Exhibitions

“It’s like the earth it is our body it is our bed”

Sara Blosseville

We are very excited to announce our next exhibition: a solo presentation by artist Sara Blosseville.

Sara Blosseville is a French artist living in the woods of Vantaa. She works mainly with images, sculpture and publishing. She graduated from University of the Arts Helsinki in 2021.

This solo exhibition features works part of her ongoing sculpture project « Children of Compost », which is an exploration of the material world as a fecund humus at different states of growth and decomposition, where all the bodies and objects are considered as holders of life energy. The aim is to use only material that she makes, grows, finds, that’s recycled or second-hand, and the starting point for has been giving a new life to beautiful objects crafted by her farmer elders.

The show will run Nov 17 – 22 14.00-18.00, with an opening reception at 6pm on Thursday, November 17.

Exhibition To Sense the Light, You Must Close Your Eyes, with the works of the painter Kristi Kongi and printmaker Mare Vint, opens in the large gallery of the Tartu Art House.

At first glance, the handwriting of these too very individual authors seems almost contradictory. Mare Vint’s metaphysical, nearly black-and-white landscapes demand that their discreet tension be quietly contemplated. Kristi Kongi, however, yanks the viewer into her endlessly colourful world, where deep dark tonal gradients are interspersed with pastel variations and, by including the space surrounding the works of art, she emphasises the comprehensive nature of her oeuvre.

But colour and its (almost complete) lack have something in common: light. Both artists have used it in their works directly and indirectly. Although light is a shared theme, they offer viewers different ways and opportunities to perceive it. As a result, a wandering rhythm of different times and places is created in the gallery, where colour and colourlessness start to highlight each other in unison.

The curator Peeter Talvistu proposed a joint exhibition to the artists way back in 2018 and both authors enthusiastically agreed. “For me, both of them have a similar immersive approach and I have never felt that their works would compete in the gallery space. Instead, I saw this as an experience where two sides would support each other. Unfortunately, Mare’s health deteriorated and she is no longer with us to shape the final outcome. Kristi, however, has had many years to contemplate Mare’s oeuvre and has been inspired to make new works and to compose the actual exhibition.”

Kristi Kongi (b 1985) has studied in the Tartu Art College and the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has been awarded the Sadolin Art Award (2013, currently the AkzoNobel Art Award), the Konrad Mägi Award (2017) and the Annual Award of the Visual and Applied Arts Endowment of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2021). During the period 2022–2024, she is one of the receivers of Estonia’s artist’s salary. Although Kongi has recently had exhibitions in Tartu in the Kogo Gallery, her works last appeared in the Tartu Art House in 2013.

Mare Vint (1942–2020) graduated from the Estonian State Art Institute as a glass artist but is primarily known as a printmaker and drawer. Besides the Kristjan Raud Award and the Fifth Class of the Order of The White Star, in 2019 she received the lifetime achievement award from the Visual and Applied Arts Endowment of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia. In 1987, she held a joint exhibition with Andres Tolts in the Tartu Art House.

The exhibition’s graphic design is by Tuuli Aule.

Thanks: Ahti Lill, Gristel Mänd, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Akzo Nobel and Eventech.

The exhibition takes place in dialogue with the Kogo Gallery project “Laura Põld with Andres Tolts. Common Threads, Polar Bear and Elephant” (25.11.2022–28.01.2023, curator Šelda Puķīte). On 10 December at 3 pm a walk and talk between the artists and the curators will begin in the Kogo Gallery and conclude in the Tartu Art House.

“To Sense the Light, You Must Close Your Eyes” will remain open until 11 December.

On Friday, 11 November at 6 p.m. Erik Alalooga opens his solo exhibition “Liberated Machines” in the monumental gallery of Tartu Art House.

The artist invites everyone to bathe in an undulating sound array because the monumental gallery is filled with acoustic machines. Large and small, acoustic and amplified, soft and aggressive, fast and slow objects allow you to experience different sound patterns in an unlimited range of combinations.

