Events

“Paljassaare Palimpsest. A journey Through the Interstices of Trash and Treasure.”

On October 18 from 13:00 to 17:00 in Paljassaare

The first-year urban studies students have once again spent half a semester exploring Paljassaare peninsula – the very edge of the capital where today the entire city’s waste is directed… but also where the new focal point of the future Tallinn, the contemporary urban centre of the Nordic capital, is imagined. This Friday, October 18, the students invite everyone who is interested to join them on a journey between trash and treasures in the (post)industrial heart of Paljassaare, to explore what processes and value judgments shape today’s space.

Gathering on October 18 at 13:00 in front of the Maleva 2A building.

The approximately 5-kilometer journey takes place outdoors in changing landscape and weather conditions and ends around a campfire near Pikakari beach. The event is in English.

Things to bring along:

• snacks + drinks
• headphones
• a mug
• warm clothing
• waterproof footwear

More information on urban studies social media: https://www.facebook.com/urbantallinn

Wednesday, October 9 th 2024, at 5 pm

Restart. Transformations in Modern Housing Estates

Seminar and exhibition opening

Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhja pst 7, Tallinn

What are the opportunities and challenges for the renewal of post-WWII housing estates? What has been the shift from collective to total private ownership? Young practitioners from across Europe will look at the innovative housing estates of the past from today’s perspective, revealing their architectural background, current uses and the personal stories behind the facades.

Speakers include Elspeth Lee (Superposition), Rajna Avramova, Hedwig van der Linden and Kevin Westerveld (Dérive), Ena Kukić and Dinko Jelečević (E+D) and the Spolka collective. Students from the Faculty of Architecture of the Estonian Academy of Arts present their renovation ideas using the example of typical khrushchevkas in Narva.

The event is organised by the Museum of Estonian Architecture and Architectuul in collaboration with the Estonian Academy of Arts under the European Architecture Platform LINA programme.

The seminar will be accompanied by the presentation of a book on the same topic, edited by Christian Burkhard and Triin Ojari and designed by Indrek Sirkel.
The seminar will be followed by an exhibition opening, designed by Indrek Sirkel and Diana Drobot.

The exhibition will run until October 20, 2024.

EKA celebrates its 110th anniversary with a birthday week. 

From November 4th to 8th exhibition tours, lectures and film screenings will take place. The week will end on Friday with the opening of the EKA’s new building, the White House and a birthday party. Departments’ alumni parties will take place on Friday. 

Monday

15.30 Defense of Ulvi Haagensen’s doctoral thesis | Auditorium A-501

17.30 Curator’s tour and model drawing at the EKA museum exhibition “EKA 110 Clothed and Nude. 110 Years of Figure Studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts” | EKA Gallery

18:00 New Media 30: Laura Schmidt (DE) – ZKM_Gameplay. The Next Level (Paul Galloway will be joining us from New York city via screen. In English) | Main hall A-101

Tuesday

17.30 Curator’s tour and model drawing at the EKA museum exhibition “EKA 110 Clothed and Nude. 110 Years of Figure Studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts” | EKA Gallery

18:00 New Media 30: Ava Imogen Grayson (CA/FI) & John Grzinich (US/EE) – Discussing Sound Art (Ava will be joining us from Helsinki via screen. In English) | B-305

19:15 New Media 30: Jaime Lobato (MX/EE) – The right to forget. Artificial intelligences humanly inspired in contemporary art (Jaime will be joining us from Mexico via screen. In English) | B-305

Wednesday

16.00 Open Lecture by honorary doctor Linda van Deursen | Main hall A-101

17.30 Curator’s tour and model drawing at the EKA museum exhibition “EKA 110 Clothed and Nude. 110 Years of Figure Studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts” | EKA Gallery

17.30 Awarding of inners of applied research and development work | The Hole

18.00 Open Lecture by honorary doctor Antoine Picon | Main hall A-101

Thursday

17.30 Curator’s tour and model drawing at the EKA museum exhibition “EKA 110 Clothed and Nude. 110 Years of Figure Studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts” | EKA Gallery

19.00 Cinema: The best of by the Animation Department | Main hall A-101

Friday – PARTY!

