Category: Departments

EEE is a graphic design studio based between Bologna and Ravenna (IT) born from the collaborative experience of Emilio Macchia and Erica Preli.

The studio is engaged in a wide range of projects within the field of arts and culture, including publication and book design, brand identities and exhibition design.

EEE gives lectures and holds workshops at universities and other educational institutions, both in Italy and abroad, such as: Fine Art Academy Bologna, Fine Art Academy Macerata and Alma Mater Studiorum Bologna University.

The studio also works on research-based and self-initiated projects; some of the most recents are SUBSTITUTES and Fahrenheit 39 art book fair in Ravenna since 2010.

On Friday, 1 September at 6 pm, Erki Kasemets and Camille Laurelli will open their duo exhibition Bricollage at Tallinn City Gallery, where material becomes art and art becomes material, and where the artists give each other futile tasks and misleading instructions. The exhibition is curated by Siim Preiman.

Erki Kasemets and Camille Laurelli are artists whose lives and works are equally deeply intertwined. Their work is not determined by specific methods or finely honed techniques, but rather by a generally open and hybrid attitude towards art and their role in it. Both are fascinated by games; both are avid collectors and equally enjoy invention and mishap.

A three-way ping-pong of ideas has led to a labyrinth-like exhibition based on reuse and playfulness. The display features light, kinetics, interactivity, readymades and textiles. Rather than finger-wagging and moralising, it deals with figurative issues, yet it is still performative and active in its own way, rather than static or passive.

“Inviting Erki Kasemets and Camille Laurelli to make an exhibition together is one of those ideas that, in retrospect, seem so natural that you can’t even put your finger on the moment when it happened. Neither of them could be considered exactly a cultural blocker, however, there is definitely a certain amount of resistance or refusal in their actions. How is it possible that these two artists didn’t meet sooner?” Siim Preiman, curator of the exhibition reflects on the exhibition.

You are kindly invited to the opening of the exhibition on 1 September at 6 pm. Bricollage will remain open until 5 November 2023.

Tallinn City Gallery (Harju 13, Tallinn) is open from Wednesday to Sunday 11–6 pm. Free entry.

Erki Kasemets (1969) is an installation, painting, performance and theatre artist whose work covers various fields of activity: trash art, polygon theatre, systematic documentation of his personal life, material culture, kinetic art, environmental and stage designs, etc. His most recent performances include participation in the group exhibition Untamed at the Tartu Art Museum (2021), the solo exhibition Karl Marx in the Animal Kingdom at the Draakoni Gallery (2020) and the solo exhibition at the Audru Museum (2019).

Camille Laurelli (1981) is an intermedia artist whose confusing, failing and evasive creations span video, photography, performance, sculpture and curation. Laurelli is a dedicated collaborator, initiator and collector who, among other things, runs the video game museum LVLup! in Tallinn since 2018. His recent appearances include participation in the group exhibition Crawl Out Through the Fallout at the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (2022), the solo exhibition Kaudze at Low Gallery in Riga (2021) and the solo exhibition News Feed at ARS Showroom (2019).

The Tallinn Art Hall Foundation is a contemporary art establishment that currently presents exhibitions in two galleries – at Tallinn Art Hall’s Lasnamäe Pavilion and Tallinn City Gallery. The exhibitions of Tallinn Art Hall are installed by Valge Kuup Studio.

Cecilia Alemani

“The Milk of Dreams. A journey through the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale”

Cecilia Alemani is one of the most influential curators in the world today. She curated the 59th International Venice Biennale, a much talked about landmark exhibition. The title of the biennale, Milk of Dreams is borrowed from a book by the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, in which she describes a magical world where everyone has the capacity to change, to become something or someone else, a world where there are no limits but which is bursting with possibilities.

