Public review of Maria Kapajeva’s doctoral project

On December 11, the public review of the third doctoral project by the art and design doctoral student Maria Kapajeva will take place. Peer-review event is based on a book that Maria Kapajeva, published with OPA! Publishing in May 2024.
The event will take place at 14.00-15.30 via zoom.
Zoom LINK (Meeting ID: 989 0757 9603, Passcode: 803718)

Reviewers are Dr. Ingrid Ruudi (Estonian Academy of Arts) and Dr. Malin Arnell (Umeå University)
Supervisors of doctoral thesis are: Dr. Redi Koobak (University of Strathclyde) and Dr. Annika Elisabeth von Hausswolff (University of Gothenburg)

“a year-long scream”, OPA! Publishing, 2024

A collection of texts by Maria Kapajeva that she wrote in Russian and English. She started writing the book on February 24, 2022 – the day the full-scale war in Ukraine began. The book is written in a personal style and deals with themes of identity, collective and individual responsibility and guilt, language and belonging, feminism, and the stories of some of the Ukrainian refugees that the author encountered during the year.

The book is published in three languages as individual copies: Estonian, English and Russian.

Graphic design: Kersti Heile
Estonian language translator: Katrin Hallas
English translation proof-reading: Inese Strupule
Edition of 200 copies per language
The book is supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Academy of Arts

The books in all three languages are available at EKA Library.
They can also be purchased at Rahvaraamat and Apollo bookshops or with a direct order from the publisher via email info@opapublishing.com.

On December 6th from 6 pm A-Galerii will open its annual exhibition of Estonian contemporary jewellery, abstract objects and applied art that leaves plenty of room for interpretation. The materials used in the pieces range from various metals, textiles, and glass to organic materials. The exhibition concept embeds people and social practices addressing what kind of role and meanings given to objects play in curating our own personal reality.

A piece of jewellery and an art object is a valuable and layered conveyor of culture. It has symbolised belonging to a social, religious or political group functioning as a bind in between and a force guiding people to behave in a certain way. Therefore, assigning meaning to a physical object can be very efficacious on a personal and group level. There is a possibility to give meanings to an object that it originally did not have without the viewer.

Through objects, one can propose a hypothesis about the creation of the future. This activity enables us to break away from habitual meanings in relation to items and to consciously play around with them. This is proof that the future has not been fixed even though it might seem this way sometimes. The exhibition encourages the viewer to think about realistic and fictional scenarios about the future through dreaming and interpretation. With this practice new ideas and important meanings are being created.

The exhibition is open from December 6, 2024, to January 11, 2025.

On Friday, December 6th at 11:00, a symposium on postmodernism “Lost in Time Like Tears in the Rain” will take place at the Tartu Elektriteater.

The transition period from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the rise of independence Estonia can be considered in many ways an unique and exceptional period. It was a time of historical openness, where one way of doing things had ceased to exist, but another was just taking off. It was a time of intellectual and artistic possibilities, in spite of the fact that means and possibilities were scarce. And it was at this time that the new postmodernism as a new cultural logic, promising perhaps another kind of diversity, plurality and freedom. A confused thing arrived in a confused time and began to resonate in its own way. What it was or much of it was there at all? That is what Estonia’s leading cultural figures and researchers will give their own perspective on what was in the air and what it was like for them, what postmodernism meant to them then and what it means now.

SCHEDULE

11–12:30 Session I
Peeter Laurits / Ene-Liis Semper / Janek Kraavi / Kiwa / Tõnis Kahu /
Barbi Pilvre

12:30–13 Coffee break

13–14:30 Session II
Hanno Soans / Virve Sarapik / Luule Epner / Andrus Laansalu / Piret
Viires / Marju Lauristin

14:30–15:30 Lunch break

15:30–17 Session III
Hasso Krull / Märt Väljataga / Valle-Sten Maiste / Epp Annus / Raili
Marling / Aare Pilv

17–20 Reception (Lossi 3 lobby)

The event is organized by the Institute of Cultural Studies of the University of Tartu and the Interuniversity Research Group of Contemporary Estonian Culture

The event is supported by the Estonian Science Foundation grant PRG636 “Patterns of development in Estonian culture of transition period 1986–1998)”.

Bianca Herlo will give a public lecture entitled “Digital Justice. Feminist Futures” on Tuesday, December 10th at 16:00 in room A501. 

Design, arts, culture, media, and science are eagerly trying to categorize the latest developments in digital technology. Affirmative voices praise especially GenAI and its potentials, critical voices are expressing concerns about the developments in digital technologies and especially AI, and their eco-social consequences. Under the conditions of complex structural crises, technology-induced transformation processes and uncertain futures, new understandings of research and knowledge production might play a decisive role.

