Mart Vainre and Paintman at Haapsalu Town Gallery

Mart Vainre’s solo exhibition, “Paintman: The Birth of a Painting Machine and His Unexpected Enemy,” at Haapsalu Town Gallery is the superhero’s second coming. After its debut at the ARS Project Room group exhibition “Allow Yourself to Change. From Painting Art to Machine Art,” Paintman (in Estonian, Värvmees) is now at the Haapsalu Town Gallery amidst his comic-book-like origin story, where he also encounters his treacherous enemy.

Haapsalu Town Gallery
7.08–1.09.2024

The Birth of Paintman
The superhero Paintman was created from leftover paint that accumulated on the palette. He is an unintended byproduct of painting, a character that wasn’t supposed to exist. However, artist Mart Vainre desires a synthetic companion, an assistant who could expand his work into new realms.

Through experimentation, Vainre digitizes Paintman, who quickly begins to live his own life in virtual space. He evolves, mutates, and multiplies. Before long, Paintman gains independence and acquires the superpower to transform between physical and digital environments, surpassing the limits of human abilities.

Human Envy
Paintman begins to create as well. He is now a well-known superhero whose capabilities have long surpassed those of his creator. Vainre starts to feel increasingly overshadowed by him. “Slower, clumsier, more flawed,” the artist describes himself when comparing his skills to those of the digital twin he created.

He hatches a plan to save himself from being relegated to second-tier status. Vainre begins to mechanically mimic his synthetic companion’s creations—under the guise of fan art, he subtly plants human flaws in his works, attempting to hack Paintman’s perfect algorithm. And to bring himself back into the spotlight.

The Final Showdown
Since Paintman “feeds” on the paint residue from Vainre’s works, he also starts to transform into a human-like form. Paintman is forced to live on a battlefield filled with the treacherous traps Vainre has set, where he must use his artificial wit and creativity. He is now fully aware of Vainre’s intentions and begins defending himself to survive. Their final showdown takes place at the art exhibition, where Vainre struggles to assert himself and Paintman fights to stay alive.

martvainre.com

More Information:
Haapsalu Town Gallery
Posti 3, Haapsalu
www.galerii.kultuurimaja.ee
Wed–Sun 12:00–18:00

On 12 September at 12:00 Nesli Hazal Oktay will defend her thesis „Far-away bodies: Co-creating design(s) in and for remote intimacy“ ( „Koosolemine distantsilt: läheduse kogemine ühisloomelise disaini abil“).
The public defence will be held in EKA (Põhja pst 7), room A101.
The defence will be broadcast on EKA TV.
The defence is in English.

Supervisor: Dr. Kristi Kuusk (Estonian Academy of Arts), Prof. Danielle Wilde (Umeå University, University of Southern Denmark)
External reviewers: Dr. Verena Fuchsberger-Staufer (University of Salzburg), Dr. Vasiliki Tsaknaki (IT University of Copenhagen)
Opponent: Dr. Verena Fuchsberger-Staufer (University of Salzburg)

The doctoral thesis can be found HERE

This dissertation delves into the role of interaction design in fostering non-sexual intimacy across distances through an embodied approach. By designing for intimate, yet distant, bodies, it offers the research programme co-creating design(s) in and for remote intimacy. Derived from the main research question – How can a close-to-body experience be designed to support intimacy between people across distances? – this research programme explores the design of a remote, close-to-body experience for individuals who are emotionally close but physically apart. The designed experience aims to invite far-away loved ones to reflect on, disrupt, and reinvent their habitual ways of building and experiencing intimacy across distances. Within this programmatic framework, the dissertation offers three key contributions to interaction designers and design researchers: methodological, designerly, and theoretical. Methodologically, it proposes new approaches for co-designing remote intimacy. Designerly, it presents commitments to consider when designing in the realm of remote intimacy. Theoretically, it provides situated knowledge that highlights the multifaceted nature of remote intimacy, emphasising its individual, collective, bodily, virtual, and material dimensions.

In conclusion, this dissertation challenges conventional methods and advocates for embodied design practices and approaches, opening new design spaces for supporting intimacy across distances. It invites interaction designers and design researchers to rethink and reimagine how humans experience and build intimacy in an increasingly digital world.