In her talk, Cecilia Alemani will speak about the process of organising the most prestigious art exhibition in the world: The Venice Biennale. She will talk about how she developed a theme for the exhibition, how the so-called “Time Capsules” built a foundation for her show, how she selected the artists, worked with the participants on new commissions, the installation, and many other aspects behind the making of such a large scale exhibition. 

Cecilia Alemani is an Italian curator based in New York. Since 2011, she has been the Donald R. Mullen, Jr Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art, the public art program presented by the High Line in New York. In 2022, she curated The Milk of Dreams, the 59th International Art Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia. In 2018, Alemani served as Artistic Director of the inaugural edition of Art Basel Cities: Buenos Aires. In 2017, she curated the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Currently, she also is working on Anu Põder’s solo exhibition, opening at Muzeum Susch in January 2024. 

The open lecture is organised by the Faculty of Art and Culture of the Estonian Academy of Arts in cooperation with the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art.

The lecture will take place in English.

No registration needed.

More information: Annika Toots (annika.toots@artun.ee)

Dear cooperation partner, colleague, and community member!

We would like to invite you to the opening of the floating smoke sauna “Püha Viha” (Holy Anger/Holy Whisk) made by the students of Interior Architecture of the Estonian Academy of Arts, the Antsla municipality and the community on Tuesday, September 29 at 14:00 by the Tsooru lake in the Antsla municipality.

A bus leaves for the opening from Tallinn in front of the EKA building (Põhja pst 7) at 09:00 and returns to Tallinn at approximately 19:00.

Please let us know if you are coming or want to come to Antsla by bus ordered by EKA HERE. There are still some vacancies.

Department of Interior Architecture of the Estonian Academy of Arts

Antsla Municipal Government

*

Additional information:

Annamari Nael
Study assistant – project coordinator
annamari.nael@artun.ee
+372 53413970

The exhibition is curated by Mariliis Rebane (EKA New Media, MA) and includes sculptures by Touristes Tristes (Dylan Ray Arnold & Océane Bruel), series of postcards by Leena Kela video works by artists Kristoffer Ala-Ketola, and Mika Taanila and a lecture performance by Subhangi Singh.

Like a Windless Cloud remains open until September 4.

The exhibition forms a constellation in which artworks interlace through their shared reflections on the accumulation of time. The curator of the exhibition was interested in searching for possibilities while also acknowledging difficulties associated with emptiness, lingering, and putting up one’s feet. In the company of the artworks, she wanted to welcome rest, slowing down, and taking it easy, as well as watching clouds pass over a clear blue sky. Along the way, came up an inability or unwillingness to succeed in this, but also other expectations related to the fast pace of contemporary life.

On Friday, August 11 a lecture performance titled Rest/Unrest: Notes on Loitering was held by Shubhangi Singh.

As part of the exhibition, a column by journalist Anton Vanha-Majamaa is translated into English and Estonian.

On Tuesday, 29th of August at 11.00 the peer review event of Jane Remm exhibition titled “Letters to My Neighbours. What Is It Like to Be a Door Snail?” will take place at Vaal Gallery (Telliskivi 60A/5, Tallinn).

Reviewers: Prof. Timo Maran, Prof. Linda Kaljundi
Supervisor: Dr. Urve Sinijärv

Peer review event is in Estonian.

The exhibition will remain open until 2nd of September, Tue–Fri 12–6 pm, Sat 12–4 pm.

More information

On 18 August at 7 p.m., the group exhibition “To mold, To hold. Currents in Estonian ceramics” will open at the ARS project space in Tallinn.

amicably and unapologetically sharing space
(so much has been shattered into pieces
it’s nowhere to be found – a shame)
youthful
youthful crocheters interact with the mountain
in big 3D light
in the light of the dome
friendly and equitable
in fact, they are a family
delicate sensitive fingers see the bonds
the gaze connects the distant and the remote in the present day
storehouse of fired clay wants to be put on the table
along with young relatives
see this table there is no such thing as time here after all
strangely square and rounded meet
angular and smooth
the crackle and the lava glaze
white and dark black and shining
In the hot kiln the clay bird has made a nest for itself
lays eggs in wondrous shapes or egg-shapes
but more in other shapes
a discreet feminine wave has exploded from the kiln
captures the eye and sets it free again
paper and pencil have watched it all
and the camera has admired it
captured moments are sprinkled on trays
with a delicate and sensitive hand
in the shadows of the twists and turns is the hard heart of the clay bird
that explodes again and again into fragments

