Exhibitions

Online launch of Memory Studies journal Special issue “The Return of Suppressed Memories in Eastern Europe: Locality and Unsilencing Difficult Histories”

Online launch on Facebook

29 September 17.00–18.30 EEST time, 16.00–17.30 CET time and 15.00–16.30 BST time
How are suppressed memories returning in Eastern Europe? What role does locality play in this process? How has this process been theorized and studied? And what kind of impact has Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine had to these articulations?

We are happy to invite you to the online launch of the recent Memory Studies journal Special Issue “The Return of Suppressed Memories in Eastern Europe: Locality and Unsilencing Difficult Histories” that was published in June 2022! During the launch authors will briefly introduce their articles that were published in the special issue by focusing on the notion of locality, one of the main keywords in this issue. The response of memory scholar Natalija Arlauskaitė will follow.

The special issue is part of the project “Communicating Difficult Pasts” (2019–2023), a project initiated by Estonian Academy of Arts and Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art and curated by Margaret Tali and Ieva Astahovska, who are also the editors of this Memory Studies Special issue. It grows out of the symposium Prisms of Silence organized in Tallinn, Estonian Academy of Arts in 2020.

Participants: Roma Sendyka (Jagiellonian University/Humboldt University), Asja Mandić (University of Sarajevo), Shelley Hornstein (York University), Mischa Twitschin (Goldsmiths, University of London), Ieva Astahovska (Latvian Centre for Contemporary Arts) and Margaret Tali (Estonian Academy of Arts). Natalija Arlauskaitė (Vilnius University) will act as a respondent.

“Sancho Panza, from a different vantage point, divides the world into those, like himself, who were born to sleep and those, like his master, who were born to watch.” Jonathan Crary, “24/7. Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep” (2013), p. 26.

Now open in Vent Space: “A Practice for Surrender” by Tõnis Jürgens.

A stage set for sleep. A butaforic space and light installation, evoking false insights, the liminality and artificiality of slumber, and crabs’ eyes.

The exhibition is part of Jürgens’ ongoing artistic research project at the art & design department of the doctoral school of EKA, dealing with sleep surveillance and digital trash.

Open from 20.–30.09.

Every day at 1–7 pm.

Graphic design: Laura Merendi

Thanks kindly to: Aadu Lambot, Hans-Gunter Lock, Joosep Ehasalu, Kulla Laas, Liisi Kõuhkna, Nabeel Imtiaz

Supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts

Tõnis Jürgens (b. 1989) is a projectionist, writer, and void enthusiast. He holds a bachelor’s degree in culture theory from Tallinn University and a master’s in new media from the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA). Further, he’s spent a year studying at the Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague (UMPRUM).

21.09—24.09.2022
OKAPI Gallery, Niguliste 2, Tallinn
Exhibition opening Wed 21.09 at 18.00!

As a part of Tallinn Design Festival the brand MSK Glass introduces an exhibition in OKAPI Gallery wholly dedicated to drinking glasses.
Drinking glasses are our companions in moments when we need to celebrate, rejoice and greet. Make a toast and bottoms up! 

MSK Glass is a collaboration between three glass designers – AleksandraEhrensvärd, Andra Jõgis and Kristiina Oppi.

The designers started their collaboration in 2014 at the Department of Glass Art of the Estonian Academy of Arts, where the first pieces were made specially for the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair. The first piece was a set of drinking glasses and a pitcher called ‘We Match’ (‘Me Sobime Kokku’ in Estonian), from which the brand name MSK Glass was derived.

Brand specializes in handmade, mouth-blown glassware. 

Wed-Fri 11—18
Sat 11—16

Please join us for the launch of Flawless, Seamless – a new monograph by Marge Monko – on Friday, September 23 at 6 pm at Kai Art Center in Tallinn. At the launch Marge Monko will premiere her film Window on the Visible World, which is followed by a conversation with Maarin Ektermann. The film and book are in English, discussion is held in Estonian. During the launch the publication will be sold at a special price of 25 euros. 