How can we shape digitalization processes in the interest of a fairer future for people and the environment? To what extent can practice-integrating research be understood as transformative research?

Bianca Herlo is Professor of Eco-Social Design and head of the Competence Center “Transformation Design” at Lucerne University, Design Film Art. She has been working for many years on issues of inequalities, social and digital participation and the potential of design for a more just digital transformation. As a research group leader at the Weizenbaum Institute and the Berlin University of the Arts, she has worked in national and international collaborations with actors from the arts, academia, politics and civil society to explore how emerging discourses of injustice and inequality can be translated into structural change.

Bianca is a founding member of the international Social Design Network (SDN) and chair of the German Society for Design Theory and Research (DGTF). Since 2022 she has co-hosted the podcast “Purple Code. Intersectional feminist perspectives on digital societies” (purplecode.org).

The Design Open Lecture series 2024 is part of Sandra Nuut and Ruth-Helene Melioranski’s Design Issues course. It is public and open to all.

On December 3 and 5, open lectures will be held at the Niguliste Museum and the Church of the Holy Spirit as part of Bernt Notke’s seminar and workshop, and everyone is welcome to attend.

NIGULISTE MUSEUM:
Tuesday, December 3 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Beata Možejko ((University of Gdańsk) and Oskar Rojewski (University of Silesia in Katowice):
“A Happy accident for Poland…” – The Last Judgement of Hans Memling in Gdańsk

The Triptych of the Last Judgement is one of the earliest artworks by Hans Memling, and many researchers have discussed its story and style. The painting, currently in the National Museum of Gdańsk, was commissioned by Angelo di Jacopo Tani and was intended for the chapel of the Badia Fiesolana church near Florence. In 1473, due to the seizure of the ship carrying the painting by the privateer Paul Beneke, the artwork never arrived at its intended destiny. The triptych was placed in the Brotherhood of St. George Chapel in St. Mary’s Church in Gdańsk.

This paper aims to explain the details of the seizure of the Triptych of the Last Judgement based on archival research, its place within Memling’s oeuvre, the reception of Memling’s work in the Pomeranian region and recent historiographical discussions about the artwork. The presentation provides not only the background of Notke’s time but also can serve as a comparative case study for the overseas visual culture reception. Additionally, this study explains the preventive conservation opportunities for Memling’s painting in Gdańsk and its Baltic contexts to be tackled in the future.

THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Thursday, December 5 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Anja Rasche ja Kerstin Petermann (Netzwerk Kunst und Kultur der Hansestädte):
Notke versus Rode – Reflections between Genius and Craftsman

Lectures are held in English.

Project “Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies” (2021-2027.4.04.24-0003) is co-funded by the European Union.

On November 30, the presentation of the visually formatted process model and exhibition of the project “MUUSA: Synthesis and Development of Material Research” supported by the Ministry of Culture will take place.

The exhibition in the format of an open studio includes both completed and unfinished material assemblages and supporting structures. The MUUSA project was carried out by lecturers from the Estonian Academy of Arts and the heads of the Craft Studies Master’s programme, Kärt Ojavee and Juss Heinsalu.

One of the goals of the project was to develop a model of creative research based on materials using the co-creation method. During the work period, different versions were tested and synthesized and, for example, the following were studied: how to approach the study of the composition and properties of materials in creative practice; how to apply material as a method in managing the process; how to involve material as a muse to guide creative goals and interpretive solutions? The study of materials through artistic practice involves both meaning-making, sensory approaches, and the discovery and integration of the applicable properties of materials in possible final results. Eik Hermann helped to conceptualize and formulate the process based on the material and the knowledge generated through collaboration.

* moment of appearance – the moment when one production cycle has been completed and the work has reached the draft or rough draft level, when it can either be tried out in reality or temporarily or permanently shared with a smaller or larger audience; if it is a moment of showing the draft phase, then a new production cycle follows the showing.

During the project, collaboration has also been carried out with Marie Vihmari, Fibenol OÜ, Reval Stone and AAA Patent Office.

The project presentation will take place at Kopli 27.

The project space can be visited until 12.12.2024 by agreement with the authors.

MUUSA project space exhibition design: Annika Kaldoja
Graphic design: Indrek Sirkel

Project manager: Anna Lohmatova

Thanks to: Eik Hermann, Piret Valk, Gert Preegel, Janno Rauk, Soldi Rent OÜ, Eesti Killustik OÜ, Villavennad OÜ, Selgase Dolomitit OÜ, Mattias Veller, Estonian Academy of Arts Research and Development Department, Ceramics, Textiles, Jewelry and Blacksmithing, Sculpture Workshops, Bruce Anderson, Joosep Kivimäe, Gary Markle, Andrus Ojavee, Heron Vrubel.

