Category: Faculty of Design

Artists: Aili Vint (EE), Daria Melnikova (LV), Kristel Saan (EE), Kristina Õllek (EE), Monika Varšavskaja (EE/FR), Morta Jonynaitė (LT), Viktorija Daniliauskaitė (LT)

Curator: Merilin Talumaa (EE)

The exhibition Breathing Through the Eyes at L’Atlas in Paris gathers together different generations of artists from the Baltic countries, most of them presenting their work in Paris for the first time.

The exhibition touches subtly on the ideas of Lithuanian-American archaeologist and anthropologist Marija Gimbutas, whose profound research brought attention to the ancient cultures of the Baltic region and the broader Indo-European world, especially well described in her book The Balts (1963). The exhibition takes its inspiration from Gimbutas’ ideas which have influenced contemporary perspectives on heritage, indigenous identities, and the relationship between humans and nature in the Baltic Sea area.

Research on the cross-disciplines of archaeological artefacts, linguistics, ethnography and folklore led Gimbutas to posit the thesis that prehistoric European culture was female-centred and worshipped a Mother Goddess as the giver of all life. The Goddess’ power was in water and stone, in cave and tomb, in animals and birds, in hills, trees and flowers. A spiritual sense of connectedness was artfully expressed through a sophisticated symbol system and an abundance of ritual objects. Nature and body (especially the female body) were honoured in Europe for tens of thousands of years. Women had an especially strong position in societies across Eastern and Central Europe – a tendency no longer necessarily evident today.

The exhibition Breathing through the eyes poetically comments on the fragile materiality of our being, multiple identities, the process of change and new environmental sensibility. Gimbutas, who having opened the treasure trove of prehistory, inspired a belief in a peaceful existence in our time – to bring back to life suppressed vital elements, such as the earth, the body (health), the feminine, and the subconscious. Participating artists, through imaginative and fictitious narratives, share personal stories and beliefs that also reflect the influence of Gimbutas’ theories on ancient symbolism. Their works echo these concepts through a contemporary lens, incorporating elements such as spirals, circles, and motifs such as snakes and birds – symbols rooted in ancient European matriarchal cultures that continue to resonate in Baltic art and culture.

The exhibition directs us to consider how we might reimagine a world centred around goddess worship, with its emphasis on preserving nature, nurturing existence, and forsaking warfare. Could this theoretical concept transcend into the tangible reality of our future society? Breathing through the eyes seamlessly intertwines historical narratives, cultural myths, and potential scenarios, immersing us in the themes that Marija Gimbutas ignited: the celebration of life’s cycles, the sanctity of the female body and labour, and the spirituality inherent in these concepts. Gimbutas’ exploration of the spiritual dimensions of a harmonious Old Europe and her vision for a New Europe free from dominance and warfare feels remarkably pertinent in our contemporary world.

Gastronomic performance: Monika Varšavskaja (EE/FR)

Exhibition setup: Daria Melnikova (LV)

Communication visuals: Gaile Pranckunaite (LT)

Exhibition stays open until December 22, 2023.

L’Atlas
4 Cour de l’île Louviers, 75004 Paris

Opening hours: Tuesday—Saturday, 12pm—7pm

Free entrance

Marija Gimbutas (1921–1994) was a Lithuanian-American archaeologist and anthropologist. She contributed to what is considered to be one of the most significant academic watershed moments in women’s studies with her archaeological and philosophical work on Neolithic culture and religion. Gimbutas is best known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of “Old Europe,” a term she introduced. Old Europe referred to both the geographical area and social structures that existed before the Indo-European influence. Gimbutas unequivocally established the existence of a Goddess religion who is the most persistent feature in the archaeological record of the ancient world. The Goddess in all her manifestations was a symbol of the unity of all life in nature. ​​Gimbutas’ discoveries took on great symbolic importance for feminists across various disciplines who found, in her vision of a peaceful, nature-revering society, a sense of hope for the future based on this foundation in the distant past.

On Monday, October 30, 18.00, Rotterdam-based curator, writer and artist Isabelle Sully will introduce her practice in room A302.