Flawless, Seamless is the first monograph of Marge Monko, encompassing works from 2014 to 2021. The book presents nineteen works that explore what the artist calls “the architecture of desire,” drawing inspiration from public banners, print advertisements, shop displays, show windows, etc. These ubiquitous promotional strategies, designed to evoke an abiding, aspirational desire, suggest that the products they represent will fulfill the promise of luxury, romance, and happiness. Monko’s interest in these inseparable elements of capitalist society can be traced back to her childhood in the 1980s, which in the context of the Soviet Union was marked by the shortage of commodities.

The works are accompanied by an essay by curator and writer Moritz Scheper and three conversations with Monko’s fellow artists and friends, Erika Hock, Maruša Sagadin, and Paul Kuimet. In his text, Scheper makes connections between Monko’s earlier and more recent works, and elaborates on different femininities prevailing in East and West. The conversations touch upon the subjects such as artist’s work, materiality, collaboration, and bookmaking. The publication is edited by Laura Toots, designed by Indrek Sirkel, and published by Lugemik. The publication was supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Estonian Union of Photography Artists (Foku). 

The conversation with Maarin Ektermann is preceded by the premiere of Marge Monko’s film Window to the Visible World at 6.15 pm. The 21-minute film made in 2021 reflects upon the role of the window in architecture and visual culture. It is accompanied by a voice over written and read by the artist. A view from one’s window has been a recurrent motif in the history of visual art. Focusing on the legacy of the modernist architecture, the film draws parallels between the views from windows recorded in São Paulo and Tallinn. It follows different modes of images that equally serve as metaphors for the window – from engravings and paintings to virtual images on our computer and cell phone screens. The film was commissioned by Videobrasil in Context and Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center.

Marge Monko is a visual artist who lives and works in Tallinn. She has studied at the Estonian Academy of Arts, University of Applied Arts Vienna, and Higher Institute for Contemporary Art (HISK) in Ghent. Monko works with photography, video, and installation. Her works are inspired by historical images and theories of psycho-analysis, feminism, and visual culture. She works as a professor in the Department of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Maarin Ektermann is an art worker who deals with creating points of contact between contemporary art, more and less experimental education, art criticism, etc. In addition to managing several projects in the field of art, her focus has also been mediating what is happening in the field of art – both through writing art criticism and organising public debates. She has been one of the initiators and leaders of the art criticism blog Artishok, and hosted the show Kultuuriministeerium in Klassikaraadio (with I. Grigor). She has taught several different courses at the Estonian Academy of Arts, where she also works as the head of Centre for General Theory Subjects.

Tallinn Art Hall
14.09–16.11.2022

EKA Contemporary Arts’s alumni at the exhibition!

Journeys can sometimes be life-altering. Over the atmospheric and geopolitical heat of the summer of 2022, curators Corina L. Apostol and Kristaps Ancāns, head of Estonian Academy of Arts’ Contemporary Arts MA program, invited eight artists, four based in Estonia and four in Latvia, to travel across the Baltic coast to discover each other and create this exhibition together. Working in collaboration, each of them brings their personal approach to art practice and co-habitation of the exhibition space at Tallinn Art Hall Gallery in the show I came here to be alone – I also came here to be alone.

The exhibition I came here to be alone – I also came here to be alone draws inspiration from a 1959 film Baltic Express by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, which revolves around the communication between two strangers, forced to co-exist in confined conditions – the claustrophobic world of a tight train cabin. The train journey is a catalyst which tests what kind of chemistry can be created in unstable and uncertain conditions. From the perspective of a passenger, everything in the world is in motion, while from the perspective of someone not on the train it is quite the opposite. Baltic Express reflects on these two phenomena and focuses on a pivotal moment in time. Every story we tell or read about home or about our recent history, now has a different landscape looking out of the window of this train. The world as we know it is no longer the same, and our imaginative space has transformed.

