:00-19:00
Defence date: 12.05 at 15:00

The remnants of the honey shop linger here, in the elongated shelves that run the walls and the price stickers from the beekeeping and gardening equipment they once sold. The same shelves now hold objects that arrived here with their own histories. Second-hand tableware, ceramic pieces, raw materials. Things that have passed through other hands before reaching these shelves. Some of them have passed through mine.

Lyly Pudi-Padi Pood, Lyly’s IJzerwinkel, La Quincallerie de Lyly
Lyly Letzer
Location: Keskturg Kiosk 168
Opening date: 10.05 at 11:00
Visiting hours: 10.05–17.05
Defence date: 13.05 at 11:00

A “ijzerwinkel”, “quincallerie” or “pudi-padi pood” is a place where you can find glue, a flower, a plate or someone to talk to. // Pudi-padi pood on koht, kust võib leida nii liimi, lilleõie, taldriku kui ka vestluse. // Une quincaillerie est un endroit où on peut tout trouver, un clou, une assiette, un savon et une personne à qui parler. // Ik ga naar een ijzerwinkel om van alles en nog wat te vinden: een tas, een koek of een babbel.

Unfolding Gestures / Avanev käeliigutus
Mariam Mestvirishvili
Location: Angaarinstituut, Põhjala Tehas, Marati tn 5, Tallinn
Opening 8.05 at 18:00
Visiting: 8.05–24.05 WED-SUN 11:00-17:00
Defence date: 13.05 at 15:00

Unfolding Gestures brings together practices of ceramic and textile making, exploring what lies beyond their surface and unfolds through them. By focusing on the process of making, the coexistence of material and maker as beings in their own right becomes visible, resulting in a series of works that reveal the traces of the process and its inherent mundanities.

Beyond Wearability / Kantavusest kaugemal
Peixuan Lin
Location: ARS Kunstilinnak, Stuudio 53, Pärnu mnt 154
Opening 11.05 at 18:00
Visiting hours: 11.05–15.05
Defence date: 14.05 at 10:00

Beyond Wearability builds on the personal experiences and theoretical research of designer Peixuan Lin, exploring how accessories transcend from wearability to becoming fluid symbols of identity. It shows how materials, myths, and everyday use collectively transform accessories into vehicles for personal narratives.

Souvenirs from Home / Suveniirid kodust
Sylvia Burgess
Location: Pika Jala väravatorn, Pikk Jalg 3
Opening: 16.05 at 18:00
Visiting hours 16.05–14.06 THR–SUN 12:00-17:00
Defence date: 14.05 at 14:00

Souvenirs from home is an exhibition of small objects and jewellery drawing on motifs, techniques and materials gathered through the three homes Sylvia Burgess has experienced in the past two years.

KULTIVEERITUD KEHA
Joanne-Heleene Sõrmus
Location: EKA Stenograafia stuudio, B304
Opening: 14.05 at 19:00 (performance)
Defence date: 15.05 at 10:00, A403

At the culmination, the focus shifts away from the body to what remains of it: its traces, forms, and surfaces that are transferred into the garment. Performance KULTIVEERITUD KEHA explores the moment when the body ceases to be the objective and instead becomes a trace – a shell no longer defined by physical perfection, but by the aesthetic and emotional residue left by the pursuit of it.

Extensions / Pikendused
Marite Kuus-Hill

Location: Kopli 70a, II floor/korrus
Opening 12.05 at 18:00

Defence date: 15.05 at 14:00

Extensions is a collection of events surrounding a handmade 4 m x 4 m quilt. This project presents a series of proposals and brings forth open-ended questions about space and space making, while expanding the notion of a quintessential cultural object, the quilted blanket.

Collection of public events:

April 17th 18:00
Thesis Assembly
Marite Kuus-Hill & Chloé Gourvennec
Krulli maja, Kopli 70a, Tallinn

May 6th 14:00
Patchnotes: Line Arngaard
Haron Barashed & Marite Kuus-Hill
oh.eka-gd-ma.ee / EKA sea terrace, Põhja pst 7, Tallinn

May 12th 18:00
Twelve Proposals for an Unfolding Event
Lili Maud Dobell & Marite Kuus-Hill
Krulli maja, Kopli 70a, Tallinn

May 13th 18:00 (invitation only)
Quilting Bee and Talking Bird
Jordy Weaver & Marite Kuus-Hill
ETC Space, Niine 8, Tallinn

May 22nd – 23rd 11:00-17:00
Quilt Space
Fair Enough Art Book Fair
Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design
Lai 17, Tallinn

June 3rd 14:00
Patchnotes: Alek Green
Haron Barashed & Marite Kuus-Hill
oh.eka-gd-ma.ee / EKA sea terrace, Põhja pst 7, Tallinn

7.05.26 – 28.05.26

Jakobi Gallery, Jakobi 52, Tartu

On Thursday, May 7th at 6:00 PM, Mirjam Varik’s photography exhibition “Familiar Stranger” will open at Jakobi Gallery.

