Exhibitions

On Wednesday, September 6 at 18.00, Keiu Maasik‘s exhibition Meadows of Change, A Place Called Home will open in Hobusepea gallery.

“For the past few years, I had buried myself in the world of computer games and preferred to spend my free time in virtuality. It seemed to be an acceptable thought exercise that in the future human life will move to the virtual world. One of the games I immersed myself in for several months was Red Dead Redemption 2. I felt like there was no other place I’d rather be than in the world of RDR2. The game takes place in 1899 in America. The story follows the ventures of a gang of outlaws at a time when the Wild West is fading and civilization is encroaching. Their time is coming to an end and fear is in the air ahead of changes bound to arrive. I was very frightened last year when I encountered a herd of wild horses. A rumble could be heard in the distance, and the ground beneath shook gently. At some point, about twenty horses came into view, galloping at full speed through sea water. The horses and the powerful scenery seen in the game now seemed hollow in comparison. I want the world to move forward, but I don’t want to lose the galloping horses roaming about freely.” Keiu Maasik

Keiu Maasik has graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a bachelor’s degree in photography and a master’s degree in contemporary art. In 2019, she received the EAA Young Artist Award. In 2018, she received the Wiiralt scholarship and was the laureate of the competition Young Tartu of Tartu Art Museum. In her work, she has discussed the impact of documentation on memory, identity and relationships between people. In her latest projects, Maasik has focused on the virtual world, using computer game recordings or aesthetics in her videos and installations to unveil personal stories of people.

The artist’s gratitude to: Madis Kurss, Kaisa Maasik.

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

On September 6, 2023 at 18.00, the co-exhibition of Kelli Gedvil and Kristen Rästas Wake Me Up, When It’s All Over will open in Draakon Gallery.

Wake Me Up, When It’s All Over, the co-exhibition of Kelli Gedvili and Kristen Rästas, poetically reflects on the introverted urge to find shelter from everyday sensitivities and encapsulate in the digital world. The artists are focused on creating an atmosphere in which they explore the contemporary condition of humans living through one crisis after another.

On Friday, 1 September at 6 pm, Erki Kasemets and Camille Laurelli will open their duo exhibition Bricollage at Tallinn City Gallery, where material becomes art and art becomes material, and where the artists give each other futile tasks and misleading instructions. The exhibition is curated by Siim Preiman.

Erki Kasemets and Camille Laurelli are artists whose lives and works are equally deeply intertwined. Their work is not determined by specific methods or finely honed techniques, but rather by a generally open and hybrid attitude towards art and their role in it. Both are fascinated by games; both are avid collectors and equally enjoy invention and mishap.

A three-way ping-pong of ideas has led to a labyrinth-like exhibition based on reuse and playfulness. The display features light, kinetics, interactivity, readymades and textiles. Rather than finger-wagging and moralising, it deals with figurative issues, yet it is still performative and active in its own way, rather than static or passive.

“Inviting Erki Kasemets and Camille Laurelli to make an exhibition together is one of those ideas that, in retrospect, seem so natural that you can’t even put your finger on the moment when it happened. Neither of them could be considered exactly a cultural blocker, however, there is definitely a certain amount of resistance or refusal in their actions. How is it possible that these two artists didn’t meet sooner?” Siim Preiman, curator of the exhibition reflects on the exhibition.

You are kindly invited to the opening of the exhibition on 1 September at 6 pm. Bricollage will remain open until 5 November 2023.

Tallinn City Gallery (Harju 13, Tallinn) is open from Wednesday to Sunday 11–6 pm. Free entry.

Erki Kasemets (1969) is an installation, painting, performance and theatre artist whose work covers various fields of activity: trash art, polygon theatre, systematic documentation of his personal life, material culture, kinetic art, environmental and stage designs, etc. His most recent performances include participation in the group exhibition Untamed at the Tartu Art Museum (2021), the solo exhibition Karl Marx in the Animal Kingdom at the Draakoni Gallery (2020) and the solo exhibition at the Audru Museum (2019).

Camille Laurelli (1981) is an intermedia artist whose confusing, failing and evasive creations span video, photography, performance, sculpture and curation. Laurelli is a dedicated collaborator, initiator and collector who, among other things, runs the video game museum LVLup! in Tallinn since 2018. His recent appearances include participation in the group exhibition Crawl Out Through the Fallout at the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (2022), the solo exhibition Kaudze at Low Gallery in Riga (2021) and the solo exhibition News Feed at ARS Showroom (2019).

