Contemporary Art and Context: Mare Tralla

From Breaking Illusions to Becoming a Unicorn. Artist talk by Mare Tralla

Mare Tralla’s first public solo performance, Breaking Illusions (1993), and her most recent performative video work, Becoming a Unicorn, exhibited last month in Edinburgh, represent two significant milestones in her artistic journey. In her first performance, Tralla began with a quiet, symbolic action of destroying the perceived notion of a (young) woman / herself. In many ways, Becoming a Unicorn continues this exploration, presenting a self-ironic and humorous act of creating a queer self. Between these two works lies a journey of feminist inquiry, spanning art, activism, and life.

Mare Tralla (b 1967, Tallinn) is queer-feminist artist and activist. Her professional art career started in Estonia in the early 90s, where she was one of the very few conducting a feminist revolution in the field of contemporary art. Drawing from her personal history and everyday experience her practice was in direct critical response to how the transition period of Eastern European societies affected women. In her art practice she employs and combines a variety of media: video, photography, performance, interactive media, painting and various traditional crafts. As an activist she has been involved with Act Up, London, Catwalk4Power, No Pride in War coalition and LGSMigrants. Her recent performative projects deal with queer experiences, gender issues, investigate sustainability and economics. Currently Mare Tralla lives and works in Edinburgh.

Recent exhibitions include: ‘Duck and Cover’, Vabaduse Gallery Tallinn (2024), ‘In the Name of Desire’, Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga (2024); ‘We Don’t Do This. Intimacy, Norms and Fantasies in Baltic Art’, MO Museum, Vilnius (2024);  ‘Same Subject Continued’, Edinburgh Palette, Edinburgh (2023);  ‘Consequences’, Out of A Blue Drill Hall, Edinburgh (2022); ‘Atishoo, A-tishoo, We All Fall Down’, EKKM, Tallinn (2019); ‘Machine Divas’, steirischerherbst’20, Schaumbad, Graz (2019);  ’Woman&Woman’, City Gallery, Pärnu, 2019; ‘The X-Files [Registry of the Nineties]’, Art Museum of Estonia KUMU, Tallinn, (2018-2019); ‘Give Up the Ghost. Baltic Triennial 13’, Kim?, Riga, (2018);  ‘Bastard Voices’, Baltic Triennial 13, evening of performances, South London Gallery, London, (2018); ‘Women’, Threshold Artspace, Perth, UK (2017-2018).

Recent text contributions in books: Feminist Art Activisms and Artivisms, ed. Katy Deepwell, Valiz 2020; Watched! Surveillance, Art and Photography, eds. Louise Wolthers, Dragana Vujanovic, Niclas Östlind, 2016; re.act.feminism a performing archive, eds. Bettina Knaup and Beatrice Ellen Stammer, 2014; quite queer, ed. Claudia Reiche, 2014

www.tralla.net 

The talk will be held in English.