Sten Eltermaa “Glass Struggle” at EKA Gallery 28.9.–9.10.2021

Join us for the opening of “Glass Struggle”, a solo exhibition by Sten Eltermaa on September 28, at 5.30 PM at EKA Gallery! 

Glass Struggle is an ongoing artistic research project based on glass as material, paradoxically fragile and extremely resilient at the same time. Glass is used in high-security buildings, and even the Pope drives around in a vehicle protected by bulletproof glass. The semantic field of glass plays an increasingly pervasive role: these days, we are all transparent, constantly looking at our own reflections on our screens, while having virtually no access to our own delicate data, which in many ways is used to control and even enslave us.

In the context of institutions and corporations we can also talk about glass as a symbol of democracy – a reference to open and equal dialogue between the people and those in power. Likewise, it refers to corporate totalitarianism and divergence of social strata. Glass Struggle is based on the semiosis of the viewer and the seen. 

The exhibition is accompanied by the online publication www.struggle.glass, which is also seen as part of one of the sculptures (“A Satellite Deviated from the Orbit”, in collaboration with Maria Lee).

Texts: Maria Lee, Sten Eltermaa

Exhibition design: Arvi Anderson, Sten Eltermaa

Graphic design: Maria Muuk

Website: Maria Muuk, Patrick Zavadskis

Translation: Madis Kuuse (ENG), Olesja Semenkova (RUS)

Thanks: Maria Lee, Arvi Anderson, Krista Loorits, Lauri Eltermaa, Sten-Erik Toos, Tõnis Vassar, Urmo Mets, Madli Ehasalu, Roman-Sten Tõnissoo, Pire Sova & EKA gallery, b210 architects, Kauss Architecture, KUU architects, Kolm Koma Architects, Ilmamaa Publishing House

Special thanks: Karmo Migur, Maria Muuk, Kadi Meriluht, Mary Magdalene

Supporters: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, MEISTRI, Salibar, Klaasissepa, joogipood.ee, nanoPruul, ÕIE, 3DLaser

The exhibition is part of the satellite programme of the Tallinn Photomonth contemporary art biennial.

EKA Textile Department presents:
‘Folding as a Language of Design’

Paul Jackson’s ZOOM lecture on THIS LINK

The presentation will describe how folding is used by designers and how it can play an important role in our sustainable future.

“All designers fold. That is, all designers fold, crease, bend, pleat, wrinkle, drape, twist and knot flat, 2-D materials to create 3-D forms. This process of transformation from 2-D to 3-D is one of the most fundamental and common languages of design, yet it is also one of the least understood.” P.J.

Paul Jackson has been a professional paper artist, designer writer and educator for almost 40-years.  He has been a folding consultant for Nike, Disney, Tetra Pak and many other companies, taught folding as a language of design in 80 Schools of Design in 11 countries, written more than 40 books and exhibited his artworks worldwide.  He says, ‘It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.’

Exhibition in the showcase of EKA Library. 

The artists’ book “How to shoplift books” by David Horvitz is a guide on how to steal books. It details 80 ways one can steal a book, from the very practical to the witty, imaginative, and romantic.

This project by David Horvitz with Edition Taube is an ongoing translation and publishing work that started in 2013. For each language, they collaborate with a publisher from the corresponding language region. The latest book in the series, the Estonian translation, was published with Lugemik Publishing, translated by Keiu Krikmann and edited by Indrek Sirkel.

All the translations published so far are on display in the showcase of the Library of the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese, Greek, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, Lithuanian, Danish, Korean, Georgian, Hebrew, Romanian, Swiss-German, Russian, Japanese, Turkish, Serbian Cyrillic, Serbian Latin, Hungarian, Icelandic, Swedish, and Estonian.

David Horvitz (b 1982) is an American artist based in Los Angeles who uses art books, photography, performance art, and mail art as mediums for his work.

The exhibition is organised by Indrek Sirkel, the Professor of Graphic Design of the Estonian Academy of Arts and the head of Lugemik Publishing. With thanks to David Horvitz, Jan Steinbach, and Mait Väljas for their kind support.

Happy reading, happy shoplifting!

More information about the book. 

The exhibition SECOND CHANGE at Tallinn Design Festival on the subject of reuse, which also includes the cooperation project “Food and Advice” of the Estonian Academy of Arts and the Fotografiska restaurant. The premiere of the exhibition, which was warmly received, was at the Venice Design Biennale this summer.

In cooperation with Fotografiska Tallinn restaurant and its chef Peeter Pihel, students of EKA ceramics, glass, jewelery and blacksmithing designed food utensils and accessories that would be in line with the restaurant’s values: recycling, zero waste, sustainability, local material and new design.

The project explored the experience of zero-cost restaurants around the world, found new ways to recycle broken dishes, and discovered unexpected ways to recycle scrap material. The design students used scrap metal, used tableware and cups as raw materials and created new, unique dishes that harmonize with the restaurant’s environment.

