TASE ’18

TASE is the annual spring graduation show of the Estonian Academy of Arts, with this year’s main exhibition taking place at the Faculty of Fine Arts building at Lembitu 10. The exhibition will open on 30 May at 17:00 and the final projects will remain on view until 13 June.

The exhibition can be considered a farewell ceremony to the temporary spaces EKA has been working on since its main academic building at Tartu mnt. 1 was demolished eight years ago. The Lembitu 10 building has hosted EKA’s academic and creative activities over the past four years and, with the TASE ’18 exhibition, students will have a chance, as a symbolic gesture, to show their final projects in a space that EKA will leave behind when it moves to the new building this summer.

The exhibition will feature the final projects of fine arts, architecture, design and art and culture master’s students with the additional final works of fine arts bachelor’s students.

Main organiser: Keiu Krikmann

Co-organisers: Fidelia Regina Randmäe, Solveig Jahnke, Mart Vainre, Maarja Pabut, Laura Kuusk, Kelli Turman and Ingela Heinaste

Exhibition design: Ulla Alla, Madli Kaljuste and Margus Tammik

Graphic design: Martina Gofman, Johanna Ruukholm, Nathan Tulve; supervisor: Indrek Sirkel

More info www.artun.ee/tase

Friday, 11 of May at 14, Kasper Bosmans will hold an artist talk at the department of Fine Arts of Estonian Academy of Arts. The talk will take place at Lembitu 12, room 101 and is open to everyone.

Kasper Bosmans (1990) is an artist based in Brussels and Amsterdam. He has studied in Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and in Higher Institute for Fine Arts (HISK), Ghent. He’s recent solo shows have been a.o. in Gladstone Gallery New York City, in De Hallen, Haarlem, and in Witte de Wit, Rotterdam. Bosmans works across painting, drawing, performance and sculptural installations made up various components, such as milk, sand, marble, etc. He’s often using elements of folk art which he combines with decorative forms in an associative and playful way.

On Thursday, 6 pm will be an opening of the show ‘Kristi Kongi in Dialogue with Kasper Bosmans. Alchemists, Artists, Cleaners and Others’ curated by Kati Ilves in Kumu Art Museum https://kumu.ekm.ee/en/syndmus/kristi-kongi-ja-kasper-bosmans-dialoogis/

The last lecturer of the Open Lecture Series this spring semester will be Tobias Nolte, stepping on the stage of Kanuti Gildi SAAL (Pikk 20, Tallinn) on 3rd of May at 6 pm to talk about new technologies and their application in architecture. Topics of his lecture range from machine vision to data processing and how to apply them in architecture for smarter and more sustainable future.

In his lecture titled “Machine Vision and Design” Nolte will discuss the various projects his bureau deals with. One of the more exciting ones being Mine the Scrap, that focuses on the re-use of construction waste. They use machine vision to sort out pieces of various shapes and sizes from scrap materials and then use software to generate various shapes and layouts for generative re-use.

Tobias Nolte is a co-founder of Certain Measures. Prior to founding his own practice, he was a Director at Gehry Technologies in New York where he led a team of architects and engineers in the implementation of parametric and computational methods in design and construction. He was previously a director at the Europe office of Gehry Technologies in Paris where he has worked with a variety of leading international design firms including Gehry Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, Snøhetta, UNStudio, Coop Himmelb(l)au and several others.

Certain Measures is an office for design science. They are a hypothesis-driven design practice that brings deeper insight to the design of experiences, systems, and spaces using mathematics, new technologies, refined intuition, and restless curiosity. They bring novel projects to life by building new software and hardware, tapping open-source tools, drawing on deep training and expertise in architecture, mathematics, robotics, and computer science, and embracing flexible collaboration with other owners, designers, and other experts. Their aim is to understand, enrich, and transform the human experience of space.

The Open Lecture Series brings to Tallinn a number of exciting architects, urban planners, academics from across the world. All Open Lectures are free of charge, in English, take place every fortnight, and are open to everyone – for both students and professionals of the field, general audience and students considering architecture for their further studies.

