Category: Faculty of Design

MARET SARAPU
FREE AND HELD
08.02.–04.03.2023
Draakoni gallery 
 
Curators: Kaisa Maasik and Berit Kaschan
Graphic design: Pamela Sume

On Tuesday, 7 February at 18.00 Maret Sarapu opens her solo exhibition Free and Held at Draakoni gallery. The exhibition is open until 4 March.

Maret Sarapu’s seventh solo exhibition looks at the question of how to be free and held. Through five artworks, the artist maps quotidian rituals and symbols, activities and stories that help to ensure our mental sharpness, emotional well-being and a sense of safety in everyday life. That is, focal points that help us make sense of life, prevent crises and find strength in the everyday.

The conceptual centre of the exhibition is simultaneously poetic and practical – on the one side, it allows the viewer to make their own everyday life more poetic and start consciously and playfully mapping out activities, events and ideas that provide support and strength. On the other side, this kind of poetisation has a thoroughly practical effect – conceptualisation and structuring of our routines grounds us and plays a significant role in achieving emotional well-being and maintaining our joie de vivre.

At the exhibition, the artist displays installations and objects: wall panels with nature motifs, mosaic trophies, glass “breaths” and sand boxes reminiscent of Japanese gardens on walls and around the exhibition space. Alongside these objects, the exhibition includes a set of postcards, inviting the viewer to discover their own everyday and internal landscapes through exercises of creative writing.

As part of Free and Held three thematic creative writing workshops led by Berit Kaschan will take place at Draakoni gallery. The workshops will be held on three consecutive Tuesdays – on 14, 21 and 28 February from 18.00 to 20.00.

Pre-registration is required.
Please register to the workshop no later than 12 February: kaisamaasik@gmail.com.

Participation fee: 10€.
Size of the group: 10 participants.
The workshop will be conducted in Estonian.

The exhibition is supported by the Estonian Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Liviko AS.

Thank you: Karel Koplimets, Maarin Ektermann and Prologue School, Sven Sapelson, Tiina Sarapu, Kairi Orgusaar, Kaie Vakepea

Maret Sarapu (1978) is an artist based in Tallinn. She has graduated from the Department of Glass Art at the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA 2002, MA 2005) and taken part in numerous courses and art residencies both in Estonia and abroad. In her work, Sarapu is mostly inspired by everyday life and often uses nature motifs and repetition. Recently, her experiments with form and concept have led her towards methods like automatic and stream of consciousness writing. Often, the aim is to achieve mental well-being and find harmony between intelligence and emotions. Her alternating process (thinking, writing, working in the studio) and collaboration with material lead to results that give both the artist and the viewer a possibility to make conclusions and generalisations.

EKA’s Sensorial Design Research group is organizing a design research event at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) aiming to bring knowledge of international researchers to students, researchers, and educators of EKA on the 21st of February 2023.

During this event, two Art and Design PhD students of EKA, Arife Dila Demir and Nesli Hazal Oktay, welcome their peer reviewers and external PhD supervisors to EKA as speakers. Four speakers present their design research work, inviting the audience to discussion. The event is open to the public with a requirement to register. 

It is possible to participate both on-site at EKA (room A101) and watch the broadcast http://tv.artun.ee/.

Schedule (All times are Estonian) 

10:30 – 10:45 – Coffee

10:45 – 11:00 – Welcoming words

11:00 – 11:30 – Hsuan-Hsiu Hung, Estonian Academy of Arts

11:30 – 12:00 – Verena Fuchsberger, University of Salzburg, Austria

12:00 – 12:30 – Panel discussion: Hsuan-Hsiu Hung & Verena Fuchsberger, Moderator: Nesli Hazal Oktay

12:30 – 14:00 – Break for Lunch

14:00 – 14:30 – Claudia Núñez-Pacheco, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

14:30 – 15:00 – Nithikul Nimkulrat, OCAD University, Canada

15:00 – 15:30 – Panel discussion: Claudia Núñez-Pacheco & Nithikul Nimkulrat, Moderator: Arife Dila Demir

The presenters: 

Hsuan-Hsiu Hung is a movement and dance artist from Taiwan. Her creative practice weaves together Qigong, somatics, visual art, contemplative practices and contemporary dance. In her creative research, she has been exploring the unfolding experiences of self as well as relationships with others (including the environment) through improvisational movement and dance. Since 2020, she has been invited by Mind and Life Europe to organise European Summer Research Institute and co-facilitate contemplative movement practices with philosophers, neuroscientists, researchers and contemplative practitioners in the Buddhist tradition. Currently, she is also a research assistant at the Faculty of Design of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

️Verena Fuchsberger is a Postdoc at the Center for Human-Computer Interaction, University of Salzburg. She has completed her Master’s Degree in Educational Sciences and Psychology at the University of Innsbruck and finished her PhD in HCI at the University of Salzburg. Some of her recent publications include “Heterogeneity in making: Findings, approaches, and reflections on inclusivity in making and makerspaces” (with D. Smit, N. França, C. Gerdenitsch, O. Jaques, J. Kowolik, G. Regal, and E. Roodbergen in Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 2023).