On 31 August at 14.00 (EEST) 4th-year Art and Design PhD student Nesli Hazal Oktay will present her third design experiment study titled “Dissolving Distances”. Public peer-review event will take place in the Zoom, please find the link to participate HERE.

Reviewers:
Dr. Oscar Tomico, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Dr. Verena Fuchsberger, University of Salzburg, Austria

Supervisors:
Dr. Kristi Kuusk, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia
Prof. Danielle Wilde, Umeå University, Sweden and University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

Nesli Hazal Oktay aims to offer embodied intimacy for people who are close by heart but physically apart. Specifically, she explores designing close-to-body experiences at a distance through remote bio-rings, rings made of natural ingredients. Remote bio-rings are highly customizable, can be biodegraded, and start dissolving when exposed to humidity e.g.: water, or sweat. The idea of creating a non-lasting object to be worn on the body—that required care, that was ambiguous and tangible—was a result of her prior user study of cultural probing and embodied design ideation. She further experimented with remote bio-rings by making the ring and wearing it in everyday life together with her father at a distance.

In her third and last peer review event, she showcases a user study with 3 pairs (6 participants) that made remote bio-rings at their homes while self-reported and self-documented their personal experiences. They then further shared their meaning-makings with Nesli through a semi-structured interview. Overall, participants found remote bio-rings to be supporting new understandings about intimacy at a distance. As a result, their perception of “distance” alters slightly or changes completely by i) embarking on a journey, ii) creating time and space to be together, and iii) carrying each other through a tangible object.

Persuading Hard Matter

Sophia Hallmann, Loora Kaubi, Mattias Veller, Oliver Wellmann

15.07–10.08.2023

Opening 14.07 at 6 pm

Join us for the exhibition Persuading Hard Matter opening on 14.07, 6 pm at EKA Gallery! The entrance to the exhibition is via Kotzebue street.

The metaphor of “softening stones” (kive pehmeks rääkida) conveys the idea that a person is able to affect or manipulate even the most resistant and solid objects, much like speaking can lead to an emotional breakthrough or change.

In this exhibition, the artists found common ground in dealing with what is larger than themselves: be it phenomena that go far back in time or those that are situated in the minds of groups. Stones can be viewed as the embodiments of still-enduring old ideas. Some of them have since eroded into the dust of prehistory, others still stand like monuments. As time has passed, many have become burdens, but they are often too heavy to cast off of our collective shoulders. Systems of belief have learned to resist change by cultivating delusions in the minds of their believers.

In Sophia Hallmann’s work “Hyperstimuli”, sugar has been transformed into glass-like thorns. Her installation juxtaposes the fragility and sweetness of the material with the prickliness of the thorn shape. These contrasting aspects evoke the concept of sweet pain. Appealing also to the senses of taste and touch, the work deals with the complex relationship between pleasure and discomfort. Isomalt sugar has been transformed into a seemingly luxurious glass-like object. Because both the branches and sugar are organic, they will eventually decompose, breaking the illusion of eternal security that luxury creates.

Persuasion is a tool for shaping reality. It can be used to create an illusion of safety, which is a delusive contentment. Loora Kaubi’s work addresses the domination of a patriarchal system through violent architecture. In her installation, Kaubi performs a contorted body walking in bridge position towards the viewer, suggesting the mental damage done by conforming to oppression. In “Mind and hand follow an evil path” objects combined with choreography are used to reflect on feelings of hostility and discomfort. Is it the outside world that one must be protected from or should we protect the outside from the world within? The fences come across as material representations of the fear that is omnipresent for anyone not standing safely at the top of the power hierarchy.