16.00 Anniversary assembly and conferment ceremony | Main hall A-101

18.00 Departments’ parties for alumni | EKA Main Building

19.00 Opening of the EKA White House | EKA White House

19.30 Musical performers until the end of the party | Both houses:

• 19.30 – EKA Students Queer Association | EKA white house
• 20:00 – DJ Vaatab jooksvalt | EKA main building
• 21.00 – Karameel | EKA white house
• 21.30 – EKA Chamber Choir | EKA main building
• 21.45 – karaoke with Helina Risti | EKA main building
• 22.30 – Motonormal | EKA white house
• 00.00 – Avemaria | EKA white house

20.30 Auction | Main hall A-101

22.00 EKA 110 gift opening

The programme of events will be updated on a rolling basis.

EKA Birthday Week events are free of charge and open to all.  

Events of EKA Departments as part of the EKA 110 Celebration

Monday, November 4th

• 18:00-21:00 – EKA Open Academy Open Lecture: “EKA 110 | How to Collect Art?” (in Estonian)
• 18:00 – EKA New Media 30: Paul Galloway (US) – Video Games at MoMA

Tuesday, November 5th

• 16:30 – EKA Graphic Design + Product Design present: Open Archive of the Design Faculty 1966-1994 (open area on the 2nd floor, A300)
• 17:00 – EKA Graphic Design + Product Design panel discussion: Design Thinking – Establishing Design in Times of Change (EKA lobby)
• 18:00 – EKA New Media 30: Ava Imogen Grayson (CA/FI) & John Grzinich (US/EE) – Discussing Sound Art (room B305)
• 19:15 – EKA New Media 30: Jaime Lobato (MX/EE) – The Right to Forget: Artificial Intelligences in Contemporary Art
• 17:00 – EKA Graphic Art: Exhibition of Nominees for the Edmund Valtman Young Graphic Artist Scholarship (EKA glass gallery)

Thursday, November 7th

• 18:00 – EKA New Media 30: Raivo Kelomees – Metamorphoses of Media Art (room A101)

Friday, November 8th

• 16:00-00:00 – EKA Textile 110: Installation Textile in 110 Squares (room D504)
• 10:00-17:00 – EKA Interaction Design and Animation Departments’ installation Godseed (Kotzebue 10 basement)
• 17:00 – Opening of EKA New Media 30th Anniversary Outdoor Exhibition: Video Installations
• 18:00 – Formal Research Seminar of the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture (room A501)
• 18:00 – EKA Glass Department Book Launch Glass Painting – Painting with Light (room B604)
• 22:00 – EKA Architecture / PAKK – Opening of EKA’s Gift (Kotzebue 2)

Alumni Gatherings on Friday, November 8th

• 17:30 – Ceramic Department Gathering: Viewing of Past Works and Identifying Authors (room B602)
• 17:30 – Fashion Design Alumni and Faculty Gathering, Tour of Workspaces and Works (room D507)
• 18:00 – Formal Research Seminar and Gathering of the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture (room A501)
• 18:00 – Design and Innovation (formerly known as Applied Art) Room Open! Welcoming future and current alumni, instructors, and friends! (room D404)
• 18:00 – Product Design Alumni and Student Gathering and “Cafe” (room C301)
• 18:00 – Interaction Design Alumni and Student Party (room D306)
• 18:00 – Textile Design Alumni and Student Reunion (room D505)
• 18:00 – Photography Department Gathering at Maitselabor. Opportunity to tour department spaces and studios. Wide Angle Gallery Exhibition (room B407)
• 18:00 – Faculty of Architecture Introduction and Social Space (room A400)
• 18:00 – Glass Department Book Launch, Formal Gathering, and Studio Tour (room B604)
• 18:00 – Accessory and Bookbinding Department open! Welcoming future and current alumni, instructors, and friends. Showcasing the accessory and bookbinding studio; recent student work exhibited in the glass display at the entrance. Leather drink bar by accessory artisans! (rooms B510 and B511)
• 18:00 – Jewellery and Blacksmithing Department open! Tour of department spaces and workshops (room B504)
• 18:00 – The Department of Heritage Protection and Conservation invites its alumni and friends to the sculpture conservation studio (room D308)

On Friday, August 30th, starting at 12:00, the opening ceremony of the 2024/25 academic year will be held. The ceremony takes place in the main hall (A101) and lasts approximately 1.5 hours.

With the exhibition of Jane Remm’s creative research project “Interspecies Social Sculpture”, the doctoral student pays homage to Joseph Beuys, the creator of the world’s first green party, and invites you to participate in a nature walk at the opening of the exhibition.