️Claudia Núñez-Pacheco is an interaction design researcher and artist, currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at both the division of Media Technology and Interaction Design and Digital Futures at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. She holds a PhD and a Master’s degree from the Sydney School of Design at the University of Sydney, in the area of interaction design. Her research investigates how bodily self-awareness can be used as a tool for human self-discovery as well as a generative crafting material for the design of aesthetic experiences.

️Nithikul Nimkulrat is a textile artist, designer, researcher, and educator originally from Bangkok, Thailand. Nithikul was educated as an industrial designer (BID) with knowledge of architectural design at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Having worked as a designer in the textile industry in Thailand for three years, she relocated to Helsinki to pursue studies at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture where she earned a Master of Arts in textile art and design in 2002 and a Doctor of Arts in design in 2009. Currently, she is the Acting Chair of the Material Art & Design program.

Read more about Sensorial Design here 

REGISTER HERE

The pop-up exhibition opened at NART on 21st of January investigates the possibilities of including the body and related identity markers (age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, social class, etc.) in the creative process.

The display is the outcome of the “Body & Identity”  course run at the Design Department at the Estonian Academy of Arts in autumn 2022. The students were guided through several layers, or membranes, as we called them,  determining one’s identity, from body and gender up to our contemporary identities in the digital realm.

By actively combining theory, workshops and personal practice, the students were familiarised with how identity-related categories, whether as culturally constructed and historically changing phenomenons or quests for personal style, could be inscribed in and communicated through design and/or arts. Working with relevant literature and constant analysis led to various projects in which the students explored how their favoured medium could be expressed via the given subject matter.

Artists: Karolin Kärm, Rita RebaineLonks, Otto Antson, Kadri Vahar, Epp Vislapuu, Katrin-Maria Terras, Ieva Laskevičiūtė (LTU), Matthieu Champion (FRA)

Curators: Annamari Vänskä (FIN), Piret Puppart

The joint exhibition by the Design and Crafts MA and MACA students Staying in the Compost: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene.

Opening Thursday, 26.01, 18.00, at Kanuti Gildi SAAL Cellar Hall (Pühavaimu 5). 

Exhibited are the works by the Design and Crafts MA and MACA students, accomplished within the frameworks of the Autumn semester course “Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene” led by Taavi Hallimäe and Sandra Kosorotova. The course kick-started with a short residency at MASSIA (Massiaru, Pärnumaa) and workshops by Sepideh Ardalani and Pire Sova, continued with seminars and individual work and is concluded with this public presentation at Kanuti Gildi SAAL. In addition to the six individual projects by each of the artists there will be presented a work communally produced by the artists and compost microorganisms — the outcome of the workshop by Pire Sova. 

Artists: Siew Ching Ang, Y. Derya Balkan, Zody Burke, Katarina Kruus, Viktor Kudriashov, Elle Kannike

Graphic designer: Agnes Isabelle Veevo

Alcoholic beverages for the opening are kindly offered by Sveta Bar. There will also be a non-alcoholic option in the form of kombucha tea brewed by the exhibition artist Elle Kannike.

The exhibition reading group will take place on Friday, 27.01, 17.00–19.00, led by the exhibition artist Siew Ching Ang.
Please get in touch with Siew if you would like to take part in this event: siew.ang@artun.ee

Opening hours:
27.–29.01, 13.00–19.00

EKA Interaction Design MA programme invites prospective Master’s students to join the online info session on Friday, February 3, 2023 at 16:00 EET (local Estonian time).

Register HERE.

More information about the Interaction Design MA (IxD.ma) programme:

• https://www.ixd.ma
• https://www.artun.ee/ixd
• https://www.facebook.com/IxD.ma

Admissions period starts on the 1st of February 2023 and application deadline is 6th of March 2023.

https://artun.ee/admissions

Graphic design 3rd year BA students invite everyone to the opening of their exhibition I Will Always Remember… on Tuesday, 6 December at 5 p.m. 

The exhibition presents artworks that combine artificial and natural materials, resulting in a whole new world. Despite the wide spectrum of topics and personal points of departure, on closer inspection, the works have quite a bit in common.

Works are by Aleksander Alev, Elisabeth Järve, Emma Reim, Erik Merisalu, Karl Kevad, Katariina Kesküla, Katrin Kannu, Kaur Joonas Karu, Kertu Klementi, Csenge Kinga Kovács, Magnus Harjak, Steven Pikas.