In the foreword of the exhibition booklet, curators Corina L. Apostol and Kristaps Ancāns explain: “This exhibition reflects the many interactions, stories and intertwined experiences that open a certain void that has exploded in our societies during the pandemic and the current crises, revealing what had been masked by an emptiness that still lingers. How should we act, how can we trust each other, and what does this new crisis-era culture look like? Turbulences can sometimes open new ways of approaching things, as we no longer need to follow canons that have been built beforehand. Have the “new us” developed the skills or even some superpowers to cope with transformation or are our levels of loss and grief quietly rising? How do we deal with what has happened and the present challenges, while still waiting for the train to arrive at a new destination?“

Once they got to know one another’s different yet related contexts, collaborating, living and making art together gradually acquired a deeper meaning for the eight participating artists. Transforming and taking over the gallery windows, Dzelde Mierkalne and Junny Yeung have built two claustrophobic, almost cinematic environments, reflecting on how in the current times the home and the workspace have become enmeshed into an uncomfortable functional third space. Johannes Luik and Krišjānis Elviks’ works create the scenography of this exhibition from what has been left behind – or from someone left behind after a journey. Through their own bodies, Alise Putniņa and Maarja Tõnisson test in repetitions how our mind and body connects or disconnects in everyday journeys when something disrupts our intentions. Alyona Movko-Mägi and Madara Gruntmane have created a series of moving digital avatars of locals from Riga reciting love poems. The videos make them seen, not less than human, but also not like us in an avatar state.

Dr. Corina L. Apostol is a curator at the Tallinn Art Hall, curator, and member of the steering committee of the international practice-based research project Beyond Matter (2019–2023), and the curator of the Estonian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022). Corina is also a guest lecturer at MA POST, Art Academy of Latvia. She is the co-founder of ArtLeaks, and editor-in-chief of the ArtLeaks Gazette. She was longlisted for the Kandinsky Prize (2016) and the Sergey Kuryokhin Prize (2020). She is the winner of the apexart 2022–23 exhibition proposals competition in New York.

Kristaps Ancāns is an artist, writer, and educator whose practice spans installation, sculpture, language and moving images. His practice investigates the confusion between humanity, nature, and machines through a conceptual game with its own artificial intelligence. Ancāns was awarded the Cecil Lewis Sculpture Scholarship and the Helen Scott Lidgett Award. He is the co-head of POST, the interdisciplinary master’s program at the Art Academy of Latvia.

After the opening, on Wednesday, September 14 at 6.30 pm, curators Corina Apostol and Kristaps Ancāns will give a guided tour in English at the exhibition. I came here to be alone – I also came here to be alone will be open at the Art Hall Gallery until 6 November 2022.

Art Hall Gallery (Vabaduse väljak 6) is open from Wednesday to Sunday 11-6 pm, free entry.
The Tallinn Art Hall Foundation is a contemporary art establishment that presents exhibitions in three galleries on the central square of Tallinn – at Tallinn Art Hall and nearby at Tallinn City Gallery and the Art Hall Gallery.

The exhibitions of Tallinn Art Hall are installed by Valge Kuup.

www.kunstihoone.ee www.facebook.com/TallinnaKunstihoone/
www.instagram.com/tallinnarthall/

Further information:
Sirli Oot
+372 5873 6841
sirli@kunstihoone.ee

19.-25.09.2022
Opening 19.09, 6 PM

Balti manufaktuur, Uue Loomingu Maja, Manufaktuuri Tänav 5, Tallinn 

The Sustainable Design and Material Lab DiMa exhibition 

DiMa is a  research centre at the Estonian Academy of Arts, which focuses on circular design in the field of textiles and fashion and the development of new sustainable materials. The textile industry has become the second biggest industrial polluter after the oil industry. This has generated an urgent need to deal with textile waste- collect, sort, upcycle and recycle. Our aim with this exhibition is to provide the visitors with practical examples of the textile waste circularity by upcycling, industrial upcycling, mechanical recycling and regenerative textile design.  

The exhibition is co-funded by Estonian Environmental Investment Centre and European Regional Development Fund 

Pilvi Tammoja and Erinn M. Cox with their joint exhibition “That Girl” in the small gallery of Tartu Art House.

