Exhibitions

13 & Friday: Kraam’s closing party & lives
& 3rd year Graphic Art students’ Group exhibition “Soft Narratives”

Performing: Hello Killu, Riin Maide & Co fashion show, nostalgic costume drama “The Past. The way I recall It”  is an extension to Riin Maide’s  work currently on view at “Soft Narratives” group exhibition at Kraam artist-run space. A poetical-dramatic collective Las Cuervas Trágicas (Hanneleele and Kätlin Kaldmaa), and Lilli-Krõõt Repnau.

Exhibition “Soft Narratives” is open until December 29th.

** Photo: Killu Sukmit

Graphic design 3rd years students present their project “Wack Dystopia” at EKA Billboard Gallery

On November 20 at 8 PM 3rd-year graphic design students will present their project “Wack Dystopia” at the EKA Billboard Gallery. The course is supervised by Norman Orro. EKA Billboard gallery is located outside on Kotzebue street. The exhibition will remain open until January 31.

In 2015, Mark Fisher coined the term “boring dystopia” to describe the mundane underbelly of the hypercapitalist London society. The first “Blade Runner” movie is already set in history, in November 2019.

Now on the brink of 2020, we live in a WACK DYSTOPIA where truth seems debatable and most news is underlined with the hashtag #notonion.

WACK DYSTOPIA is life in a glimmering technocracy, haunted by a medieval mindset.
WACK DYSTOPIA is a gut feeling, that nothing makes sense anymore.
WACK DYSTOPIA is not a forecast, but a critique of the present.

The metamodern condition finds us in limbo between utopias and dystopias. Both are simplistic caricatures and neither seem real or attainable. To move forward we first have to look truth in the eye. To get real we need to look to the absurd…

In the words of Aldous Huxley ”The trouble with fiction… is that it makes too much sense. Reality never makes sense.”

Participating students: Adam Asztalos, Kersti Heile, Elisabeth Juusu, Roven Jõekäär, Karmo Järv, Anneli Kripsaar, Syret Kärt, Liisi Lasn, Sigrid Liira, Laura Martens, Mikk Tanel Oja, Aliz Stocker, and Johann Georg Villmann
Headline font: Aliz Stocker

Supervisor: Norman Orro

What the mid-twenties pretend to think about?

This Friday 6th of December at 20 the students of Estonian Academy of Arts photography department open the exhibition “Mid-twenties pretend they got it” at Vent Space gallery (Vabaduse väljak 6 back yard).

The exhibition is a conclusion of the working period that was marked by searching visual expression to the perception of one’s environment. The shared experiences and values in social space are interwined into several questions that the authors solve in the gallery space through the works in photographic, video and installative media.

How do we feel in the mental and physical space? What is individual and collective perception? What are the rules settled in this space? Are these rules functional? How can we change them? What is the information space we are located in? Which are the possibilities to use this space of exhibition?

Participating artists: Kristiina Aarna, Mark Cavanagh, Levent Efe, Stina Isabel Gavrilin, Inger-Liis Heinsoo, Zoe Komkommer, Kristina Kuzemko, Una Laurencic, Jana Mätas, Anna Tamm, Kertu Rannula, Diana Olesjuk, Laura Ruuder, Carolin Saage, Hans Jakob Väär.

Curators/guides: Kristiina Hansen, Sigrid Viir, Johannes Säre ja Laura Kuusk.

Vent Space gallery is located at Vabaduse väljak 6 yard in Tallinn.

The exhibition is open from 7.12-19.12 every day 12-19. Opening on 6.12 at 20.00.

On Friday, December 13th as part of the exhibition “Mid-twenties pretend they got it”, Kristiina Aarna will show her work ”Akadeemia tee 4” in the city space. Photo projection will be exhibited on December 13 at 5 pm – 7 pm at the rear wall of Akadeemia road 4 building.