The artist explains: “During the campaign to liberate the machines, we managed to give a new identity to ten car windscreen wiping engines and five disco ball engines. Never again will they have to perform the dull movements of scrubbing water droplets and bird droppings from the windshield or spinning a silly mirror ball for nights on end for the joy of sweaty and squirming bodies. Monotonous rhythms have been replaced by dynamic ones. Instead of direct or alternating current pulsating incessantly through the grooves, the machine beats in the unpredictable rhythms of a random generator. By forever abandoning the claustrophobia of an engine compartment or the loneliness of a night club ceiling, instead forming systems with their companions and creating kaleidoscopic rhythm patterns in order to dominate the space. Man is only an observer here.”

Erik Alalooga (b 1974) is a visual artist, performer, director, sound artist, teacher and cultural organiser living in Tallinn. He graduated the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) with a bachelor’s degree in sculpture and acquired a master’s degree in interdisciplinary arts. Since 2018, he has been studying at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater doctoral studies. He has worked as an associate professor of the Interdisciplinary Art Department of EKA (2006–2010) and as the head of the Performing Arts Department (2010–2013). He currently works as the head of the EKA sculpture studio. Alalooga has presented exhibitions, performances and experimental concerts in Estonia, the Nordic and Baltic countries, Germany, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, France, the USA, and Australia.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
The exhibition is open until 11 December.

Kaisa Maasik’s new solo exhibition The Human Sponge in the Age of Screens is open from Thursday, November 3, 2022 at the ARS Showroom Gallery. The new project dealing with the susceptibility of children and the way kids mimic everything they see and hear, brings together video footage filmed by kids themselves. The exhibition will remain open until November 29.

Something that the gathered material has in common is its influences from mass media, the mainstream film and music industry. From the 2000’s onwards, filming equipment like video, web, digital and phone cameras became more affordable. Ever since then, kids have had a way to record different re-enactments of what they see on screens. The artist adds: “The endless creativity, sincerity and enthusiasm of children in the work is amazing, but it’s clouded by the violence in most of the scenes. When mirroring their surroundings, kids have a way of showing us what society is like in general.”

Graphic design by Nora Pelšs

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Estonian Artists’ Association.

3.–29.11.2022
Mon–Fri 12–18, free entry
NB! The exhibition is exceptionally open on two Saturdays: 19.11 & 26.11 at 13–16
ARS Showroom gallery
ARS Art Factory
Pärnu mnt 154
11317 Tallinn
www.arsfactory.ee

More info:
Kaisa Maasik
kaisamaasik@gmail.com
5396 2524
https://fb.me/e/9IVyk3ha4

“Broken Forests” tells a story about the before and after of a deadly wildfire in Pedrogão Grande. It analyses the relation to land which seems to have started acting dangerously and unpredictably. The work is an answer to a trauma that comes from living on the Anthropocene post-apocalyptic landscape. It expresses worry, love and fear for a place which has been changed by eucalyptus plantations.

The works are casted into the first harvest of cork from Quercus Suber aka cork oak. Quercus Suber, unlike the introduced eucalyptus is native to Portugal and is one of the most resilient trees to the fire thanks to its bark. The hot melted metal puts the cork to yet another test.

The works presented here are the continuation of a graduation project in the Estonian Academy of Arts.

More info on Reverso web

Estonian Academy of Arts Museum exhibition:
A Child Thing. Children’s designs by students at EKA

21.10–29.11.2022 at EKA Gallery

Professional design for children is broadly a phenomenon of the last hundred years. The field of children’s design has became more significant in the Estonian Academy of Arts since 1970s. More and more attention has been payed on the actual needs, physical and mental characteristics of young people. From the aesthetic utility objects of the 20th century, design is increasingly moving towards solutions that engage children to develop their creativity.

Numerous established fashion, textile and leather artists, ceramicists, designers and interior architects in Estonia have worked with children’s designs during their student years. Besides the practical world of design, the exhibition also presents book illustrations, theatre costumes and animated films from the realm of fairy tales that stimulate children’s imagination.