Defence committee: Dr. Jaana Päeva, Dr. Anu Allas, Ruth-Helene Melioranski, Prof. Indrek Ibrus, Dr. Liina Unt, Dr. Claudia Nunez-Pacheco

“Translucent Dreams”
EKA Gallery 8.08.–08.09.2024
Open Tue–Sun 12–6 pm, free entry
Opening: 15.08.2024 at 6 pm

Participating artists: Chloé Geinoz, Rose Magee, Vitor Pascale, KitKit Para, Syed Sachal Rizvi

In today’s interconnected world, the notion of identity has progressively become more
complex and multifaceted. Gender, geography, and social/political beliefs, to name but a few shape the ways individuals perceive and express themselves.

This exhibition brings together five artists from diverse corners of the globe, each accentuating themes of intersecting identities through the lenses of chimerism, duality, hybridity, queer identity, and the construction and deconstruction of self. Using various visual strategies, these artists delve into the intricate layers of identity formation and expression, inviting you to journey through contemporary identity’s dynamic and ever-changing landscape.

The exhibition is supported by Sadolin Estonia.

Opening drinks from Põhjala Brewery.

Read more: https://www.artun.ee/en/curricula/architecture-and-urban-design/research/conference-2024-building-systems/

“Under the Iron Rain”

Exhibition of Ukrainian art students in the library of the Estonian Academy of Arts

28.07.-31.08.2024

Mon-Fri 10:00-15:00
The library is closed from 22.07 to 4.08.2024

Artists: Dariia Silchuk, Sonia Kharkovets,Kseniia Romaschenko, Alina Zadvirna

Graphic design: Daria Titova (UKR)

To provide students with the opportunity to emerge as visible artists, an exhibition will be held at the EKA Library Gallery featuring works by Ukrainian students mentored by EKA. The exhibition will showcase graphics, illustrations, and drawings created during their studies, reflecting the teachings and approaches of Ukrainian universities.

The work of students living and working across Ukraine is heavily influenced by the war situation – mental coping, freedom of movement, and survival. Under the iron rain, students have continued their studies in their chosen fields, pouring their skills, anxiety, fears, and dreams into their creations. The EKA Library offers a small glimpse into their world. We can support these young creators by recognizing their aspirations. We extend our gratitude to all individuals and institutions who have donated to the EKA Ukrainian Student Scholarship Fund.

ELIA UAx Platform

At the ELIA leadership symposium held at EKA (Estonian Academy of Arts) and EMTA (Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre) in June 2022, leaders of higher arts education in Ukraine emphasized their primary priority: stopping the “institutional destruction” of the arts. They believe it is crucial to support students so they can continue their education in their homeland and to remind the world of the importance of their artistic practice for the preservation of Ukrainian cultural life.

On November 15, 2022, the Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation (AACCF), in collaboration with ELIA, announced a funding measure to support art students and higher arts education institutions in Ukraine. This led to the creation of the ELIA UAx Platform. The UAx Platform embodies the spirit and values of Magdalena Abakanowicz. This initiative is aimed at artists affected by the war, enabling them to fulfill one of their most important tasks – creating art despite oppression.

The supervisors of the EKA UAx platform for Ukrainian students in the 2023/24 academic year are Britta Benno and Anne Pikkov.

All works are for sale. By purchasing, you support artists in Ukraine.

More information:
https://sihtasutus.artun.ee/ukraina2022
https://elia-artschools.org/general/custom.asp?page=UAx
https://www.artun.ee/et/ukraine/

Marleen Suvi
WE’VE NEVER LIVED IN A HOUSE
6.07.–4.08.2024
Opening: 5.07. at 6 pm

Marleen Suvi’s personal exhibition “We’ve Never Lived in a House” brings together 16 large-scale canvases to form a major installation, which concerns itself with the topics of memory and family.

The paintings are based on the artist’s family photo albums, and according to the curator Aleksander Metsamärt, the exhibition reveals two main themes: firstly, the relationship between memory and memory carriers arising from the paintings created on the basis of photographs, secondly, the theme of the private house arising from the form of the installation and the period-specific context associated with it. At the crossroads of the two themes, we find the artist herself, offering an insight into her own memories with an intimately personal and a paradoxical universality.