Kristiina Aarna
”Akadeemia tee 4”

Art creates the public sphere, but what exactly does this mean? The first micro-district of Mustamäe was built in 1963. Thousands of people became fortunate enough to have access to warm water and a private kitchen. The plan for modernisation envisaged the creation of a residential environment, which people would not have to leave and where they would spend all of their free time. The 1960s also brought with them a great era for monumental painting in Estonia during which the first prefabricated residential buildings were decorated with pictures. These pictures represented both the synthesis of various Soviet art forms as well as an attempt by local artists to add diversity and variegation to the disjointed humdrum houses. The end walls of the prefabricated buildings on Akadeemia received optimistic sgraffitos by Valli Lember-Bogatkina, Margareta Fuks and Enn Põldroos, two of which are now hidden under a layer of insulation. The aim of my work is to produce a one-time photo-projection on the end wall of Akadeemia 4, thus making the hidden art visible again.

Event on facebook 

The exhibition “Mid-twenties pretend they got it” is open from 7.12.19–19.12.19 every day at 12-19.

Group exhibition “Soft narratives”
December 6th – December 29th 2019
Kraam artist-run space
Address: Ülase 16 / Madara 22
Thursday to Saturday 4-7pm, Sunday 12-6pm

“Soft narratives”, a group exhibition by students from Graphic Art department, has an opening reception on December 6th at 6pm in Kraam artist-run space.

Artists: Adriaan De Geest, Mark Kristian Hiir, Hanneleele Kaldmaa, Brit Kikas, Jelizaveta Kukoleva, Maria Izabella Lehtsaar, Riin Maide, Liis-Marleen Verilaskja. Supervisor: Lilli-Krõõt Repnau

The exhibition deals with personal and collective memory and site-specific works were created specifically for this room. EKA graphics students’ works combine personal stories and different points of view at Polymer itself, finding eight different ways to fill temporary space with temporary interpretations.

Exhibition “Soft narratives” will be the last one at Kraam artist-run space.

On December 13 will be Kraam’s finishing party feat. Hello Killu, Riin Maide & Co., poetic-dramatic collective Las Cuervas Trágicas (Hanneleele and Kätlin Kaldmaa), Lilli-Krõõt Repnau. More information coming soon!

19 December at 16.00 the works participating will be publicly evaluated.

20.12-26.12 the gallery will be closed.
Exhibition stays open until 29th of December 2019.

** Photo: Maria Izabella Lehtsaar

Kraam artist-run space is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Additional info:
e-mail: kraamspace@gmail.com
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Mon-Fri at 3–7 PM

December brings an opportunity to experience, in an exhibition format, works produced by students in the Faculty of Fine Arts as their term projects: every day there will be a fresh crop of university students’ works on display in the gallery.
Works in contemporary art, prints, installation, sculpture and painting curricula will be on display. On each morning of the marathon, a new exhibition will be installed and in the evening the exhibit will give way to the next one. Hopefully, viewers will be able to keep up with the pace of the young artists. On December 21 at 3 pm, there will be an auction with artworks from the painting department.

03.12 – Scenography, supervisor Ene-Liis Semper

04.12 – Photography, supervisors Annika Haas and Tõnu Tunnel

05.12 – Installation and Sculpture, supervisors Kirke Kangro and Taavi Talve

06.12 – Painting, supervisors Kristi Kongi, Holger Loodus, Mihkel Maripuu, Merike Estna

09.12 – Installation and Sculpture, supervisors Art Allmägi and Jass Kaselaan

10–13.12 Contemporary Art: Studio, supervisors Liina Siib, Marge Monko, Raul Keller, Taavi Talve, Jaan ToomikHind

16.12 – Painting, supervisors Holger Loodus, Maiu Rõõmus, Raul Rajangu, Kaido Ole, Tiit Pääsuke, Aapo Pukk

17.12 – Painting, supervisors Jaan Toomik, Mihkel Ilus, Mihkel Maripuu, Heldur Lassi

18.12 – Graphic Art, supervisors Viktor Gurov, Ann Pajuväli, Oliver Laas

19.12 – Graphic Art, supervisors Liina Siib, Maria Erikson

21.12 – Painting auction, doors at 15 pm, auction at 16 pm

Vent Space, student-run project space, announces its new team and Open Call for the Second Season, running from January to October 2020.
The focus of the new season is on the potentiality of unexpected encounters, seeking to expand conventional practices by encouraging experimentation and open-mindedness through cross-disciplinary collaborations.