The project deals with the meeting of generations through photographs and archival materials. It is a story about grandfathers who have passed away and grandmothers who have stayed here, and how pictures, old letters and memories help to restore broken ties and understand our roots. We come from somewhere, we are like someone or have the face of someone.

Family history is never unambiguous — each new discovery changes the understanding of the past. The wars of the last century and the Iron Curtain severed ties in many families: some stayed here, others were sent away or fled abroad, leaving behind only vague memories. Silence became a part of everyday life, not everything was talked about. Children were not supposed to know everything, and even less so grandchildren.

Photographs taken in California, where a meeting with a previously unknown relative highlights past decisions, departures and new beginnings. Choices made several generations ago now open up new layers of meaning related to culture and identity. The song features excerpts from found letters and diaries, illustrated with historical footage.

Mirjam Varik (b. 1990) studied photography at the Tartu Art College (2014) and as an exchange student at the University of Art and Design Linz. She graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a BA in graphic design (2021) and later completed an MA in contemporary art (2024). In her artistic practice, Varik articulates seemingly insignificant moments that have a lasting impact on personal formation. Through photography, video, and installation, she explores childhood experiences and identity in a narrative manner, focusing on memories, places, and phenomena.

Thanks: Filipp Varik, Marge Monko, Sandra Ernits, Tanja Muravskaja, Martin Pedanik, Eri Rääsk, Sarah Nõmm, Siim Preiman, EKA graphic art department.

The exhibition is supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment of Estonian.

mirjamvarik.xyz

Song: Filipp Varik (Opéra National de Lyon)

Graphic design: Mirjam Varik

Jakob Gallery opening hours: Tue-Fri 1pm-6pm

Exhibition “Flora Erotica” by Sarah Nõmm and Maris Karjatse in ARS Showroom gallery (Pärnu mnt. 154, Tallinn) at 18.00 on May 6th. 

Exhibition is open Mon-Fri 12-18 and Sat 12-16 until May 30th, 2026.

we attract
we sting
we soften
we wither
we swell
we stick
we simmer
we rot
we sparkle
we shed
we savor
we evaporate
we curl

Present exhibition-teaser brings together materials, collaborative experiments, and motifs from Maris Karjatse and Sarah Nõmm’s shared wet dream, in which someone pollinates, blooms, and becomes intoxicated by nectar.

The exposition serves as a small opening into a pink fever, where things do not remain in a unified form. The flyswatters caress and reprimand while weaving themselves into a carpet; the curtain becomes a flowing, safe shelter. The formless pink ribcage supports, squeezes and holds its breath.
The hosiery of visual decadence stretches longer than the substance allows; the image is decomposing along the final cut line of a dimming gaze, and as it falls into the abyss, material with the new agency emerges from the exploded fragments. 

The exhibition brings together objects and images shifting between the forms of a fetish object, a botanical specimen, and staged artifacts. Like a metamorphosing lover, throwing into the embrace of the beloved one, so that all surrounding matter and static identities explode and the boundaries between species blur, everything transforms its existing form, and molecular cross-pollination takes place.

Maris Karjatse is an artist and translator whose artistic practice primarily engages with photography and linguistic expression. Her work explores the philosophy of everyday objects, agency, corporeality, and processes of healing. Recently, Karjatse has turned toward analogue photographic techniques and plant philosophy, approaching the plant as a body. Karjatse has studied English philology, photography, and contemporary art.

Sarah Nõmm is an artist whose practice explores the body and its forceful, fragile, and tension-filled presence in space. Her works revolve around sculpture, installation, and material-based research, combining personal experiences and bodily themes through folklore, taboos, and rituals. Nõmm’s works are characterized by intimacy and the poetic unfolding of corporeality, where thresholds of pain and pleasure, softness and aggression, control and submission meet.

GD: Maria Izabella Lehtsaar

FB: FLORA EROTICA 
https://fb.me/e/1YTFA4mxSY

ARS
https://www.arsfactory.ee/post/ars-showroom-82-maris-karjatse-ja-sarah-n%C3%B5mm-flora-erotica