CERAMICS, GLASS, JEWELERY AND BLACKSMITHING
Artists: Indrek Linnamägi, Sofja Melikova, Kristin Sepp, Mart Talvar, Endel Maas, Taavi Teevet, Nga Man Chan, Kairit Mäeots, Rita Rebane Lonks, Cathy Saarm, Johanna Tamm, Mart Vaarpuu, Aleksandra Kazanina, Kerttu Rannik, Greete Rüütmann, Tiia Põldmets, Kristiina Väljamäe, Salome Ship, Mart Kekišev

On September 29, at 3 pm, a presentation of the EKA study “Historical Interiors and Tourism” will take place in the Office of the Chancellor of Justice.

Tallinn’s Old Town is both a living environment and the most important attraction in Estonia. For the third year in a row, the Estonian Academy of Arts is conducting a study on how to promote the Old Town so that both locals and tourists would be satisfied and at the same time the heritage environment would be well preserved. A recent interim report of the study focuses on interiors.

We will discuss whether and which buildings with historical interiors could be opened to visitors to Tallinn in addition to the usual churches and museums, how it could be useful for entrepreneurs and residents, and how to organize it.

Facebook event

To ensure that the room is sparsely filled, please register no later than 28.09 HERE

Please do not come to the presentation when sick, follow the current regulations and be prepared to prove vaccination or covid negativity.

The research report has been completed within the project “Sustainable Management and Exhibition of Tallinn Old Town” and is available HERE

You are most welcome to visit the CITYA International Urban Art Triennial in Tallinn and through the web between 17.09. – 16.11.2021.

CITYA is a first-time art event that will take place every three years as a platform for city-to-city art sharing and as a new form of collaboration. The first CITYA will be themed “City as Medium”.

The event is organised in partnership with Hong Kong Baptist University (initiator), the Estonian Academy of Arts, the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts, the University of California Berkeley, the Belle Arti di Roma Academy and the University of Macau. CITYA is curated by Jenny Balisle (San Francisco), Janet Fong (Hong Kong), Kang Li (Beijing), Laura Scaringella (Rome), co-curators Reds Cheung, Kati Ots, Madis Luik and Liina Siib (Tallinn). Contributing to the CITYA Tallinn platform are Madli Kaljuste, Ulvi Haagensen, Liina Siib, Hans-Gunter Lock, Johannes Luik and Laura De Jaeger.

The CITYA programme will include digital events as well as physical events in all participating cities. To participate in the whole programme and for an overview of the event, visit citya.space (Program opens on Friday 17.09.)

Kati Ots, co-curator of the Tallinn programme of the art event, comments on this year’s first CITYA:

“This year’s Tallinn programme can be seen as an exhibition or a hideaway, a set of interventions or gestures of urban space art. In one way or another, both the preparatory process and the finished works have acted as an act of care or nurturing. The point of departure was the creation of refreshing points of contact and meeting places for both artists and city dwellers, in the context of the situation created by the coronavirus. The artists’ dialogue partners were the local residents of Tallinn, in the form of Lasnamäe residents and the architects of the Designers’ House, but also the plant networks between anonymous paving stones on traffic islands and the seemingly passive garden railings that act as rhythm-breakers or interruptions. In the initial phase, the artists’ ideas spread throughout the city, spilling out from the city centre as a hub to Lasnamäe, Maardu and Saunen. We treated the branching out as a process that could, among other things, visualise decentralisation and emphasise the change of focus that the pandemic conditions brought. In the process of mapping, the levels of ideas born at a distance and the tangible city have met and collided, testing the limits of our flexibility. Just as the artists and organisers who had been abroad at the beginning of the project returned to Estonia during the course of the work, the outputs of the ideas were strangely concentrated back in the central Tallinn area, despite our efforts. The tissues and sprouts that grew and grew as a result of the overall result are now lurking in the urban space of Tallinn.”

CITYA is supported by the European Regional Development Fund and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

The CITYA Tallinn team includes and the event is co-curated by: Madis Luik, Liina Siib, Kati Ots, Reds Cheung.

Web address: citya.space

õhuLoss’ group show at the 1st Lisbon Contemporary Jewellery Biennial SOUR FRIO / COLD SWEAT, Galeria Brotéria, Portugal

õhuLoss (Castle in the Air) is a group of six Estonian jewellery artists – Piret Hirv, Kristiina Laurits, Eve Margus-Villems, Kadri Mälk, Villu Plink and Tanel Veenre. Formed in 1999, õhuLoss is one of the internationally most recognized groups of Estonian jewellery. Artists have been exhibiting together for more than 20 years their works in Estonia, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Italy, Israel, Hungary, France, Latvia and China.