You can apply here!
Deadline for applications is on the
30th of December 2019.

On Tuesday November 12 Ulvi Haagensen will open her solo exhibition “Distracting the workers” in the EKA Trepigalerii (Showcase gallery at Linnahall’s side of Estonian Academy of Arts’s building) at 5pm. The exhibition will be open until 27 November and being a window exhibition it is viewable 24/7. 

“I am working on the line between art and everyday life. With a particular emphasis on the practices of art-making and domestic cleaning, I focus on the places where art and life meet to try to find out what the dividing lines, overlaps and resulting ambiguities look and feel like. Helping me with my work I have three imaginary assistants – an artist-cleaner, an artist-researcher and an artist-bricoleuse. Together we make, clean, think and write. This installation is a view into our working and thinking space,” says the artist Ulvi Haagensen. 

The title of the show is in part a response to the German art critic Julius Meier-Graefe’s concern about art that is decorative, accusing it of being like a “gentle little housewife” merely amusing “tired people after a hard day’s work”. 

Ulvi Haagensen, originally from Australia, has been living and working in Estonia for many years and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Design.

Thanks to Kaido Kruusamets, Mart Vainre, Aksel Haagensen, Michael Haagensen, Risto Tali, Fiona Davies

Join us for the opening of the solo exhibition and performance on Thursday, November 5 at 8 PM. The exhibition will remain open until November 30.

Vaarik’s sixth solo exhibition is a continuation of her solo exhibition “Possessed” (2017). The expressive, provocative, daring and heartfelt show is about being a woman, a mother, about saving the world, raising children and cuddling. The artist is observing her close relationships and is seeking for conclusions to save the world.

“Skin is our contact with the world. Scroll up to your sleeves and stroke your arm with your hand. This is a feeling. We feel and learn to feel our bodies through strokes, pamper and cuddles. Sometimes there’s no need to overthink! Weird feelings create weird thoughts. But if you know it’s only that–a feeling–and you stop forcing yourself to collaborate with your brain, you can only feel without attributing linguistic meaning. Things are simply as they are. If we start to over-explain something we can mess it up.
We can try to save the world, but if we grow our children to be empathetic, they are doing it naturally. All humans grow inside their moms! I am lucky I was held tight.” – Marta Vaarik

Marta Vaarik (b. 1986) is an artist, photographer and self-proclaimed blond trickster based in Tallinn, Estonia. She holds a BFA degree in painting from the Estonian Academy of Arts and is currently studying Contemporary Art in the same university. She did an exchange program in UDK studying under professor Josephine Pryde. The current solo show at EKA Gallery is her sixth and she has participated in group shows in Berlin and Estonia. She works in the mediums of painting, photography, performance, and video.

Thanks: Sandra Mäesepp, Rebecca Künnis, Ülle Vaarik, Aadam Taaksalu, Andrus Vaarik, Kelly Turk, Margit Lõhmus, Sveta Grigorjeva, Piret Karro, Rasmus Neljand, Krislin Ots, Big Boy, Gunnar Laal, Taavi Lepp, Pire Sova, Johannes Luik, Kersti Heile

Exhibition title: Sveta Grigorjeva

Graphic design: Kersti Heile

The exhibition is supported by A. Le Coq.

On Wednesday, 30 October at 3:30 pm, the exhibition From the Beginning to Today: 1+1 , which celebrates the academy’s 105th anniversary, will open on the 2nd floor of the EKA atrium. About 40 individual works, series or sets of student works by 52 authors are exhibited at the exhibition introducing the different departments of  EKA. All works displayed at the exhibition belong to the EAAM’s collection, whose rich treasures are still waiting to be explored. The exhibition is open on all workdays until 18 November.