The Tallinn Art Hall Foundation is a contemporary art establishment that currently presents exhibitions in two galleries – at Tallinn Art Hall’s Lasnamäe Pavilion and Tallinn City Gallery. The exhibitions of Tallinn Art Hall are installed by Valge Kuup Studio.

We are excited to welcome you to 19:01, an interactive exhibition by the Daylight Project Collective, at @Vent Space.

It is a site-specific installation that radically re-evaluates the function of liminal spaces, and explores the ethics of early 000s office culture.

Inspired by the catharsis experienced in the free video game “The Perfect Vermin” – the interactive exhibition will feature performances, a site-specific installation, audiovisual works, and contributions of artworks from various artists.

Programme:
24.08 Opening / musical performance/Collective drawing
25.08 Performance / LARP
26.08 Performance
27.08 Daylight space happening / Video game day
28.08 Text reading and discussion: Resistance to work

The exhibition is curated by Mariliis Rebane (EKA New Media, MA) and includes sculptures by Touristes Tristes (Dylan Ray Arnold & Océane Bruel), series of postcards by Leena Kela video works by artists Kristoffer Ala-Ketola, and Mika Taanila and a lecture performance by Subhangi Singh.

Like a Windless Cloud remains open until September 4.

The exhibition forms a constellation in which artworks interlace through their shared reflections on the accumulation of time. The curator of the exhibition was interested in searching for possibilities while also acknowledging difficulties associated with emptiness, lingering, and putting up one’s feet. In the company of the artworks, she wanted to welcome rest, slowing down, and taking it easy, as well as watching clouds pass over a clear blue sky. Along the way, came up an inability or unwillingness to succeed in this, but also other expectations related to the fast pace of contemporary life.

On Friday, August 11 a lecture performance titled Rest/Unrest: Notes on Loitering was held by Shubhangi Singh.

As part of the exhibition, a column by journalist Anton Vanha-Majamaa is translated into English and Estonian.

On 18 August at 7 p.m., the group exhibition “To mold, To hold. Currents in Estonian ceramics” will open at the ARS project space in Tallinn.

amicably and unapologetically sharing space
(so much has been shattered into pieces
it’s nowhere to be found – a shame)
youthful
youthful crocheters interact with the mountain
in big 3D light
in the light of the dome
friendly and equitable
in fact, they are a family
delicate sensitive fingers see the bonds
the gaze connects the distant and the remote in the present day
storehouse of fired clay wants to be put on the table
along with young relatives
see this table there is no such thing as time here after all
strangely square and rounded meet
angular and smooth
the crackle and the lava glaze
white and dark black and shining
In the hot kiln the clay bird has made a nest for itself
lays eggs in wondrous shapes or egg-shapes
but more in other shapes
a discreet feminine wave has exploded from the kiln
captures the eye and sets it free again
paper and pencil have watched it all
and the camera has admired it
captured moments are sprinkled on trays
with a delicate and sensitive hand
in the shadows of the twists and turns is the hard heart of the clay bird
that explodes again and again into fragments

On 31 August at 14.00 (EEST) 4th-year Art and Design PhD student Nesli Hazal Oktay will present her third design experiment study titled “Dissolving Distances”. Public peer-review event will take place in the Zoom, please find the link to participate HERE.

Reviewers:
Dr. Oscar Tomico, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Dr. Verena Fuchsberger, University of Salzburg, Austria

Supervisors:
Dr. Kristi Kuusk, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia
Prof. Danielle Wilde, Umeå University, Sweden and University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

Nesli Hazal Oktay aims to offer embodied intimacy for people who are close by heart but physically apart. Specifically, she explores designing close-to-body experiences at a distance through remote bio-rings, rings made of natural ingredients. Remote bio-rings are highly customizable, can be biodegraded, and start dissolving when exposed to humidity e.g.: water, or sweat. The idea of creating a non-lasting object to be worn on the body—that required care, that was ambiguous and tangible—was a result of her prior user study of cultural probing and embodied design ideation. She further experimented with remote bio-rings by making the ring and wearing it in everyday life together with her father at a distance.