Art critics have described the art of õhuLoss group as a slightly confusing phenomenon, hovering and playing in spacetime. The materials used are often unconventional. They make use of many organic materials in the creating of objects which are on the border between applied and visual arts. The value of the works consists in their persuasiveness, which wakes in the spectator’s alertness. The new jewellery of the õhuLoss group probes itself, the world and life.

õhuLoss in Brotéria Art Centre is part of the Contemporary Jewellery Biennial in Lisbon ‘Cold Sweat’.

Exhibition of jewellery and blacksmithing students at the Biennial of Contemporary Jewellery in Lisbon includes EKA students Erle Nemvalts, Taavi Teevet, Terje Meisterson, Isimini Pachi, Tauris Reose, Mirjam Aun and Kristiina Tang on 17.–20. September 2021 at Ar.Co – Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual, at the first Lisbon Contemporary Jewelery Biennale SUOR FRIO / COLD SWEAT

The challenge was presented to 8 European schools with different approaches to contemporary jewellery, with the aim of creating dialogues between young participants. The exhibition, as well as the biennial more generally, invites to reflect on three contemporary keywords – body, fear and protection, the latter of which refers to the characteristic historical aspect of jewellery as a means of protection for the wearer.

Participating schools are: Ar.Co – Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual, Burg Giebichenstein– Hochschule für Kunst und Design Halle (DE), Central of Saint Martins – University of the Arts (UK), École Nationale Supérieur d’Árts de Limoge (F), Eesti Kunstiakadeemia (EE), Lucerne School of Art and Design (CH), PXL-MAD School of Arts Media Arts Design (B) and Saint Lucas School of Arts Antwerpen (B).

September 16–November 20, 2021 – exhibitions, colloquium, master classes

Training School Local Stories and Visual Narratives for international PhD students will take place on September 15th – 17th in Estonian Academy of Arts.

The action proposes an innovative investigation and implementation of a process for developing human understanding of communities, their society, and their situatedness by narrative methods. It particularly focuses on the potential of narrative methods for urban development in European medium-sized cities.

Mark Gottdiener’s public lecture “Postmodern semiotics” will take place on 15th September as part of the Training School seminar “Local Stories and Visual Narratives”.
The lecture will take place at 18.00–20.00 via Zoom and is open to the public in the lobby (A101).

Mark Gottdiener (b 1943) is a professor of sociology at University at Buffalo, specializing in urban sociology. He is called one of the most important Urban Sociologist in U.S.

The Training School in EKA will focus on local urban stories, taking the city of Tallinn as an example. Participants will engage in site visits, analysis workshops, discussions and lectures. Participants will discuss historical, semantical and archetypal settings of the narratives.

Organising team:
Klaske Havik (TU Delft)
Panu Lehtovuori (Tampere University)
Jüri Soolep, Andres Ojari, Tiina Tammet, Irene Hütsi (EAA Tallinn)

The event is supported by the European Regional Development Fund

Joosep Kivimäe’s solo exhibition “I Love You” will be open in the Showcase Gallery of EKA’s department of photography from September 15, 2021. The exhibition is  a part of the satellite programme of Tallinn Photomonth 2021.

The Showcase Gallery is located on the facade wall of the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM), Rumbi Str 3 / Põhja pst. 35, Tallinn).

In his artistic practice, Joosep Kivimäe contemplates mainly the structures and hot spots of contemporary consumer society. He is also intrigued by the vague borders between public and private infosphere in the context of the present era of information.

The artist comments on his present exhibition as follows:
“The ephemeral beauty of cut flowers is preceded by a long and exhaustive period of growth and fertilizing after which the flowers are transported to various locations within thousands of kilometers. COVID has provided a good chance to look at the underlying structures of our society. Instead of trying to return to “normal” life, one should redefine the concept of normality. The present day should be used as a fertile ground for replanting ideas and visions for the future as well as for rooting out obsolete negative habits and beliefs.”

Joosep Kivimäe (b. 1994) is a photographer who lives and works in Tallinn. Kivimäe is currently obtaining his BA degree in the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2020, Joosep Kivimäe participated in the Noorderlicht International Photo Festival in the Netherlands with his artwork “Umbrella of Illusion”. The same year he
participated in the extensive art project “Isolation Dialogues” (visual dialogue with photographer Rait Tuulas) held by the Estonian Museum of Photography. Kivimäe’s artwork
has been exhibited in several exhibitions, including “Lõuna” (“South”) on the display window of the former Võru Shopping Mall (2020); jubilee exhibition of the Estonian cultural weekly
newspaper SIRP “Hulgad”; held in the tunnel of Tallinn Baltic Railway Station (2020), and exhibition “Still Life”; held in the EKA Billboard Gallery (2021).

The Showcase Gallery can be viewed 24/7 and has wheelchair access.

More information:
Maris Karjatse
Co-ordinator of the Showcase Gallery
Department of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts
maris.karjatse@artun.ee