The architecture and urban planning department of the Estonian Academy of Arts has been curating the Open Lectures on Architecture series since 2012 – each year, a dozen architects, urbanists, both practicing as well as academics, introduce their work and field of research to the audience in Tallinn. The series is funded by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.

Curators: Sille Pihlak, Siim Tuksam
www.avatudloengud.ee
https://www.facebook.com/EKAarhitektuur/

The opening event of the gallery, “Viewing and Reading Room”, will take place from 26 April to 5 May. It will present this year’s programme and introduce the gallery space and our artists. Participating artists are Alexei Gordin, Diana Tamane, Elīna Vītola, Kristi Kongi, Mari-Leen Kiipli and Eva Mustonen who will all have solo or duo exhibition in the gallery during 2018.

The artists will take over the new space in their own personal manner by creating either connections or headstrong opositions between each other. The gallery becomes a “viewing and reading room” where the visitors are invited to spend their time and to acquaint themselves with the works of the artists. Elīna Vītola and Kristi Kongi have different approaches and perspectives for working with abstractionism. While Kongi focuses on systematic research into light, colour and senses, Vītola presents the viewer with humorous observations about the connections that abstract art has with everyday life and politics. Social, personal and existential are represented in Alexei Gordin’s adventures in the art world but also in Diana Tamane’s sensitive approaches to the stories from her family history. Eva Mustonen and Mari-Leen Kiipli will work together to create an installation that will place the viewer face-to-face with bizarre found and invented objects.

Kogo’s programme will focus on artists’ solo projects, exhibitions born out of cooperation between artists and curatorial projects. The aim of the gallery is to help the represented artists with their international visibility and to introduce their artistic practices as widely as possible. Kogo represented already in October 2017 Diana Tamane at the Estonian Photographic Art Fair in Tallinn where the Outset Estonia purchasing committee selected her “Blood Pressure” as a gift to a foreign collection. Tamane was also invited by the Fotomuseum Winterthur to participate in the Pla(t)form project that represents young artists. Between 7 and 10 June, Kogo will participate in the ArtVilnius’18 art fair with works by Alexei Gordin, Elīna Vītola and Eva Mustonen.

Kogo has been supported by the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center, Tartu Town Government, Council of the Gambling Tax, Cultural Endowment of Tartu and European Regional Development Fund. Artists’ mobility is supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers.

The gallery is opened: Wed – Sat, 12-18
Location: Widget Factory (Aparaaditehas, Kastani 42, Tartu, Estonia)

Call for residency!

Kanuti Gildi SAAL is looking for artist-in-residency at Püha Vaimu SAAL for september and december 2018. We have two one month residency vacancies, which are funded by Estonian Cultural Endowment and its very nature is to offer artist a chance to rather experiment than to work on a completed body of work.

We are waiting your idea descriptions, preferred period for residency and CVs to saal@saal.ee. Deadline is 21st of May.

This call is open for sharing.

Dates:  13-17 August 2018

Volume: 40 hours, 2 ECTS

Location:  Estonian Academy of Arts

Number of participants: max 13

Cost: FREE (Please note that this course is meant for higher education students only)

Registration deadline:  6th of May

In addition to the general required materials, candidates are expected to submit a letter of motivation explaining why they are applying and what is their experience with 3D printing so far (max A4).

The Department of Ceramics at the Estonian Academy of Arts invites you to participate in an international Clay 3D Printing workshop. Ceramics have properties that allow it to be used in the most disparate fields. We usually don’t consider that ceramics are all around us, not just in kitchenware, but also in bathrooms, swimming pools and public interiors, and that stoves and fireplaces, even houses, are made of fired clay. Top-quality ceramics can be found in medical equipment, audio technology and air and space industry. Clay is sensitive, flexible and versatile material with its’ own technological limits which the participants will learn during the workshop.

3D printing in clay allows us to print three-dimensional objects or models at lower cost and more easily. For ceramists, it represents a new technological possibility, while for others it gives a chance to convert digital sketches into real three-dimensional objects. During this course, participants will learn the technical skills of 3D printing and printing in clay: creating G-code and STL files, plus preparation of the clay and printing. The aim of the course is to use innovative thinking to discover new ways of printing, using clay and the printed ceramics. The end of the workshop will feature a pop-up exhibition of the objects created.

