Exhibition “Estonian Heritage on the World Map.”

The UNESCO Chair at the Estonian Academy of Arts is opening the exhibition “Estonian Heritage on the World Map” at Valga Railway Station.

We are proud of our heritage and confident that it also speaks to the wider world. Yet we know surprisingly little about what from Estonia is actually considered remarkable internationally, and what opportunities the presentation of our heritage together with others in shared networks can offer.
The exhibition by the Estonian Academy of Arts presents what from Estonia has been included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, the Intangible Cultural Heritage List, and the Memory of the World Register. It also highlights which places have been awarded the European Heritage Label. Several European Cultural Routes run through Estonia. Over the years, Estonian works have also been recognized with Europa Nostra awards. We usually talk about such places one by one. With this exhibition, EKA aims to create a bigger picture, to inspire owners and local governments, and to remind everyone that by working together we can achieve more. Cultural heritage offers endless opportunities for presenting ourselves and for finding like-minded partners.
EKA will open the exhibition on “Heritage Sunday,” 7 December at 12:15 at Valga Railway Station, in cooperation with the Valga Museum and ICOMOS Estonia. The exhibition will be introduced by Riin Alatalu, holder of the EKA UNESCO Chair and vice-president of the international expert organization for heritage conservation.

For more information, please contact:

Riin Alatalu
riin.alatalu@artun.ee
+372 511 9439

On December 2 at 16:00 in room A101, Andrea Caretto and Raffaella Spagna will give a public lecture titled “Bright Ecologies: Experiences, Forms, Materials”. The lecture is part of the Faculty of Design’s public lecture series “Public Lectures in Design: Adjusting Perspectives,” curated by Stella Runnel and Taavi Hallimäe.

The Italian artist duo Caretto/Spagna approach art as a space for radical openness, undisciplined inquiry, and deep engagement with the Things of the World: earth, seeds, people, stones, museums, rivers, quarries, trees, micro-organisms, and more. Through the activation of a constellation of objects – small sculptures, drawings, plants, found objects, etc – drawn from their personal archive, the artists will invite the audience on an interactive journey into their artistic research. 

The public lectures are open to students, faculty, as well as anyone else interested in design!

Andrea Caretto (Torino, 1970, Degree in Natural Sciences) and Raffaella Spagna (Rivoli, 1967, Degree in Architecture) have been working together since 2002, collaborating with public and private institutions in Italy and abroad. They live and work in Cambiano (TO).

Caretto and Spagna explore the complex web of relationships from which things emerge: the fluxes and cycles of matter and morphogenesis, the perception of the environment, the transformations of the landscape, the wild/cultivated relationship and the processes of domestication, the relationships between living/inhabiting/building. Their approach is based on an aptitude for “presence” and experience in the world, in close contact with matter in all its transformations and individualisations. An exercise of attention and care for things, understood as nodes in an interweave, which trains the ability to perceive everything that exists as a system of elements in continuous correspondence. They are among the founding members of the artists’ association Diogene in Torino, and Pianpicollo Selvatico ETS Foundation – center for research in the arts and the sciences, Levice (TO), and artistic consultants for Munlab Ecomuseo dell’Argilla in Cambiano (TO). They collaborate with the Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences at the University of Torino and with Unidee Academy of Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella (IT).

From December 2 to December 11, EKA Library will be open from Tuesday to Thursday from 10am to 10pm.

On December 3 and 10, the library will also open its Emergency Writing Assistance Department (EWD) in half-hour flash feedback sessions from 18 to 20. Bring along your texts and presentations and ask for advice on referencing and finding sources. Appointments will take place on a first-come, first-served basis.

Free coffee, tea, and gingerbread cookies to students and readers!

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