On the topic of domination, the practice of storytelling can be seen as a tool that liberates from the burden of having no voice. It encourages us to claim the right to be heard and express things as we desire them to be, under the guise of objectivity. Oliver Wellmann’s work circulates around mythic traditions, exploring their controversiality. The work „Raunen (Fires)“ stems from the ongoing performance cycle “Raunen” (ger. ‘whispering the truth’), in which dark rural worlds blend with elements of the auto-fictional. Hay is a material that often self-ignites, eventually causing major fires.

Another grand story is the mythic narrative of the nation, which looms over the individual like a massive rock. Mattias Veller expresses frustration at having to accept it and all of its inconsistencies. Individually, he is unable to coax the rigid national mythos to soften, so he decides to turn the tables. In “The Donkey in Estonia” he demonstrates the absurdity of the ways in which collective identity is shaped. He is interested in how belief works and how to fool the gullible.

The works in “Persuading Hard Matter” can be seen as the artists’ interpretations of the tensions between themselves and overwhelming forces. Be it acceptance, toleration, protest or domination, some kind of persuasion always occurs. Its effectiveness can never be known in advance.

​​Sophia Hallmann (b. 1995) lives and works in Berlin, where she studies sculpture and installation at the Berlin University of Arts. In her work she deals with different moulding techniques and casting processes, where the relationship between the depicted object and the material used plays an important role. Often her works evoke a sense of tension with the human body. During her Erasmus exchange at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Sophia Hallmann participated in the Young Sculptor Award Exhibition 2023 at the ARS Project Space and won the 3rd prize. In addition, she has participated in several group exhibitions in Berlin and received a scholarship from the Tutsek Foundation.

Oliver Wellmann (b. 1991) is an artist living and working in Berlin who is currently studying at the University of Arts Berlin. His artistic practice interlocks internal sources with external ones or those that have frequently been abandoned. The imagery in his work distinctly revolves around rural areas, folkloric traditions and spiritual empowerment such as witchcraft. Oliver’s artistic exploration of witchcraft in a contemporary context raises questions in a society that thirsts for meaning and spirituality, but where both are simultaneously classified as vanishing phenomena. In 2023 he exhibited extracts of the performance cycle „Raunen“ in Iceland and will continue to do so in Estonia, followed by Denmark in the fall.

Loora Kaubi (b. 1998) is an artist working in Tallinn. She holds a BA degree from the Estonian Academy of Arts’ Fine Arts department and did part of her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She has also attended Casa Lü residency in Mexico City. Kaubi’s practice revolves around the (female) body and the societal relations and power structures that are involved with it. Wandering between the real and the imaginary, in her work she approaches life as a spectacle and focuses on creating a scene through which to perform intense emotions. Kaubi has been awarded the Artist of the Week Award of the Estonian Young Contemporary Art Union and has participated in exhibitions and performances in Tallinn, Narva, Haapsalu, Valga, Põlva, Vienna and Mexico City.

The recurring topics in Mattias Veller’s (b. 1998) artistic practices are physical labour and the relationship between human and material. Conceptually, he is rather minimalistic and technically he is precise, often applying time-consuming manual approaches. Veller is currently most interested in collective consciousness and history. He has been awarded the Artist of the Week Award of the Estonian Young Contemporary Art Union. His works have been shown in group projects in the ARS Project Space and Uus Rada Gallery (2023), EKA Gallery (2022) and in a duo exhibition in Infinite Life Gallery (2021).

Supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Student Council of UdK Berlin, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany Tallinn

The artists would like to thank: Ulvar Kaubi, Saara Liis Jõerand, Elss Raidmets, Patrick Zavadskis, Mirje Veller, Riina Veller, Karl Linnasmägi (OÜ NovaElement), Valge Kuup OÜ