The workshop is aimed at ceramics, architecture and design students, but admission is open to all students who have had experience with 3D printing and know how to create 3D files. Every participant needs to bring their own laptop. All other materials are provided, and students may keep the objects they print.

Homework assignment for selectees:

1) students will be asked to bring one of their 3D-file, print ready

2) students will be asked to come up with a design they would like to execute in the workshop. They will be asked to give a presentation on the design in person. As in a hackathon, they will then set to work on the problem.

More information and link to registration form: https://www.artun.ee/summeracademy/clay-3d-printing/

Dates: 20-24 August 2018

Volume: 40 hours, 3 ECTS

Location: Department of Architecture at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Pikk tn 20, Tallinn

Number of participants: max 25

Cost: FREE (Please note that this course is meant for higher education students only)

Registration deadline: 6th of May

In case of high volume of applications, prospective participants are asked to write an essay one A4-format page in length (approximately 250 words).

Content of the course

This workshop is structured on architecture, numbers and cognition with the focus mainly on public space. Two broader topics pervade the workshop. One of them is more physical, involving translating the world into parameters, and the other is mapping social activities. The broad goal is to find connections between the two sets of topics. The environment around us consists of a number of physically countable and measurable parameters, which we can use to describe it (width of a carriageway, location of a cafe). Which parameters are the best for describing or designing the world?  As another important topic, we will map the movements or activities of human masses, using photo and image analysis and Wi-Fi positioning to this end. When, why and where are people moving and how long do they stop – this is an important set of topics, because the quality of space is largely dependent on the presence of people.  The participants in the summer academy course will be challenged to find relationships between the physical world and human activity. It will be important to find a means and method for measuring and documenting the environment. Cognition referred to in the course name refers to experience that can be used in future to make decisions to design and re-design space.  Ideally, we envision the participants who complete the academy to be capable of imagining and perceiving the implications of 1,000 people or 100 cars passing a point.

Picking key parameters (properties) from this environment has long received attention from urbanism scholars: William H. Whyte, who attempted to trace patterns of use of public space, or Kevin Lynch, who tried to find the mental model people use to understand a city.

The late 20th century brought a rise in computing power, which has resulted in change in the accuracy and use of many calculations. In the past, it was not conceivable to calculate trajectories from one building to another manually, but it is now possible. Alongside this trend, a completely new field has arisen: various kinds of simulations. Simulations make it possible to model traffic, pedestrians or both at the same time. Gathering data has become more intensive with a focus moving from gathering qualitative data to collecting quantitative data.  A large part of the summer school involves field observations, which helps instil intuition in participants as to what a given indicator means. This will also give them a clearer understanding of the computational processes and outcomes and they will be able to rationally assess the outcomes of some simulation or facts presented to them.

Participants will become well-versed in methods and means for quantitatively and qualitatively documenting the street-level space, which can in turn later be used for analysis of other places. The participant will also receive an overview of and access to software used in the framework of the workshop. At the end of the summer school, all of the data that was gathered will be made public to allow third parties to use them in their projects – for example, to plan more fluid, safer traffic conditions.

More information and link to registration form: https://www.artun.ee/summeracademy/numbers-and-cognition/

Dates: 6-8 August 2018

Location: Estonian Academy of Arts – Estonia pst 7 / Teatri väljak 1, room 440A

Volume: 24 academic hours, 1 ECTS

Number of participants: max 22

Cost: FREE (Please note that this course is meant for higher education students only)

Registration deadline: 6th of May

In addition to the general required materials, candidates are expected to submit a letter of motivation explaining why they are applying (max A4).

The Contemporary Art Field in Estonia short course is meant for international art history or curatorship students who are who are studying contemporary Estonian or Baltic art, are interested in the contemporary Estonian art world and in working with Estonian artists, curators or art historians, plan to enrol at the Estonian Academy of Arts and are looking for an overview of how the local art landscape operates. The workshop will be led by Academy of Arts teaching staff member, head of the Centre for General Theory Subjects and freelance art critic Maarin Ektermann.