Working with feminist histories in mind, Isabelle Sully works across curating, writing and art-making, taking the mechanisms and materiality of administration as the main focus within her work to develop conceptual projects that span experimental writing, performance, exhibition-making and publishing. Through drawing on her work as founding editor of the publication series Unbidden Tongues as well as founder and co-curator of the event platform Playbill, Sully will present a series of projects that take writing as a primary mode of thinking. Given that language and its handling are central to her work, she will also focus on the realisation of these projects as they relate to graphic design and techniques of distribution—approaches developed through learning from methods of information circulation used within various feminist movements.

Isabelle Sully (1991, AU) practices across art-making, curating, editing and writing. Originally from Melbourne, she now lives in Rotterdam where she is the founding editor of Unbidden Tongues and co-curator of Playbill. Her involvement with the administrative sphere of institutional practice also plays out in her current role as assistant director-curator at Kunstverein, Amsterdam.

Isabelle Sully’s lecture is co-organized by Graphic Design and Contemporary Art MA programs.

Everyone is welcome to join!

Gelatex Technologies OÜ is a materials technology company that develops and produces nanofibrous materials. These consist of fibers that are up to 100 times smaller than a human hair. Gelatex focuses specifically on areas related to biotechnology, especially in vitro 3D cell culture and tissue engineering. There are also ongoing projects in the direction of drug development, wound treatment, and cultivated meat. Gelatex has an international team of enthusiasts and solution-oriented people with backgrounds in materials technology, mechanics, biochemistry, microbiology, marketing, sales and business development.

On October 25, as part of the EKA Ceramics 100, the lecture From Hand to Hand by professor Yukinori Yamamura, a multidisciplinary artist with Japanese ceramics education, will be held for a wider audience in room A-501.

The lecture is held in English.

Yukinori Yamamura is an artist born in Kobe, Japan in 1972 and a professor at the Osaka University of Art, who has gained fame and recognition both in Japan and on the international art scene with his prolific exhibition activities.

Yukinori Yamamura: “Up until now, I have visited and created works in various countries and regions, Norway, Finland, Estonia, America, Thailand, Iran, Kenya, Germany, South Korea, China. I have searched for matreials and expression methods based on the history and culture of the land, and through encounters and exhanges with people and with the help of many people, he have realized my works. I value the process and the diverse relationships and connections that are created through my works.”

On October 23, as part of EKA Ceramics 100, it will be possible to watch the 2020 documentary film 972 Breakdowns by Daniel von Rüdiger, which shows the 2.5-year trip on motorcycles through Siberia by five young artists (among whom Kaupo Holmberg, an alumnus of the ceramics department).

On the colorful journey, which starts in Germany and is planned to go through Georgia, Mongolia, Siberia and New York, Canada, the group also experiences many setbacks, which are overcome with the help of friendship, creativity and youthful enthusiasm.

The film is in English, German and Russian, with English subtitles. It lasted 110 minutes

Place: A-501, start at 17.00

On Thursday, October 19 at 18.00 Eva Weinmayr will talk about her practice and the social and political agency of artists’ publishing. Speaking from an intersectional feminist perspective the talk’s focus is not on the commodity genre “art publication”, but on the collective processes, exchanges, and relationships such critical publishing practices can enable.

The lecture will take place at the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM).

Eva Weinmayr conducts practice based research at the intersection of art, critical pedagogy and institutional analysis. In 2020 she published her doctoral thesis, titled Noun to Verb, on a MediaWiki. This research is concerned with the micro-politics of publishing and entangled notions of authorship from an intersectional, feminist perspective. (HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg, SE)

As interims chair of faculty Art and Education at Munich Art Academy (2022-23) she co-initiated together with students kritilab, an open source platform for discrimination-critical teaching in the arts. From 2019 to 22 she co-led the EU-funded collective research and study programme “Teaching to Transgress Toolbox” inspired by US activist, teacher and theorist bell hooks (with erg, Brussels, BE). She is currently Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University (UK) with Ecologies of Dissemination​​​​​​, a collaboration with artist Femke Snelting seeking strategies for dissemination and a politics of re-use that acknowledge the tensions between feminist methodologies, decolonial knowledge practices and principles of Open Access (HDK-Valand, 2023-24).

