Category: Faculty of Design

DEAR FRIEND
15–29 September 2022
Opening. 15.09 at 6 pm
EKA Gallery, Estonian Academy of Arts

Dear Friend,

We have been thinking about you and we are looking forward to meeting you at the Dear Friend exhibition from 15–29 September 2022 at EKA Gallery. We hope you have time to pass by! The gallery doors open on 15 September at 18:00. 

Since 2019 we have been writing, folding, publishing, sharing and posting the Dear Friend publication. There are four seasons of published letters. This Fall seemed like the right time to meet after a few years of correspondence. It is a chance to talk about publishing, writing, small publications, doing things together, and why not just about how we are doing. 

The exhibition features all the published Dear Friend letters. The letters are available for you to read, take home or mail to another friend. Next to the letters there are projects and publications by our penfriends. These are mostly publications that connect with the Dear Friend project contextually, formally, community-wise and beyond borders. 

There is also a public programme that includes presentations of periodical publications and books; from 20–23 September readings and recordings of letters, programme Tracks as envelopes by oH radio; 24 September Dear Friend symposium, a day full of presentations and discussions; 29 September Dear Friend letter writing workshop and more. 

A catalogue will be published alongside the exhibition, with contributions by Singapore-based design writer Justin Zhuang, designer and writer Else Lagerspetz, and artist Lieven Lahaye. It will include published letters and a selection of photos of the activities. The book launch will take place at the symposium on 24 September. 

PUBLIC PROGRAM

16–29 September, EKA Gallery

16.09 17:00 artist Lieven Lahaye presents a new issue of Catalog

20.09–23.09 11:00–13:00 & 14:00–16:00 oH radio’s Tracks as envelopes, public readings of Dear Friend letters in the exhibition space. Come read one! 

22.09 18:00 presentation of Exercises in Practical Mischievery by Laura Pappa, Carlo Canun, Maki Suzuki

24.09 12:00–17:00 Dear Friend symposium and catalogue presentation. Come and join!

28.09 18:30 launch of the All Horses Are the Same Colour by EKA GD MA students 

29.09 18:00 Dear Friend letter writing workshop. Please join! 

SYMPOSIUM

24 September 12:00–18:00, EKA Gallery

Dear Friend symposium is a gathering where we explore practices and questions around experimental and self-publishing, mailing as a form of publishing, and design as writing through presentations and discussions. 

Symposium is held in English. 

12:00 Gathering

12:30 Presentation Undisclosed Relations, Henk Groenendijk 

Henk Groenendijk travels from Sofia, Bulgaria to open some boxes full of student publications, a selection of works from the Test Press exhibition, and copies of Test Press magazine. Henk will tell us about his library and collection of student publications and the links that are perhaps not visible. The connections are in the books, posters, and other paraphernalia. 

Heni Groenendijk is a collector, educator, and curator of Test Press Books. He worked as a professor at the Graphic Design Department of Gerrit Rietveld Academie and initiated the Rietveld & Sandberg Library Publications Archive. 

13:00 “A Lecture on Nothing: on the Legibility of Illegible Text”, Arja Karhumaa

What do typographic texts consist of? How does typography relate to language, image, and writing? How do you read illegible text? What is type beyond only form, as part of our coexistence and social environment? This performative talk has no answers to these questions but aims to stay with the trouble they make.

Arja Karhumaa is a text designer, a feral academic, and a language animal. She is Assistant Professor and Head of Programme in Visual Communication Design at Aalto University ARTS, Finland. 

13:30 open discussion

14:00–15:00 break/lunch

15:00 Presentation about de Appel’s publication The Remote Archivist, Nell Donkers

Nell Donkers, archivist of de Appel in Amsterdam will talk about The Remote Archivist, a recurring (one-page folded poster) publication from the Archive. There are four series of the publication that have been presented so far. The aim is to invite artists, thinkers, and readers to dive deeper into the archive and recalibrate the archive materials for their own practice. Bardhi Haliti is the designer of the project and of de Appel’s house style. 

Nell Donkers has managed the archive (library, archive, and collection) of De Appel in Amsterdam since 2002 and made it digitally accessible. 

15:30 Talk about Queer.Archive.Work and the resting reader, Paul Soulellis

Paul Soulellis’ talk will present his work at the nonprofit library, publishing studio, and residency Queer.Archive.Work in Providence, US with a focus on collectivity in the context of independent publishing. The resting reader is a book of texts and images assembled from source material found on the shelves of the Queer.Archive.Work library. The content was selected during the rise of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in December 2021, around the loose themes of rest, quiet, care, queer, sanctuary, reflection, collective, and generosity. 