For the artist these times are past, her past which she herself cannot [retreat/crawl] back to. A past from which forms and figures emerge, that are almost familiar, but not quite just. Not like they are here, in this picture, in this apartment, in this year – somewhere in the mid-nineties, when everyone wore clothes made out of those materials, the feel of which, to this day, the nerve endings of your synapses can still sense somewhere at the back of your mind; clothes, that in their quaintness and slight old-fashionedness still manage to warm your heart.

Curated by Aleksander Metsamärt

Graphic design by Rainer Kasekivi

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Opening drinks from Põhjala Brewery.

The 1980s and 1990s were marked by events around the world that radically changed the political order, people’s beliefs and attitudes, and the entire cultural and intellectual orientation of much of the globe. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the end of the Cold War stand out as the most important changes, in the shadow of which the events in Yugoslavia and important changes elsewhere are often overlooked by European commentators. These events, taken as a whole, have been seen as part of broader processes of democratization, even as, at the same time, this period was also marked by outbreaks of extreme nationalism and radical religious ferment.

The planned conference invites participants to reflect on the following questions:
– In what ways does democracy manifest itself in the culture of the transitional period of the 1990s?– What are the common features and differences of the transition period in different post-socialist countries?
– What different theoretical frameworks can be used to analyze the culture of this period?
– What are the new forms of cultural negotiation between different cultural traditions and elements?
– How might we describe the way cultural imaginaries and experiences of temporality have changed?
– Which transgressive tendencies arose to challenge the narrative of imaginary unity between different cultural spheres?
– How is one to describe the dynamic of the forces at play in the transition between the mentality of social collectivism and the new liberal individualism?
– How, if at all, has the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 altered understandings of the transition period and its narratives?

Organizing Committee:
Virve Sarapik, Estonian Academy of Arts
Epp Annus, Tallinn University
Luule Epner, Tallinn University
Regina-Nino Mion, Estonian Academy of Arts
Jaak Tomberg, University of Tartu
Piret Viires, Tallinn University

The conference is being organized by the Research Group of Contemporary Estonian Culture, which unites scholars from the Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn University and the University of Tartu. The research is funded by the project PRG636 “Patterns of Development in Estonian Culture of the Transition Period (1986–1998).”

The conference was co-funded by:

The 2024 graduation ceremonies will be held on June 20th in the EKA Assembly Hall (room A101, Põhja puiestee 7).

• At 11:00 AM, the ceremony will begin for graduates of the Faculty of Design and the Faculty of Art Culture, as well as for doctoral school graduates
• At 3:00 PM, the ceremony will begin for graduates of the Faculty of Architecture and the Faculty of Fine Arts, as well as for doctoral school graduates

Dear graduates, please arrive 15 minutes early to the EKA Gallery, where you will be seated in designated seats. Guests can sit in the Assembly Hall, watch the ceremony on screens in the foyer, or follow it online via EKA TV.

More info:
Elisabeth Kuusik
elisabeth.kuusik@artun.ee

Join us for the screening of TASE FILM ‘24 on June 11 at 6 pm at the assembly hall of Estonian Academy of Arts (room A101).

The TASE film program has distinguished itself year after year as a central proving ground for all up-and-coming audiovisual artists. It is a platform for art that refuses to shackle itself within the confines of standard filmmaking practices and is constantly experimenting with the very concept of boundaries. This year’s program brings into focus the phenomenon of identity, dissecting both the biological body of an individual, as well as said body’s relations with the outside world, be it sentient or not.

The screening lasts for one hour, entry is free.

Participating artists: Anett Aedla, Agnes Milla Bereczki, Nataliia Domini, Mia Felić, Andrea Gudiño, Kadri Joala, Mark Kokotov, Marto Mägi, Piret Potter, Yiyang Sun

Curator: Kaur Järve

For the first time a jury will select the best TASE FILM among the participating films. The author of which will be awarded five free tickets to film screenings at Sõprus Cinema, in addition the film will be screened before all other screenings at both of Sõprus’ cinemas during the entire month of September. The jury consists of film director, producer and CEO of Sõprus Cinema Ivar Murd, artist Liina Siib and artist-curator and main organiser of TASE ‘24 Kaisa Maasik.