You are welcome to the opening of Krista Leesi’s exhibition In Spe. Saint Victor and the Four Dragons at Draakon gallery on Thursday, November 28, at 18.00. The exhibition will remain open until January 4, 2025. 

The exhibition draws inspiration from the martyrdom of Saint Victor, as portrayed on the main altar of St. Nicholas Church in Tallinn. The altar, crafted in the workshop of Lübeck master Hermen Rode, was brought to Tallinn 543 years ago.

“The times are tense, even frightening.
Such that every means and possibility must be put into service.
Why not even mythical creatures and medieval patron saints.
Tallinn’s patron saint was Saint Victor.
He is often depicted on altars alongside Saint George, the dragon slayer.
But Saint Victor did not slay dragons.
Perhaps dragons might protect the knightly saint and us instead?”

Krista Leesi is an artist and designer with a distinctive textile art practice and extensive teaching experience at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She stands out in the field of textile art with her conceptual approach, often exploring the multi-layered meanings of language (as the author of tekkSTIILIkunsti SÕNAraamat). Leesi graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 1993 and has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Estonia and abroad since 1992. Her first solo exhibition was in 1999. Leesi’s work encompasses both distinctive unique creations and practical small productions. Her works are part of the collection of the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design. Her works can be encountered in several museum collections around the world: in Tartu Art Museum, the China National Silk Museum (Hangzhou, China), the Contextile Contemporary Textile Art Biennial (Guimarães, Portugal), and World Textile Art (Miami, Florida, USA).

In 2019, Leesi was awarded the annual award by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia for her work. In 2020, she won the main prize at Contextile, one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary textile art biennials. In 2021, her site-specific exhibition Verbarium, which conceptually connected language and visuals, was shown at Tartu Art Museum. Leesi has been named Textile Artist of the Year four times and is a member of the Estonian Textile Artists’ Association and the Estonian Artists’ Association.

www.kristaleesi.ee

The artists gratitude goes to: Heino Prunsvelt, Kadi Kibbermann, Äli-Ann Klooren, Leelo Leesi, Mari-Leen Leesi, Aivi Valliste.
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions at Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

TOPOLOGIES OF SOFTNESS – FUTURE(S) OF SPACE

On Friday 29 November at 5 p.m, Gabi Schillig, Professor of Spatial Design and Exhibition Design at the Berlin University of the Arts, will give an open lecture on softness and ephemeral spatiality at EKA. This semester, Schillig is teaching in the MA programme of Interior Architecture. In this lecture, she will open up about her creative practice and present past teaching projects.

Gabi Schillig explores and shapes responsive architectures and spaces of communication. Her artistic work and teaching resonates with an ephemeral, animate, imaginary and temporal understanding of spaces and bodies. She explores the spatial and dimension of a corporeal existence through the sensorial interrelationship of softness, fragility and intimacy as spatial, material and social concepts. Softness creates new possibilities for making contact and being in touch with the world – examining relationships with the „other“, the unknown, the foreign, in contrast and in opposition to violence and destruction that is on the rise in societies world-wide. Instead, as a counter movement, there is a need to unfold new forms of soft spatialities.

Gabi Schillig studied Architecture and completed her postgraduate studies in Conceptual Design at the Städelschule – Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste Frankfurt am Main before founding her ‘Studio for Dialogical Spaces’ in Berlin in 2008. She has exhibited internationally and received several fellowships and prizes, amongst others: Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart (2007-08), Van Alen Institute New York (2009), Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale (2010) , KHOJ International Artists’ Association New Delhi (2011), Largo das Artes Rio de Janeiro (2015), Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau (2016) and Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of the Arts (2018 – 19). Most recent projects have been „bodies without organs*“ for Liebling Haus in Tel Aviv (with Lila Chitayat, 2020-21) or „Accento – The City in the Piano VI“ (in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Yui Kawaguchi and jazz pianist and composer Aki Takase, silent green Berlin, 2022), where she explored the parallels between the structural elements of the piano, space and sound through performative soft architectures and spatial choreographic body-related objects.

From 2012 – 2018 she taught as a professor at the Düsseldorf Peter Behrens School of Art and in 2018 she was appointed as Professor for Spatial Design and Exhibition Design at the Berlin University of the Arts at the Institute of Transmedia Design. During winter 2024_25 she will be teaching as a guest at the EKA Estonian Academy of the Arts in Tallinn, Estonia.