The exhibition covers almost a century, starting with the rooster illustration for the ABC book from the State School of Arts and Crafts time and ending with interactive objects from the last decade. The exhibition is largely based on the historical collection of the Estonian Academy of Arts Museum. Most of the student design projects remained on paper. However, designers have generously contributed to the exhibition their items that were turned from ideas into real objects more recently. The signs of wear on some toys and therapeutic facilities testify that they have been enjoyed by children in hospitals, orphanages, libraries or playgrounds, thus serving their purpose.

Curators of the exhibition: Jelizaveta Sedler and Reeli Kõiv

Exhibition is supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia

TASE’21 and EKA (Estonian Academy of Arts) Young Artist’s Award winner Karolin Poska in Hobusepea Gallery!

TASE’21 and EKA (Estonian Academy of Arts) Young Artist’s Award winner Karolin Poska will open her solo exhibition Pressure of the Gaze in Hobusepea gallery at 18:00 on Wednesday, October 19th, 2022. Exhibition will be open until November 14, 2022.

Karolin Poska: “Do you know the feeling when someone else has fixed their gaze on you? You can simply tell that someone is controlling you, stalking you with the gaze, measuring you or trying to create a visual contact. You feel it even if it is outside the field of vision, or you may realize this from the corner of your eye.

People assure that they literally feel how the eyes of “Mona Lisa” painted by Leonardo da Vinci are following them, irrespective of the physical location of the spectator. This phenomenon – when the eyes of an artwork observe the spectator in the room – is called the Mona Lisa effect. However, researchers have found that this phenonenon won’t apply to Mona Lisa since the gaze of the painted figure has been directed too much to the right.

Creating a direct eye contact is perhaps the most frequent and powerful non-verbal signal exchanged between human beings; it is also a means of intimacy, frightening and social influence. Eye contact is such a primeval way of communication common to all animal species: predators intensely keep their eye on their prey before the moment of dashing towards it; babies become intimate with their parent through visual contact; fish turn their eyes black during an aggressive act.

The oldest found fossil’s eyes are 540 million years old, the first Homo habilis or the archaic human dates back to approximately 2 million years ago. Now I feel different when looking out of the window, knowing that I am using eyes of the precedecessors being 538 million years older than a human being.

It is easier to catch human gazes than those of other species since human eyeball has a special construction – we have more sclera (the white layer of an eye). That, in turn, makes it much easier to identify the movement of the iris of an eye that has darker colour as well as determining the direction of the gaze due to constrasty colours. Surprisingly, human eyes have the closest similarity with the ones of an octopus and a squid who both have big eyes consisting of the lens, the iris and one big vitreous body.

According to my calculations, the old town of Tallinn has 77 street cameras, so you were probably looked at already when you were on your way to the gallery. You probably did not perceive this because the surveillance cameras have less constrasty eyes and different construction. Also, the sculpture in the old town that you probably passed did not follow you with its eyes since it wears glasses and unfortunately has no sclerae. And yet, lots of people say that it is namely the eyes of an artwork that make you feel something.

While preparing for the current exhibition, I went to galleries and streets and looked at art; and also looked at others looking at art and let the artworks look at me and my act of looking. I really hope that you will find something worth looking at!”

Karolin Poska (b. 1991) is a performance artist, choreographer and dancer who lives and works in Tallinn. She has graduated from the department of dance art at the Viljandi Culture Academy of the University of Tartu. In her artistic practice, Poska tries to understand what it feels to live in the world at the given moment – she enjoys transforming reality, playing with objects and the audience’s expectations. Poska recently obtained MA degree in contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts and she was given the Young Artist Award. Poska’s two recent works “For Your Nirvana” (2020) and “Untititled” (2021) were nominated to the Estonian Theatre Awards in the category of dance and performance art.

Original photo: Helemai Alamaa

Thank you for the dialogue and technical assistance: Theodore Parker and Maret Tamme.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

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