Paul Soulellis is an artist and educator based in Providence, RI. His practice includes teaching, writing, and experimental publishing, with a focus on queer methodologies and network culture. 

16:00 open discussion

17:00 presentation of the Dear Friend catalogue, Ott Kagovere and Sandra Nuut

Ott Kagovere is a Tallinn-based graphic designer and the Head of the Department of Graphic Design at the Estonian Academy of Arts. 

Sandra Nuut is a curator at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design. Previously she worked at the Estonian Academy of Arts and New York-based gallery Chamber. 

Exhibition concept/curation: 

Ott Kagovere & Sandra Nuut

Exhibition design

Ulla Alla & Nika Gabiskiria

Letters by
Alicia Ajayi, Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey, Claudia Doms, Nell Donkers, Maarin Ektermann, Rosen Eveleigh, Maryam Fanni, Saara Hannus, Eik Hermann, Paul John, Maria Juur, Ott Kagovere, Maarja Kangro, Arja Karhumaa, Kristina Ketola Bore, Nicole Killian, Rachel Kinbar, Tuomas Kortteinen, Keiu Krikmann, Kadri Laas, Else Lagerspetz, Lieven Lahaye, James Langdon, Jungmyung Lee, Kai Lobjakas, Michelle Millar Fisher, Maria Muuk, Sheere Ng, Sandra Nuut, Laura Pappa, Jack Self, Indrek Sirkel, Paul Soulellis, Triin Tamm, Laura Toots, Alice Twemlow, Loore Viires, Sean Yendrys, Justin Zhuang

Letter visuals by 

Mai Bauvald, Pärtel Eelmere, Martina Gofman, Kersti Heile, Laura Merendi, Mikk Oja, Rex, Johanna Ruukholm, Robin Siimann

Thank you

Andres Alliksaar, Louis Biasin, Rita Davis, Pärtel Eelmere, Maarin Ektermann, Mark Foss, Triin Jerlei, Mette Mari Kaljas, Kaur Karu, Kertu Klementi, Else Lagerspetz, Rasmus Lukas, Laura Merendi, Anete Ots, Laura Pappa, Steven Pikas, Lola Maria Pärna, Emma Reim, Filipp Rotšenkov, Maret Sarapu, Georg Ander Sild, Indrek Sirkel, Mariliis Tarja, Ljubov Terukova, Taylor Tex Tehan, Laura Tursk, Pille-Riin Valk 

Detailed program: facebook.com/events/440404928139944/440701844776919

Dear Friend web archive: https://gd.artun.ee/dearfriend/ 

Supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts, European Regional Development Fund

See you soon!

Sandra & Ott

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

Social Design Days

8-9 September, EKA

In Estonia, 40.000 children are affected by mental illness. €164 million worth of food is discarded every year. And there is an urgent need to understand the difficult experience of the over 45.000 Ukrainian refugees that have arrived to our country. How could an expertise in social design help us to deal with these issues?

Twenty-two professionals in the field are meeting at the Estonian Academy of Arts to discuss questions such as: 

• What is the political impact of design?
• Why is design a social practice?
• And can we understand social transformations with design techniques?

The frontiers of design are rapidly expanding within society; In the recent years, design practice has moved beyond the ideation of commercial products and is more and more considered as a set of techniques for engaging with complex problems.  Hence, there is a need to open up the roles of design within wider economic and political issues.

As explained by Bori Fehér, leader of the Social Design Research HUB at MOME: “This event will contribute to giving form to a rapidly expanding field of study, developing new ways of inclusive design and social intervention in Estonia”.

EKA is opening a new MA programme in Social Design. Students will gain an understanding of design as a political force, while expanding their capacity to intervene in contemporary issues and comprehend social transformations.

Experienced colleagues from all over Europe are joining us to discuss the key questions in the field. For instance, Guy Julier has written about activism and the economies of design; Jesko Fezer about architecture and community making; Eeva Berglund about how to research environmental activism; Adam Drazin about design anthropology; Jussi Koitela about hospitality and interdisciplinary projects; Maija Rozenfelde about design institutions; Liene Ozoliņa about social theory; Bianca Herlo about bottom-up politics and civic infrastructures; and Alvise Mattozzi about innovation and sustainability, just to name a few key topics of expertise. 

Likewise, we are organising a series of experimental workshops and fieldtrips with local and international colleagues, exploring a wide range of issues, such as multi-species communication, mental health and indigenous rights.