In autumn/winter 2023 Gabi Schillig was an artist-in-residence at Saiko Neon and guest artist at ACAC – Aomori Contemporary Art Center, Japan to explore the potentials of soft matters – spaces of ephemerality and held her first solo exhibition in Japan at Kobo Chika Gallery in Tokyo. For spring 2024 she was invited to join ダイロッカン:dai6okkan 2024 Residency Art Festival initiated by 6okken, Yamanashi Prefecture. In spring 2025 she will return to Japan as an artist-in-residence at Space Department Nara to continue her artistic research on topologies of softness and the sensory, affective, poetic and socio-political dimension of air, space, bodies and atmosphere.

→ www.gabischillig.de
→ www.spacesofcommunication.de

Everyone from the fields of architecture, design, and art are welcome to join! The lecture will be in English and is free of charge. We wish to thank Erasmus+ programme for supporting this lecture.

—
Photo Credits_
(left) Gabi Schillig, soft architectures / performed by Yui Kawaguchi / photo by Anna Pasco Bolta / VG Bild-Kunst Bonn / bodies move differently in presence / TUM / München (2022)
(right) Gabi Schillig, absolute interiority (2024)  

The exhibition by a group of seventeen artists from Ida-Viru County who live and work on the border of Europe — geographically, linguistically and culturally. The exhibition ‘Deep Skin’ offers a glimpse into how the biological boundary of the human body turned into a symbol in art telling stories that transcend linguistic and cultural barriers.

Paintings, sculptures and installations reflect the thoughts and feelings of artists from Ida-Virumaa, emphasising their similarities and differences. A 19-year-old is the youngest participant, and a 70-year-old is the oldest. Among the participants are anime fans, classically educated painters, mothers with an engineering background and young people dreaming of a professional career in arts. What can be said in common by artists of different generations, occupations and opinions? Come and find out!

The exhibition opens on November 30 at 17.00 in the gallery of the Tallinn Art House (Vabaduse väljak 6) and will run until December 15. Working hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 13:00 to 19:00.

Participating artists are Diana Semibratova, Eneli Heinland, Ira Sopina, Julia Rodionova, Kopylove, Kristina Belikova, Larissa Tunjova, Natalja Kapajeva, Nadežda Sabajeva, Olga Matseralik, Olga Toivonen, Olga Tjurina, Paulina Belik, Sergei Kirbenjov, Tanja Sonina, Tatjana Silašina, Valeria Kregždaite, Žanna Golubtsova.
These artists have been participating in the work of the Ida-Viru Artists Club for the past three months. The exhibition “Deep Skin” is their joint creative achievement. The club is led by Darja Popolitova, an artist, visiting lecturer and PhD student at the Estonian Academy of Arts. The project was initiated by Johanna Rannula, Director of the Narva Art Residence.

The exhibition and activities of the club are supported by the British Council in Estonia, the Estonian Academy of Arts, the Narva Art Residence and the Tallinn Art Hall.

 The works of EKA students offer a new look at Estonian design classics at the exhibition Selected Interventions

On the 29th of November, the exhibition Selected Interventions will open at the Estonian Museum of Applied Arts and Design. Selected Interventions is a collection of new works and dialogues within the museum’s permanent exhibitions by the MA students of Craft Studies of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

The MA programme brings together people from various backgrounds and with a deep interest in materials and making. The Craft Studies curriculum expands on understanding contemporary crafts and advances professional development, critical expression, and artistic research into materials, processes, concepts and identities. 

Through this unique intervention, the exhibition examines the works of applied art and design classics on display in the permanent exhibitions Collected Works and Introduction to Estonian Design.

Based on their background and interests, each student selected a piece, a series of works, or an artist to have a closer dialogue with. They were encouraged to respond with new pieces based on past techniques, approaches, materials, stories, aesthetics, forms, and more. This project consists of interventions that redirect our attention, study the heritage or add a new layer of meaning. 

“I was intrigued by the opposition of qualities Rait Präät’s work gives; the glass was no longer used as glass but as a layered cake, painting each floor with a different life. Prääts’ work made me question the choices we make about storing memory in our bodies and minds. What do we put in the frame? What do we perceive?” explains Craft Studies student Sofiya Babiy. 

Selected Interventions includes work by Sofiya Babiy, Iohan Figueroa Rojas, Rait Lõhmus, Juulia Aleksandra Mikson, Alyona Movko-Mägi, Katariin Mudist, Maarja Mäemets, Kati Saarits, Hannah Segerkrantz, and Elias Sormanen. 

The project was supervised by Juss Heinsalu and Kärt Ojavee.

Selected Interventions is a satellite exhibition of the 9th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial.

The exhibition tours conducted by students of Craft Studies will take place on 30.11 at 13:00 (in Estonian), 7.12 at 13:00 (in Russian) and 14.12 at 13:00 (in English).

More information: Sandra Nuut, tel: +372 58717871

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