Events

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.

Mark Gottdiener’s public lecture “Postmodern semiotics” will take place on September 15th as part of the Training School seminar “Local Stories and Visual Narratives”.

The lecture will take place 15.09.2021 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, specialising in urban sociology. He is called one of the most important Urban Sociologist in U.S.

Training School Local Stories and Visual Narratives for international PhD students will take place on September 15th – 16th in Estonian Academy of Arts. It is organised by EU COST action CA18126 Writing Urban Places.

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. This COST action has 35 European countries as participants.

The Training School in EAA 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, Irene Hütsi, Tiina Tammet (EAA Tallinn)

The event is supported by the European Regional Development Fund

Animist Tallinn is a new annual animation festival that offers the audience an overview of the best contemporary films, values animation as an art form, promotes creative thinking and contributes to the distribution of Estonian animation.

The festival centre is located at the Estonian Academy of Arts, where film screenings, workshops, lectures and meetings with authors take place. Close by are several additional screening venues, the attractive and developing North Tallinn area with the city’s best cafes and party locations. Animist brings together animation enthusiasts and filmmakers in a relaxed atmosphere, creates an opportunity to exchange and generate ideas.

In addition to the international competition program, the festival aims to explore the connection between animation and other fields of life. The theme for 2021 is animation and anthropology. Experts in their field will dissect the topic at various film screenings and lectures.

20th August 2021 will also mark the 30th anniversary of the Estonian Restoration of Independence and Animist will celebrate this event with a special screening “The Free Line”.

The festival will also include screenings and events for families and children.

See the full programme here: https://animistfestival.eu/en/

Festival access is free for EKA students!

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/animisttallinn

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/animisttallinn/

The festival is organized by MTÜ Animist Tallinn.

??? Summer School is a week-long experimental workshop with a focus on type design and typography, taking place on August 15-22 in the beautiful countryside of Oandu village, Lahemaa National Park, Estonia.

Typography is often closely related to the urban environment but ??? Summer School aims at finding new methods and inspiration in the practice of typography by experimenting with it in rural Estonia.

??? Summer School is being held for the 2nd time and the theme of 2021 is: GRAVITY.

We welcome graphic designers, artists, architects, theorists, critics, curators and everyone else interested to participate.

Our tutors are Laura Linsi & Roland Reemaa (UK/EST) and César Rogers (FRA/NL) + guest lecturers.

Apply to ??? Summer School HERE

More info on our official website

Most current info on our Instagram account

All questions You can send here: info@qoqoqo.ee

The Graduation Ceremonies of this year will take place on Friday, June 18th in the EKA assembly hall (room A101, Põhja puiestee 7, Tallinn).

• 11 am – Faculty of Design
• 1 pm – Doctoral School and the faculties of Architecture and Art Culture
• 3 pm – Faculty of Fine Art

Seating is reserved for the graduates in the assembly hall, family and friends can watch the ceremony from the big screens placed in the open areas of the 1st floor or via tv.artun.ee.

The registration to the PhD Vitamin consultations and workshop is open! (link below)

The second PhD Vitamin at the Estonian Academy of Arts will take place this year on June 15-17 via ZOOM. The event consists of public lectures, consultations and a workshop for drafting a doctoral thesis. The event will once again bring together experts in creative research with those interested in entering doctoral studies in art and design.

All interested parties are welcome to participate in public lectures by creative research experts June 15-16:

Tuesday, 15.06. 14:00-15:00 – Mick Wilson

Mick Wilson is an artist, educator, and researcher. He is currently Professor of Art and Director of Doctoral Studies at HDK-Valand Academy of Art & Design, University of Gothenburg. He has been actively involved in developing and promoting artistic research on the academic, institutional, and public levels. His current research deals with questions of art as public culture; political community with the dead; exhibition-making as inquiry; and the rhetorical dynamics of knowledge conflict and symbolic violence. His co-edited volumes include: How Institutions Think (2017) and The Curatorial Conundrum (2016), both MIT and with Paul O’Neill and Lucy Steeds, and SHARE Handbook for Artistic Research Education (2013), ELIA with Schelte van Ruiten. Wilson is currently involved in projects like PARSE On the Question of Exhibition (2020-2021), Open Up (2019-2023), and Public Art Research Report II (2020-2022).