The short course provides an overview of how contemporary art scene in Estonia functions – the most important organizations, the movers and shakers, the currently important and active artists from different disciplines, and the types of events being held. The causal factors behind the art scene are also explored, starting from the restoration of independence, Estonian art in the context of the regional and broader international art scene, and much more.

Topics to be discussed:

• Trends in contemporary art (social criticism, new painting, installation – architectural approach – public space, photography, graphic design, applied arts, etc.). Examples of artists and their work.
• The functioning of the art scene – who is active (what types of professions are feasible in Estonia), how are they funded (Ministry of Culture, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, creative industries, the law that requires a 1% art budget for public buildings, private capital, the art market, artists and work), general diagnostics – bottlenecks and success stories. The development of the art scene since the 1990s, illustrated by keywords.
• Central institutions and platforms (public and private capital-based). What is characteristic for, e.g. galleries, town galleries in county seats, creative industries centres, etc.? Other examples: artists’ residencies, culture factories, Tallinn Art Hall, Tartu Art Museum, Temnikova and Kasela Gallery, Centre of Contemporary Art Estonia, Artists Union.
• Formats and locations of various events. Concentration of art scene mainly in Tallinn and Tartu – what’s going on elsewhere?

More information and link to registration form: https://www.artun.ee/summeracademy/the-contemporary-art-field-in-estonia/

Dates:  6-11 August 2018

Volume: 6 days, 3 ECTS

Location:  Estonian Academy of Arts

Number of participants: max 22

Cost: FREE (Please note that this course is meant for higher education students only)

Registration deadline:  6th of May

Students applying for a slot in this workshop are asked to submit a CV and cover letter describing why they wish to participate and whether they have any old article of clothing to bring with them to Estonia. The cover letter should also reveal why they are interested in restoring textiles and haute couture.

Aim of the course:

• bring a disappearing specialized manual skill to Estonia and teach it to Estonian and international students
• restore articles of clothing in the collection of some Estonian museum and thereby contribute to the preservation of an exhibit item with historical value.

Course content:

The course provides practical and theoretical knowledge of how to restore old clothing – selection of fabrics, stitches and seams, treatment of the material, how different materials age, how to care for and restore different fabrics. In the course of the workshop, students will learn about the internal structure of haute couture clothing, allowing them to later create period-specific silhouettes or re-interpretations of them – pattern solutions for textiles, materials. The course will provide knowledge and skills that can be used to get closer to the secrets of high fashion. All of the participants in the course will be able to restore a part of dresses brought in by the lecturer.

The course teaches handicraft skills that have become a rarity, something highly sought-after among professionals. ˇFewer and fewer people practise these skills in a world dominated by modern fashions. Today clothing made 40, 50, even 100 years ago are held in high regard, as they involved the use of original patterns, hand stitching, high-quality tailoring. To this point, the creation of such clothing have remained shrouded in arcane mystery – they seem easy to imitate at first glance but it is impossible to achieve the right effect without knowing what is going on “under the dress.”

The course is mainly meant for fashion design, theatre design, restoration and design students.

More information and link to registration form: https://www.artun.ee/summeracademy/the-anatomy-of-couture/

Dates:  20-25 August 2018

Volume: 6 days, 3 ECTS

Location:  Viljandi, Estonia

Number of participants: max 22

Cost: FREE (Please note that this course is meant for higher education students only)

Registration deadline:  6th of May

In addition to the general admissions requirements, candidates are expected to submit a letter of intent describing their interest in attending the workshop, and a PDF portfolio including documentation of at least one project relevant to the use and/or attributes of wood.

This 6-day workshop Wood and Design in the lush woodlands of Viljandi, Estonia, focuses on the design aesthetics, ecology, and sustainability of wood. Exploring the material properties of wood through its use in design, the workshop invites participants to build a set of functional wooden objects for outdoor living with the simplest of means. Participants will utilise wood, as a naturally-occurring renewable material, in two forms: solid slab and left-over scraps from local lumber mills. The workshop is therefore not only community-inspired, with materials sourced or found locally, but also meets the ever-growing need to reclaime and recycle waste wood.

Level:

2nd and 3rd year BA students and MA students in Interior Architecture, Furniture Design, or the equivalent.

More information and link to registration: https://www.artun.ee/summeracademy/wood-and-design/