As a result, Tallinn will become the European capital of Social Design in September.

Thursday, 8 September A-101

10:30 Round table: What can social design promise?

Participants: Bori Fehér (MOME Budapest), Guy Julier (Aalto), Alvise Mattozzi (Politecnico Torino), Ruth-H. Melioranski (EKA)

13:30 Open formats A-307

• Feral Tracking / Multispecies Conversari by Hermione Spriggs (UCL)
• Design for advocacy in the Global South by Nathaly Pinto (Aalto)

16:00 Field visit to Paljassaare by Andra Aaloe

Friday, 9 September A-306

10:15 Round table: When, where, with whom, what for? The social is not singular

Participants: Eeva Berglund (Aalto), Jesko Fezer (HFBK Hamburg), Bianca Herlo (UDK Berlin), Liene Ozoliņa (Latvian Academy of Culture)

13:15 Round Table: How do we evaluate interdisciplinary projects?

Participants: Adam Drazin (UCL), Jussi Koitela (Frame Finland); Maija Rozenfelde (Art Academy of Latvia), Indrek Sirkel (EKA)

15:00 Open Format: Social Design projects in EKA

• Ott Kagovere & Sandra Nuut: snail mail, redesigning the times and spaces that we give ourselves to say and understand things
• Eva Liisa Kubinyi & Maarja Mõtus, mitigating mental health problems among youth 
• Kristi Kuusk, social design for children with special needs
• Urmas Lüüs, loneliness of elderly people

16:15 Field visit to Lasnamäe by Maria Derlõš

Please, register here.

For more details, please contact:
Francisco Martínez
francisco.martinez@artun.ee / +372 58038079

This project of the Baltic-German University Liaison Office is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic Germany.

Silence After Early Hours
(first-ever) EKA GD MA Graduation Show
4–11 June 2022, 1–7pm

Do you know the feeling? The feeling you have after leaving a long and eventful party minutes after the sunrise? The feeling of sneaking to the door past drunken animals and sleeping unfortunates, the feeling of smoke-filled air and a sticky floor that by now looks almost glazed in a varnish of liquor. The feeling of opening the doors and getting slammed in the face by a blinding ray of sunshine, the feeling of the first lungful breath you take, and being almost surprised the air can smell so good. the feeling of guilt as you stumble and hobble, shuffle, and dodder your way home as others have just woken up and are in a fast-paced manner gracefully heading to work? That’s now, we are leaving and returning to the places and lives we left behind. An exhausting end before a new beginning or the silence after early hours.

Vernissage: June 3, 6:30–9 pm
Finissage: June 11, 9 pm–midnight

Class of 2022
Alejandro Bellón Ample, Louise Borinski, Aleksandrs Breže, Paula Buškevica, Björn Giesecke, Otso Peräsaari, Diandra Rebase, Katarina Sarap

Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn
MA in Graphic Design

The exhibition “The Seaweed Ceremony” will be opened on June 3 at 7 pm in Tallinn, at the Sepikoja Gallery of Põhjala Factory (Marati 5).

The exhibition “The Seaweed Ceremony” focuses on the aquatic environment and seaweed species, which are an integral part of this fragile ecosystem. Combining existing knowledge of aquatic organisms with design research, the exhibition treats seaweed caringly and respectfully, through ritual-like gestures. In this way, students from the universities of Iceland, Finland and Estonia show works based on the local context in the “The Seaweed Ceremony”, which reflect on the symbiotic interaction of man and the environment – the post-anthropocentric symbioscene.

“The Seaweed Ceremony” focuses on the conscious design approach that seaweed as an underused but highly economically exploited bioresource, with the aim of reaching both for the development of renewable bioresources and for their industrialization.

In the last decade, seaweed has been explored as a potential resource for new materials. Seaweed is also known as “green gold”, the biofuel of the future and an alternative to animal protein on the human food plate. In order for these high expectations to be realized in the long run, we need a radical change in our way of thinking, learning from the mysterious mechanisms of the water world and the combinations of different species, moving towards a restorative, supportive and nourishing model.

Julia Lohmann, professor and multidisciplinary designer at Aalto University, writes: “Seaweed becomes more than just a resource, but also our method and muse”.

Seaweed, a large heterogeneous group of organisms capable of photosynthetic activity in seawater, are considered to be the most untapped bioresource. The DiMa Sustainable Design Laboratory of the Estonian Academy of Arts has been dealing with local seaweed as one of its focus topics since 2015. The local seaweed has been tested as a raw material for the production of various bioplastics, as a nutrient-rich food as well as as a possible wastewater-draining biomass.