In his lecture entitled “Meeting Friends and Parting Ways,” Mick Wilson will give a personal exploration of the potentials and tensions of the artistic research field based on his collaborative experience as an artist, writer, researcher, and organizer.

Tuesday, 15.06. 17:00-18:00 – Britta Benno

Britta Benno is a Tallinn-based artist who specializes in drawing and printmaking. She is interested in various hybrid techniques and materials that open up new perspectives. In recent years Benno has been working on a series depicting posthuman urban landscapes. Her conceptual keywords include memory, power, and loss of meaning (ruins), imagination (worlding), printmaker’s tools of thought (thinking in layers), and posthuman philosophy.

Since 2018 Benno is a doctoral student on the EKA art and design doctoral curriculum. Her practice-based research focuses on thinking in layers and imagining in layers inherent to her medium: posthuman landscapes in the field of extended drawing and printmaking. In her lecture, she will present her research, shed light on how it has evolved and changed during the studies, and how the academic and artistic practices work together.

Wednesday, 16.06. 16:00-17:30 – Thomas Markussen & Eva Knutz

Thomas Markussen is associate professor and co-founder of the Social Design Research Unit at the University of Southern Denmark. In his work, Markussen focuses on how design can be used as a political and critical aesthetic practice, notably in social design, design activism, and design fiction.

Eva Knutz is an artist and designer, an associate professor within practice-based design research, and co-founder of the Social Design Research Unit at the University of Southern Denmark. The group works on participatory design processes leading to social value for the individual and society at large, with particular attention to marginalized or vulnerable groups in society. Knutz has a developed number of prototypes (games) and research artifacts (probes, self-aid kits, tools) focusing on two large public sectors, healthcare, and criminal care.

Markussen’ and Knutz’ shared lecture is titled “Practice-based research in art and design – an introduction”.

Consultations and Workshop: June 16-17

In addition to the lectures, individual consultations take place within the framework of the PhD Vitamin on June 16. They offer the opportunity to talk about artistic work and ideas for a doctoral thesis with an expert of your choice. To register for a consultation, please provide your portfolio with the registration form (see below).

On June 17, the workshop about ideation and preparation for one’s PhD proposal with Thomas Markussen and Eva Knutz will take place. To take part in the workshop, please provide a 1-pager of your idea. Instructions can be found on the registration form.

To participate in the consultation or the workshop, register HERE. [Registration for consultations and the workshop is closed. Please join the open lectures instead: no registration is required for that.]

We encourage artists and designers, alumni, and graduates of the Estonian Academy of Arts and other universities working with creative research methods to register. Registration is open until 11.06.2021. The exact consultation times will be sent directly to the provided e-mail addresses. Be quick – the number of free spots for the consultations is limited!

The lectures and consultations will take place in digital environments.

If you have any questions, please contact madis.luik@artun.ee

PhD Vitamin was first initiated in 2020 by the Faculty of Fine Arts. In 2021, it is being organized as a collaboration between the faculties of fine art, design and the EKA doctoral school.

PhD Vitamin is supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

EKA New Media has been enlisted as an educational partner in this years Pixelache festival online event #Burn_Slow

Events are starting this Friday and Saturday with #Burn_Slow, a series of talks and workshops organized by Liepaja University MP Lab. These events are free and specially made for students. Students varying from Fine Art to Design are welcome, as well as others interested. 

“Burn_Slow: Nordic-Baltic Sound and Radio Art for Mental Well-being” is an international audio art project which unites sound artists and art students from Nordic-Baltic region exploring mental ecology in times of crisis and social seclusion, via online lectures, skill-sharing, discussion and innovative networked audio performances.

Website

Facebook event

YouTube live stream for artist talks and discussion

Application form for attending workshops

The 15th conference from the series “Studies in Contemporary Culture” is dedicated to analyzing the cultural policies of the transition era (~1986–1998) in Estonia. The conference is organized by the Research Group of Contemporary Estonian Culture (EKA, TLÜ, TÜ) and the Estonian Writers’ Union.

The conference is supported by the Estonian Research Council (grant PRG636), the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, and the research fund of the Estonian Academy of Arts.