Eva Weinmayr lectures widely and works with art and activist spaces (SALT Research Istanbul, MayDay Rooms London, Showroom London, Kunstverein München, Steirischer Herbst Graz) as well as established art institutions (National Art Gallery Warsaw, Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia Madrid, Biennale di Venezia).

Recent artistic research-based projects include “Teaching the Radical Catalog – a Syllabus” (2021-22, with Lucie Kolb), “Library of Inclusions and Omissions” (2016-20), “The Piracy Project” (2010-15, with Andrea Francke), AND Publishing (2010-ongoing, with Rosalie Schweiker).

Eva Weinmayr’s lecture is co-organized by MA Graphic Design and MA Contemporary Art programs.

Thursday, 28th of September at 17.30 Anthony Luciano, a New York based leather designer and entrepreneur will give an inspirational lecture about vintage handbags and building a small business in New York.

Anthony Luciano, a first-generation New Yorker of Italian descent, brings together artistry and family heritage. Raised in a family of skilled artisans, where his mother and grandmother were seamstresses and his father a carpenter, Luciano inherited a passion for crafting with his hands. 

He initially pursued a fashion degree at the Fashion Institute of Technology but later transitioned to accessory design. In 2000, he launched his own collection, drawing inspiration from vintage handbag clasps from around the world. His aim was to create luxurious day and evening bags of exceptional quality, quickly gaining acclaim in top retailers like Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, and Stanley Korshak. His bags have been featured in leading fashion magazines and have garnered a loyal celebrity following, including stars like Judith Light, Meryl Streep, Debra Messing, Cameron Diaz, and Megan Mullally.

This lecture is made possible by funding from the Baltic-American Freedom Foundation (BAFF).

Homepage: anthonyluciano.com

Anthony Luciano is visiting EKA to teach students a course on making handbags with frames. 

Lecture is in english

The ceramics department of EKA is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. This exhibition is one of the events. The large-scale ceramic forms exhibited in Viimsi Artium have been completed as a first-year study project of the EKA Ceramics Department.

The works planned and built during March and April have been fired in the beginning of May in the anagama-type kiln located in Tohisoo manor park in Kohila. The special feature of the kiln is that it is heated with wood and the objects to be fired are in direct contact with the flame, one firing lasts on average 50 hours and the kiln cools down in 4-5 days.

Participating current and former students: Anna-Liisa Villmann, Merilyn Kasemets, Keily Kerem, Lilian Maasik, Elisabeth Tönne, Sanna Lova, Kristel Kärdi, Linda Viikant, Mari-Ann Maask, Maria Kim, Kätriin Reinart, Marta Vikentjeva, Gaida -Erica Pärn, Helen Griffiths, Ethel Ütsmüts.

Subject supervisor and exhibition organizer: Karin Kalman

The exhibition will remain open until October 19.

On Monday, 18th September, the EKA Library will open an exhibition to present the results of the artistic research project „The Reconstruction and Artistic Development of the Historical Relief Print Technique“.

The starting point of the study is the relief printing technique used in the workshop of leather artist and bookbinder Eduard Taska in 1924. The technique is currently unknown but distinguished from the well-known cliché and linoprint by its two-dimensional result and the absence of fine graphic lines.

The exhibition provides an overview of the experiments conducted to reconstruct the relief printing process as authentically as possible and develop printing solutions suitable for contemporary materials and techniques based on the restored historical technique that allows for mass production.

The reinvented reverse print technique allows for the use of a wide range of reusable and recyclable materials as printing plates. It enables blind and foil printing on various materials. The results of the experiments show that the reverse print is suitable for prototyping as well as for the production of unique items and small-scale products.

The exhibition will remain open until 15^th November 2023.

For more information, please contact Jaana Päeva: jaana.paeva@artun.ee

EKA artistic research project team of „The reconstruction and artistic development of the historical relief print technique“: Jaana Päeva, Eve Kaaret, Lennart Mänd, Riina Samelselg

Exhibition design: Ran-Re Reimann

Project is funded by: Ministry of Culture’s Artistic Research Support Program in the field of culture and creative industries

Special thanks to: The Estonian History Museum, EKA Bookbinding Studio, IKIGI

Monday to Friday 10.00–18.00
Saturday 11.00–15.00