Drinks from Põhjala Brewery. 

Program in screening order:

1. YiyangSun

Breed咘哩嘚  

08′ 38′

The sky is vast, the wilderness is boundless 

While the lonely maple tree stands at the corner of the world 

              It bears thousands of seeds,Transforming into butterflies

Flirting and dancing over the water bubbles 

They fall in love

1. Mia Felić  

On the other Side

06′ 48”

The work explores the transgender and non-binary body in transition through the 19th century photographic process mordançage. The mordançage, using its tremendous chemical pressure alters the silver gelatine prints, causing them to undergo slow, gradual transformation. The tissue of the body and of the print breaks and a new life, new forms are born.

1. Marto Mägi  

breaks of from to dissociation

08′ 46” 

study of the removal of static through the format of an operetta.

1. Andrea Gudiño 

Also the Sea of June

09′ 43” 

The account of the not-so-everyday landscapes in the life of an anxious human a month before her birthday, becomes a solitary confession made up of fragments while traveling alone with her phone.

1. Mark Kokotov 

V¡¶λ

02′ 57” 

The work brings into focus the effect that cell towers have on birds and their surrounding environment. The soundscape in the video makes certain sounds audible to the human ear that are normally only accessible to different animals. Moreover, the video highlights the magnetic fields generated by the aforementioned towers and the ways in which these fields disturb the navigational skills of birds. The ethics surrounding the placement and quantity of these towers take center stage in this audiovisual piece, provoking the audience to ask themselves these exact questions.

1. Nataliia Domini (Grygorieva)

Hair 

00′ 36” 

Sisyphian fight against Hair that will continue to grow even after human death.

1. Agnes Milla Bereczki 

Soul

03′ 41” 

While on a 10-day trip in the Alps with the EKA animation department, we met with the animation students from Lucerne. We lived together in wooden cabins under the slope of the mountain, and every morning we would go out to hike and film. My work is inspired by ancient Estonian idolatry and a renewed perspective on coexistence with nature. Before leaving for Switzerland, I prepared a few dozen porcelain doll heads to help visualize the mythological landscape that is revealed to those who travel there. The work is classified as a music video-esque, experimental animation.

1. Kadri Joala 

Identity 

07′ 32′

Identity is a sign and a mark, by which people classify themselves and by which they communicate with one another in any given society.’ 

1. Piret Potter 

Hingelind (meaning “spirit bird” in English)

05′ 51” 

A lively child runs across a field until they notice a dead bird. The soul of the bird departs its body and flies towards the forest, and the curious child follows it. Without warning, the child falls into the world of the dead and must find their way home.

* Anett Aedla’s graduation work “What brings joy?”, duration 21′ 13” 

The film tells the story of 10-year-old Lilli, who has to cope with very contrasting tasks in her everyday life. How to go to school, take care of the household, help her mother, and at the same time remain a child and find joy in life? What happens to a child’s life when their parents can no longer fulfil their responsibilities? This story, full of the joys and sorrows of everyday life,  strives to show that hope does not disappear even in the toughest moments.

Join us at the screening of bachelor’s and master’s theses in animation of the Estonian Academy of Arts, which will take place on June 15 at the Sõprus cinema.

Participants: Carlos Santiago Ordoñez Alarcon, Aurelijus Čiupas, Ditiya Ferdous, Naira Hatchaturjan, Elise Kruusel, Evridiki Papaiakovou, Inês Machado Sales Grade Pinto, Piret Potter, Kirke Ross, Xingpei Shen, Nicole Tanysh, Laura Andrea Gudiño Sosa, Kelli Tõnurist, Sigrit Villido , Ada Napiorkowski.

Entrance is free.

The screening will take place within the framework of the EKA thesis festival TASE ’24. TASE is the annual major event of the Estonian Academy of Arts, the center of which is the thesis exhibition, where the faculties of architecture, design, art culture and liberal arts present this year’s master’s theses and a selection of bachelor’s theses and portfolios. TASE ’24 will take place until June 16 at locations all over Tallinn.

Check out the TASE program, locations and graduates’ works on the page tase.artun.ee