Rainforests of the North

Students from universities participating in the exhibition:

Aalto University

Aura Latva-Somppi, Élise Piquemal, Elsa Tölli, Nina Naveršnik, Zoë Robertson, Vihar Kotecha

Listaháskóli Íslands

Arngrímur Guðmundsson, Birna Sísí Jóhannsdóttir, Bryndís Magnúsdóttir, Elín Dagný Kristinsdóttir, Emma Kristina A. Herrera, Helgi Jóhannsson, Jón Sölvi Walderhaug Eiríksson, Marsibil Sól Þ. Blöndal, Mekkín Guðmundsdóttir, Salóme Bregt Hollanders

Estonian Academy of Arts

Cärol Ott, Indre Spitryte, Karl-Christoph Rebane, Karolin Kärm, Katarina Kruus, Kristiina Jeromans, Marion Laev

Supervisors:

Aalto University

Anna van der Lei, Julia Lohmann

ListahAskóli Íslands

Tinna Gunnarsdottir, Rúna Thors, Lee Lorenzo Lynch, Agnar Jón Egilsson, Johanna Seelemann

Estonian Academy of Arts

Annika Kaldoja, Kärt Ojavee

Elisabeth Perk and Roger Matthias Laas, 2nd year students of EKA Interior Architecture, designed the design of the exhibition and the complete solution of the space. The course was supervised by Kaisa Sööt and Adam Kaarma.

The exhibition is open from 04.06 to 15.06.2022

Mon-Fri 10.00–17.00; Sat-Sun 12.00–17-00

Põhjala Factory Sepikoja Gallery (Marati 5)

The exhibition is supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment’s Architecture Endowment and the Nordic Council of Ministers

Sirja-Liisa Eelma and Tiina Sarapu will open their co-exhibition Black Mirror in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Tuesday, May 31st 2022.

Exhibition will be open until June 25, 2022.
Black surface absorbs light and colours; while looking at black surface, one can see info infinity, unknowing, solitude and protective tenderness. Mirror gives you the honest truth. The danger to get stuck in reflections and in the reflections of reflections is as big as the temptation to touch the snoozing screen of a smartphone in order to open completely different kind of worlds.

Landscape painter of 17th century Claude Lorrain made use of black mirror as an optical aid. Compared to a clear mirror, the details are more subtle and the reflection of black mirror is more simplified. The black reflection brings forth the tonal range as well as reduces the intensity of tones.

The encounter of the reflecting and painted worlds refers to the multilayeredness of existence. The layer of glass in front of the painting is protecting the artwork but also creating the distance between the painting and the viewer. This way, the viewer misses the opportunity of directly experiencing the materiality, fragrance and smell of the paint. The reflections, flickers of light and shadows of the glass function either as disturbance or as an unstable and captivating finesse on the surface of painting.

Sirja-Liisa Eelma (b. 1973) is a conceptual painter whose visual language is characterized by visually minimalistic structures. Her painting series, based on the slow transformation of a repetitive image, focus on the themes of emptiness, ambivalence of meanings as well as defining the visible and the invisible.

Sirja-Liisa Eelma has graduated from the department of painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts (MA, 1996). Since 2018, she has been studying in the doctoral school of the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2016, her artistic practice was recognized with Konrad Mägi Award. Eelma’s artworks belong both to private collections as well as the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia. She has held numerous personal exhibitions as well as participated in group and curatorial exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad.

Tiina Sarapu‘s (b. 1971) artistic practice can be characterized by minimalistic approach towards form. The perfectly composed form is almost always extremely simple and well interpreted. While having been exhibiting her artwork mainly as an installation artist during the past few years, Sarapu has often transferred the meanings of an initial idea to various contexts (several installations with music stands and mirrors), created illusory spaces, visualized sounds, extended the borders of perception. As an conceptual artist, Tiina Sarapu is using glass in order to express the idea of the multilayeredness of life while working with the oppositions present in glass as a material. (Reeli Kõiv)

Tiina Sarapu has obtained MA degree in the department of glass art at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 1996. In 1996–2017, she was teaching in the same department and in 2003-2017 worked there as an associate professor. Sarapu has participated in numerous exhibitions, symposiums and workshops both in Estonia and abroad. She has received acknowledgement in international competitions of glass art. Sarapu’s artwork belongs to the collections of several museums and private collectors. She received the honorary title of Acknowledged Glass Artist 2005–2005 and Acknowledged Glass Artist 2018–2019; in 2007, Sarapu received Kristjan Raud Art Award, in 2019 she deserved the Annual Award of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and was awarded the Artist Laureate Salary in 2021–2023.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian

On Facebook

Sandra Nuut, Urmas Lüüs, Karin Vicente and Jüri Kermik talk about writing about design.