In her third and last peer review event, she showcases a user study with 3 pairs (6 participants) that made remote bio-rings at their homes while self-reported and self-documented their personal experiences. They then further shared their meaning-makings with Nesli through a semi-structured interview. Overall, participants found remote bio-rings to be supporting new understandings about intimacy at a distance. As a result, their perception of “distance” alters slightly or changes completely by i) embarking on a journey, ii) creating time and space to be together, and iii) carrying each other through a tangible object.

On 30 June at 5 pm the group exhibition “Through fog and stones”, with works by Katarina Kruus, Liina Leo, Eugenio Marini and Ingrid Helena Pajo, will open in the monumental gallery of the Tartu Art House.

In the exhibition, the artists will regather to weave their creative journeys into one living and breathing organism. As a follow-up to the exhibition projects “Roaming” (ARS Kunstilinnak, 2022) and “DOKKING Station” (Vent Space, 2021), this joint project is reaching into blurred intervals, into the mist.

Fog, a cloud of suspended water droplets, reduces the transparency of the air. Fog as an image of obscurity can be seen as a confusing factor, as a phenomenon that obscures one’s view. At the same time, there is also potential hidden in the fog: an opportunity to hide and let thoughts find shape, like in a cosmic cloud in which stars are born.

“Through fog and stones” opens these intermediate areas and hiding places, in which one can be away or can become. These places may also be states, movements in which everything stands still. The blink of an eye between exhalation and inhalation. Moments when the old skin is falling off, but new skin has not yet begun to grow. Staying in an in-between state can be both stimulating and stagnating, glowing like light and as solid as stone.

Ingrid Helena Pajo (b. 1996) explores original textile technologies through gathering and weaving. What she finds form an integral part of this journey of discovery, highlighting the importance of the journey and the process. She is fascinated by the potential of material arts to make sense of the experience of human life. In 2021, Pajo graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a specialisation in textiles (MA) and was awarded the title of young textile artist of the year by the Estonian Textile Artists´ Association that same year.

Eugenio Marini (b. 1995) is an artist from Rome who graduated in fine arts from the Liceo Artistico Ripetta, studied sculpture at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma and worked with several artists in Italy and abroad. He resides alternately in Estonia, Italy and Greece, and works in sculpture and installation, using mostly found objects and materials.

Liina Leo (b. 1993) combines several media of contemporary art in her work, primarily dealing with the exploration of hostile space and today’s alienating environment. She is a graduate of Central Saint Martins in Contemporary Photography, London. She has previously participated in and organised several exhibitions in Estonia and abroad, for example at the Unit1 gallery in London, and the EKA gallery and VENT space in Tallinn, and has participated in the Bauhaus Fest in Weimar, Germany and the YTAT triennial in Lodz, Poland.

Katarina Kruus (b. 1995) is a multidisciplinary artist-designer who studies, observes and mediates the transformation of materials from one state to another. She focusses on biomaterials and natural pigments, while thinking about desirable future landscapes. She graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a specialisation in textiles (BA) and is currently obtaining a master’s degree there. In addition, she has studied at the Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art.

Graphic design: Johanna Ruukholm

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

The exhibition will be open until 30 July.

On June 15th at 6pm we invite you to EKA Graphic Art students exhibition “Wälljapanek” opening at Aparaaditehas Balcony Gallery.

“Dear compatriots! Let us travel back 150 years in time. One might think that it no longer concerns us in any way, but how we tell history TODAY and what we tell about it affects us more than we might think. This is not a museum, but an exhibition. The display of the works of eight artists introduces those lands of the Estonian national awakening that have not been nurtured since then. The awakened flowers of the meadow can confidently raise their heads towards the sun and sing themselves visible through their creativity!”

Participating artists: Johanna Rannu, Kärt Heinvere, Eleri Muhkel, Nils J. Rammo, Lily Tilk, Nana Schilf, Pavel Dodatko, Helena Pass.

The exhibition will be on display at Aparaaditehas Balcony Gallery (rõdugalerii) from 15.06.23-09.

07.23 and open from Wed-Sun from 12pm – 6pm.
Visiting the gallery is free of charge.

The Balcony Gallery (rõdugalerii) is located above the Aparaat restaurant. The gallery can be accessed from door no. 7 both through the Fahrenheit 451 book room and directly from the second floor.