The exhibition was created in the framework of a course supervised by Kaspar Sellin.

The exhibition is open on two days:
Tuesday, 6 December, 5–10 p.m.
Thursday, 8 December, 3–10 p.m.

Address: Tulika põik 4a, Tallinn

Find the Facebook event here. For more information, email sellin.kaspar@gmail.com

Time: Wednesday, Dec 7 at 18:00

Place: A306, EKA

MA in Graphic Design
Online Open House
Thursday, 26 January 2023, 18:00–19:00h EET (local Estonian time)

We invite prospective students to join our Online Open House on Thursday, 26 January 2023, 18:00–19:00h EET. This will be an opportunity to hear more about the program, and ask questions. The event will be hosted by Sean Yendrys (current Head of Curriculum) and Rita Davis (current 2nd year MA student).

To register please fill in this form:
https://forms.gle/YH7QoScsbGEfEXAAA

Please register by Monday, 23 January, 18:00h.

A zoom-link will be e-mailed out to all registrants two-hours before the start of the event.

More information about Graphic Design MA programme. Admissions period: 1 Feb – 6 March 2023.

The visuals for the Online Open House are by 2nd year MA student Gréta Þorkelsdóttir.

An open lecture and discussion on the possibilities of artistic research to approach socially complex and even conflicting questions through the practices of the curator and architectural researcher dr Ines Moreira and the media scholar dr Nico Carpentier.

Both of their artistic research travels to sites, which are related to non-beloved industrial heritage and memorialisation, feeding into the complex, sensitive and divisive debate with creative means.

The event is organised by the Design Faculty of the Estonian Academy of Arts and the museology working group of the Estonian National Museum. It is part of our collaboration over the sites in the European geographical fringes at COST Action EFAP working group 1 “Contexts”.

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Iconoclastic controversies: Arts-based research on the memorialization of the Cyprus Problem 

Nico Carpentier

The Cyprus Problem is a term that refers to a chain of armed conflicts, starting with the decolonial struggle of EOKA against the British, followed by the ethnonationalist violence after independence, then leading to the Turkish 1974 invasion and the division of the island. The cultural trauma that came out of these conflicts also had a very tangible translation through the production of a multitude of memorials and commemoration sites, on both sides of the divide. Using arts-based research, this nomadic research project offers a visual, theoretically-supported analysis of these memorials, how they often connect to (and strengthen) antagonistic nationalism, but also how—in rare cases—they offer counter-hegemonic possibilities by articulating a peace discourse. The analysis also juxtaposes the memorials from north and south, showing the uncanny similarities in how they both represent the Self and the Enemy-Other.

Nico Carpentier is Extraordinary Professor at Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic), Chief Research Fellow at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Lithuania) and President of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (2020-2024). His theoretical focus is on discourse theory, his research is situated in the relationship between communication, politics and culture, especially towards social domains as war & conflict, ideology, participation and democracy. His latest monographs are The Discursive-Material Knot: Cyprus in Conflict and Community Media Participation (2017, Peter Lang, New York) and Iconoclastic Controversies: A Photographic Inquiry into Antagonistic Nationalism (2021, Intellect, Bristol).

http://nicocarpentier.net/

Foto siin: http://www.nicocarpentier.net/temp/Nico.tif

Fieldwork in/on/through Non-beloved Heritage – curator’s notes from eastern and western European fringes

Inês Moreira (Lab2PT-UMinho, Portugal)

The year 2022 has been a period of rising tension and awareness on war, conflict and its consequences in Europe, and elsewhere. The sociopolitical and cultural situation has led us to look upon past events and to non-beloved legacies of conflict from the last century.

For some years I have been doing research and curatorial projects around postindustrial sites in Eastern and Western Europe, from Gdańsk to Ave Valley. Some sites embody the material and symbolic legacy of eastern political past, some encapsulate military and security secrecy – industry and the military systems have close articulation.

This talk shares field notes and some theoretical references collected in the last couple of years, which were devoted to fieldwork inquiry and to nomadic research around (what we perceive as) sites in the European geographical fringes. Focusing on ecologies, settlements, memorials and other symbolic and artistic legacies of military and post-socialist past, it is a modest visual and urban cultures contribution to address and relate to non-beloved heritage.

Bio:

Inês Moreira is a Principal Researcher in Visual Arts at Lab2PT-University of Minho, Portugal. She completed a Postdoctoral project at Universidade Nova de Lisboa (2016-2022) and created the research cluster Curating the Contemporary: on Architectures, Territories and Networks (2018-21). PhD in Curatorial/Knowledge (University of London), Master in Urban Culture (Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya/CCCB) and Architect (FAUP).

She is an active member of cultural and academic European projects, such as European Forum for Advanced Practices, and Press Here, a Living Archive of European Industry.

inesmoreira.org