The conversation will be moderated by Taavi Hallimäe.

The discussion will be held in Estonian.

What approaches to design do we need, what do the designer need?
Who is the reader we should keep in mind when writing about design?
What kind of design should we write about at all?
What can be done with design writing, but what the design itself is not always capable of?
Do we need descriptive, evaluative, experiential, or interpretive design criticism?

The event will also introduce the new journal of the Faculty of Design of EKA, Leida the first issue of which will be published in the autumn.

Invitation to the opening of the exhibition of Kaia Ansip and Yufang Hu, MA students of Jewelery and Blacksmithing, May 27, 6 pm at Rotermanni 7

The exhibition is part of the TASE’22 Grad Show. 

The exhibition is open until June 9. 

Graduating Bachelor’s students of the Department of Graphic Design kindly welcome you to the opening of their exhibition ASTE (“A Step” in English) at the Estonian Academy of Arts, room C-304 on Friday, May 27 at 18:00.

There is a variety of projects at the exhibition, which display the ideas and interests of the young designers. There are publications, installations, visual experiments, video works, and virtual environments with which visitors can get familiar.

The graduation show takes place in the students’ usual working space, a studio, which is commonly a place run by a buzzing and chaotic atmosphere. A new surface arises at the exhibition from stacked desks – the site-specific intervention brings the works and visitors to the next level.

Prior to the exhibition, the graduating class will present their graduation projects on 26 May starting at 10:00 at EKA in room A-501. Presentations will be in English.

Graduation projects will be assessed by a jury:
Ott Kagovere, Associate Professor at the Department of Graphic Design (Tallinn, Estonia);
Sandra Kosorotova, artist and designer (Tallinn, Estonia);
Sandra Nuut, Lecturer at the Department of Graphic Design (Tallinn, Estonia);
Agnes Ratas, graphic designer (Tallinn, Estonia);
Nerijus Rimkus, graphic designer (Vilnius, Lithuania & Amsterdam, The Netherlands).

Graduating designers:
Kristi Jaago, Rainer Kasekivi, Kertu Kibal, Martin Kipper, Jekaterina Kožemjatšenko, Uku Art Mikkin, Nora Pelsš, Urmet Piiling, Villem Sarapuu, Polina Zahharenkova, Ingel-Kristen Veevo.

Supervisors of the BA graduation projects:
Else Lagerspetz, Maria Muuk, Laura Pappa, Indrek Sirkel

Supervisor of the BA graduation show project:
Kaisa Maasik

Supported by
AS Merko Ehitus, Mistra-Autex AS, Peenjoogivabrik Nudist, Põhjala Pruulikoda, Valmiermuiža Pruulikoda

The exhibition is on view daily from 12:00 to 18:00 until June 9, 2022.

The visual identity of the exhibition is designed by Polina Zahharenkova.

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On May 19, a joint exhibition “SHIFT” of the second-year jewelery and blacksmithing students of the Estonian Academy of Arts will be opened in the Old Town of Tallinn, Uus tn 4, where various states of change will be discussed.

There is a constant hidden movement within the apparent stability of the material world. Although stability and change seem at first sight to be opposites, change is the only constant element in our lives. However, we cannot escape the effects of the slightest change – regardless of its essence, we will inevitably have a shift between reality and the assumptions made on the basis of our experience, knowledge and feelings.

As the temporal forms solidify through exploratory and repetitive practice, the viewer will remain a testimony to the limits of our age.

As spatial phenomena change around through emerging and diverse practices, the viewer is left with only a tribute to the inaccuracies of our existence. “artybollocks generator”

Participants in the exhibition: Anna-Maria Vaino, Ardo Teesalu, Bianca Triinu Toots, Ellen Axberg, Hugo Toss, Margus Elizarov, Camilla Prey, Villu Mustkivi, Visa Eino Eduard Nurmi

The works have been supervised by: Nils Hint, Eve Margus

The exhibition is part of the EKA’s TASE ’22 satellite program and will be open daily from 12.00–20.00, until June 2.

The exhibition is supported by: Estonian Academy of Arts, Kaili Baked Goods, Fabric Jungle, Kräftwärk, Valmiermuiža, Barrel

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