On August 25, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., there will be a tour of the opening of the exhibition of Jane Remm’s artistic research project “Interspecies Social Sculpture”, which conceptualizes the garden and the forest as a multi-perspective creative environment. Expanding Joseph Beuys’ concept of social sculpture into a multifaceted context, the artist explores what it means to harness everyone’s creative potential in a modern age, when the world in an ecological crisis needs to adapt to degrowth.

“Interspecies social sculpture” combines the ecological dimension in the form of increasing biodiversity, the dimension of interspecies co-creation and the social dimension through public events. The experiential exhibition tour opens up different perspectives on the garden and forest through active participation. “It’s an attempt to co-create with other species and thereby think about the role of art in the long term,” says Jane Remm and continues: “This is a garden diary where drawings and writings have accumulated over the course of a year. It is a multi-perspective composition that is constantly changing through the cooperation of different actors. I act as an equal among other beings. It is an attempt to act in art locally, slowly and on a small scale. At the same time, this is a provocation through which I am investigating whether growing food, hay or firewood can be positive activism in today’s world, and in the context of Estonia. It is an attempt to give the everyday garden and forest a creative and artistic conditionality, and the suspicion that in competitive capitalism local peripheral actions have little value. It is the hesitation that co-creation with other species will not succeed. It is the uncertainty that less is not better. Let’s get entangled into that uncertainty and vulnerability.”

“Interspecies Social Sculpture” is the second peer-reviewed project of Jane Remm’s artistic

research doctoral thesis.

The “Interspecies Social Sculpture” exhibition is open during tours on August 25, September 15 and 22, and October 4.

The tour starts at 17:00 from the Mähkli bus stop: https://maps.app.goo.gl/fidsotPcnY2HtJgc9, passes through points in the forest and garden and leads to the common dinner table. Public transport to the place is poor, those coming from further away could share a car, while those coming closer could travel by bike or on foot. Weather conditions must be taken into account when it comes to clothing. The trip is free.

Registration:  https://forms.gle/vytS5ybUy8L9h98F8

More information about the project. 

Jane Remm is an artist, art teacher and artistic researcher, doctoral student at EKA and art didactics lecturer at Tallinn University BFM. Jane Remm’s work focuses on the representation of the experience of nature, co-creation and communication with different life forms. She is interested in what are the possibilities to understand and interpret the life experience of other species and communicate with them as equal dialogue partners using the means of art. She values manual working and co-creation with other species as a way of perceiving herself as part of nature.

CV: https://www.etis.ee/CV/Jane_Remm/, creative portfolio: www.janeremm.ee

Events previously held in the project: 06.08.24 “Determining, noticing, drawing and thinking walk” within the nature observation marathon led by Liina Remm, Indrek Hiiesalu, Jane Remm, Riin Magnus and Tiit Remm, 16.06.24 “Omailmatalgud” led by Timo Maran; 15.07.24 “Bat walk” led by Jaanus and Piret Remm. The review of the project will take place as part of the 4th trip. Reviewers: prof. Linda Kaljundi (Estonian Academy of Arts) and Taru Elfving (CAA Contemporary Art Archipelago, Finland).

The artist thanks dialogue partner Marta Konovalov, EKA Doctoral School, Remmik, all human and non-human neighbours of Karula.

“Interspecies Social Sculpture” is partly related to the project “Artists and designers as researchers, rethinkers, and partners of nature in the context of degrowth” (01.07.2023–31.12.2024), PR02049, which is funded by the Ministry of Culture. 

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

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.

Estonian Academy of Arts / June 18, 2024

ERKI Fashion show 2024 focuses on illusions and parallel worlds that we create for ourselves through social media and technology. However, such dreamlike bubbles often help us cope with real-life difficulties. As creators, we also construct our own worlds where we can act without criticism.

The fashion show encourages seeking balance, exploring, and connecting everyday life with the imaginary, to understand if there might be something entirely different at the meeting point of these two.

On June 18, the Estonian Academy of Arts will bring to the stage 20 young artists and fashion designers who will present unprecedented collections to the audience and international jury.

17:30 – DOORS OPEN / Estonian Academy of Arts (Põhja pst 7)
18:30 – PERFORMANCE
19:00 – ACT I Catwalk
20:00 – BREAK
20:30 – ACT II Showcase
21:30 – AWARD CEREMONY

Tickets: https://fienta.com/et/erki-moeshow-2024-2

The event lasts until 22:00