The artists present contemporary jewellery pieces that depict, deny, define, and distort the images we hold of ourselves as women.

The works are inspired by our vulnerabilities, our strengths, our fears, and our desires — whether they are real or imagined.  They are thinking about that girl: who you may know, who you might also be.

Tammoja and Cox add: “In the dark, it’s all a trick.  And nobody knows.  We are in the moment, in the moments.  Our eyes throw a glance, we make you laugh, we are provocative, we dance, we drink.  We pretend to have fun.  We break our own hearts.  And we do it again and again.”

Pilvi Tammoja (b. 1991) is an interdisciplinary artist from Estonia based in Tallinn. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in fashion design and a Master’s degree in Jewellery which provides her a unique understanding of forms and the body, resulting in diverse works made with an ever-changing range of materials from silk thread to cast iron. She has exhibited her work in group exhibitions and fashion shows; and has also worked on window displays, photo set designs and prop design & fabrication.

Erinn M. Cox (b. 1976) is a jewellery artist from the United States based in Tallinn, Estonia.  She holds BFA and MFA degrees in sculpture and a MA degree in Jewellery.  Erinn has exhibited her work in the US and internationally, highlighted by her selection for Schmuck 2018 & 2020, SOFA CHICAGO, and the 21grams touring exhibition.  She was awarded the Galerie Marzee Graduate Prize and named an upcoming design star by Wallpaper* Magazine.  As well, Erinn is an adjunct professor of Fine Arts and Art History in the US and a guest lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts.  She is a published author on topics related to contemporary art + design, jewellery, and philosophy and is the founder and writer for the online journal Louise & Maurice (www.louiseandmaurice.com)

Special thanks to: Tartu Art House, Plattform Schmunkkunst

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

The exhibition is open until 2 October.

Additional information:
Tanel Asmer
Tartu Art House producer
produtsent@kunstimaja.ee
5562 1192

www.kunstimaja.ee
facebook.com/kunstimaja

Riin Maide and Nele Tiidelepp  joint exhibition “Etudes with imaginary performers” in the monumental gallery of Tartu Art House.

The central idea of the exhibition is the meaningfulness of absence. The artists have observed the traces of activity in the space. Impressions are presented by media and materials.

Riin Maide and Nele Tiidelepp have been inspired by one of the first exercises of those learning to become actors: an etude with an imaginary object. The scene, the subject of which is usually taken from everyday life, is rehearsed as accurately and repeatedly as possible, so that correspondence to the previous reality is preserved even when the objects are removed. In their exhibition, they have left out the performers from the etude. The space and the objects (which try to imitate the presence of the performers as accurately as possible) are left to speak.

Riin Maide (b 1997) has acquired a bachelor’s degree in the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Estonian Academy of Arts, majoring in graphics, and furthered her education in the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theater at DAMU in Prague, majoring in scenography. In 2020, she received the EKA’s Young Artist Award and the Edmund Valtman Scholarship. Site specificity, ephemerality and graphic imagery are important in her work. Through playful installations and theatrical environments, she deals with memory and presence.

Nele Tiidelepp (b 1998) is an artist and writer who graduated the installation and sculpture department of the Estonian Academy of Arts. Her practice is motivated by spontaneous reactions to the environment and materials. Tiidelepp has won the Noor Tartu competition, EKA’s Young Artist Award, SIIL Prize and Millenium Prize, published texts in the journal “Värske Rõhk”, the newspapers “Müürileht” and “Sirp” and participated in exhibitions and art events in Estonia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal and Finland.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
The exhibition is open until 2 October.

Space-installation “Kadri Goes Green”
Tallinn, gallery HOP,
Hobusepea 2 in Tallinn Old Town. 

Free entrance.

Motto of the exposition (according to art historian Tiina Abel who paraphrased her father,
a famous Estonian comic Ervin Abel):
Live in a way that if you collapse, then
everyone believes its from the utmost
happyness.

You’ll find yourself in a living-room, where there meet the try-outs of green turn and comics connected to these activities.

No pre-registration needed