The exhibition dedicated to the anniversary of EKA presents all disciplines currently taught at the academy, each with two works: one from the early days of the school and the other from the present time. Liberal arts, including painting, sculpture, drawing, print art, photography, scenography, animation and new media, as well as applied arts, design and architecture, are presented as thematic groups on the three levels of the atrium. Scientific research has not been left out either: a satellite exhibition at the library presents research papers selected based on the same principle.

Although the exhibition presents the entire kaleidoscope of disciplines, the principle of selection – only two works or series from each art field, with the old and the new items displayed side by side – the intent of the exhibition is not to provide a comprehensive overview. On this occasion, the focus is on individual works. Each selected piece creates a visual or substantive connection with its partner, as well as with adjacent works. In this way, works depicting the urban space, such as Ülo Sooster’s social realist graduation project and the PhD student Britta Benno’s hybrid drawing with an animation projection from her Dystopic Tallinn series are shown side by side, and a phone model and drawings from 40 years ago form a pair with the project for a digital ring that would allow lovers to keep in touch over a long distance, etc. The accompanying texts on the labels make it possible to put together a historical picture, piece by piece, which is presented in a more comprehensive form in the publications celebrating EKA’s anniversary.

The exhibition was created in close cooperation with the EKA departments and participating artists.

Curator: Reeli Kõiv

Participating artists, designers, architects and scholars:
Ülo Sooster, Jaan Vares, Bruno Tomberg, Aulin Rimm, Pilvi Ojamaa, Laur Tiidemann, Triin Marts, Edith Karlson, Britta Benno, Ene Pikk, Cloe Jancis, Julia-Maria Linna, Sander Joon, Anu Laura Tuttelberg, Arthur Arula, Varvara Guljajeva (Varvara@Mar), Katrin Kabun, Andra Jõgis, Nils Hint, Henri Papson, Raul Polding, Nesli Hazal Akbulut, Ellen Tamm, Herbert Preisman (Prees), Aino Toppi, Merilin Meremaa, Ruth Huimerind, Kelian Luisk, Merike Männi, Maria Port, Üllar Karro, Risto Bruus, Janika Vesperg, Peep Ainsoo, J. Kurvet, Vello Laanemaa, Irina Tširitš, Tõnu Kallas, Lembit Remmelgas, Leili Rummel, Anneliis Aunapuu, Ülo Kulgver, Raine Karp, Rein Kersten, Ell Väärtnõu, Veiko Vahtrik, Hain Toss, Evgeniya Dolgopolova, Hilkka Hiiop, Mart Kalm, Elnara Taidre, Olesja Katšanovskaja, Mati Kahu

Graphic design: Mikk Heinsoo (StuudioStuudio)
Designer: Maria Kristiina Ulas
Technical realisation: Heldur Lassi

See the entire programme of events to celebrate the 105th anniversary of EKA here: artun.ee/EKA105.

On Thursday, October 10, Jose Aldemar Muñoz will open his solo exhibition “Alchemy” at Vent Space project space at 7 pm. The exhibition will be open until October 13, every day 2–6 pm.

“I am interested in connecting alchemy and the body through the concept of transmutation of matter, soul and spirit. As an expression of the laboratory, I instinctively selected materials to experiment with, such as paper, wool, gold and silver paint, inks and pieces of metal, in order to describe the interaction between fluids, organs and thoughts inside the living body. Eventually, I found a connection between my research into Alchemy and some of Joseph Beuys’ approaches, whereby he sees life as a creative tool in itself and art as a transforming power which attempts to form the individual and collective consciousness.

The installation weaves together different materials, feelings and thoughts: the felting becomes the basis of my research, almost like a trace of the philosopher’s stone which makes me think of the body going beyond its own limits and becoming gold.”

Aldemar Muñoz is an artist from Bogota, Colombia. He graduated in 2013 from the Jorge Tadeo Lozano’s University and he is currently doing a Master’s degree in Contemporary Art at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Throughout his career, the body has been his subject of analysis. He is interested in researching the invisible realities around the body through understanding how organs, fluids, emotions and feelings respond in daily life.

So far, the results have been a series of drawings, objects, videos and performances on the subject of the body which have been exhibited in Colombia, Argentina and Japan.