Category: Departments

“Broken Forests” tells a story about the before and after of a deadly wildfire in Pedrogão Grande. It analyses the relation to land which seems to have started acting dangerously and unpredictably. The work is an answer to a trauma that comes from living on the Anthropocene post-apocalyptic landscape. It expresses worry, love and fear for a place which has been changed by eucalyptus plantations.

The works are casted into the first harvest of cork from Quercus Suber aka cork oak. Quercus Suber, unlike the introduced eucalyptus is native to Portugal and is one of the most resilient trees to the fire thanks to its bark. The hot melted metal puts the cork to yet another test.

The works presented here are the continuation of a graduation project in the Estonian Academy of Arts.

More info on Reverso web

The seminar “Michel Sittow in the North and South” will be held on Wednesday, November 23 at 16:00 in EKA room A101.
The seminar is held in English.

SPEAKERS:

Oskar Rojewski, University of Silesia in Katowice, University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid
Michel Sittow’s service to Isabel of Castille (1492-1502) and Habsburgs (1505-1515)

Greta Koppel, Art Museum of Estonia
Michel Sittow in the North? Is there any material evidence to testify his artistic activities?

Anu Mänd, Tallinn University
Michel Sittow in the archival documents of Tallinn

Discussion on Michel Sittow’s legacy will follow.

The focus of the seminar is on the internationally renowned artist Michel Sittow (c. 1469–1525), who was born in Tallinn. Sittow, who was trained in the school of Netherlandish art in Bruges and worked in various European courts, was active as an artist in Tallinn for almost fifteen years. His person and works and the wider cultural context of their creation continue to be of interest to both researchers and the general public. One of the sequels to the extremely popular exhibition at the Kumu Art Museum and National Gallery of Art in Washington (2018) is the research and exhibition project of the Art Museum of Estonia and the Hälsingland Museum in Sweden “Michel Sittow in the North? Altarpieces in dialogue“. Oskar Rojewski, who is visiting EKA within the Transform4Europe partnership, is one of the speakers at the seminar.

Bika Rebek (Some Place Studio): Between Worlds

We are focusing on Berlin. What is being done in this city, which architecture offices operate in Berlin, what is being built and what is being thought about: the series of open architecture lectures of the EKA Faculty of Architecture will travel to the capital of Germany and one of the most colourful metropolises in Europe this fall, with architects from Berlin as guests.

On November 3, architect, educator and curator Bika Rebek, head and co-founder of the architecture studio Some Place Studio, will be making sense of Berlin in the EKA hall. The studio is engaged in the creation of sustainable spaces for diverse communities. Rebek’s work is defined by an expansive interest in contemporary issues of equity, sustainability and technology through the lens of architectural discourse. Some Place Studio operates mainly in Berlin, but also brings globally together architects, designers and strategists from around the world.

Warum Berlin?

According to the curator of the lecture program, Johan Tali, Berlin is loaded. On the one hand, due to its tragic past, the wounds of which have to be dealt with in the urban space until now. On the other hand, hundreds of communities with different cultures gather in Berlin, and the result is one of the largest cultural compotes in Europe.

The open lectures are intended for students and professionals of all disciplines – not just the field of architecture. All lectures take place in the large auditorium of EKA, are in English, free of charge and open to all interested parties.

Every academic year, the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of EKA brings to the audience in Tallinn about a dozen unique practitioners and valued theoreticians of the field. You can watch previous years’ lectures on YouTube and www.avatudloengud.ee

The lecture series is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Curator: Johan Tali

On Wednesday, 26 October at 17:30, designer Linda van Deursen holds an open lecture at the EKA auditorium (A101).

Linda van Deursen is a graphic designer who works and lives in The Netherlands. Together with Armand Mevis she founded Mevis & van Deursen in 1987. Since then they have worked for cultural institutions such as Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, documenta 14, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, and have collaborated with artists on publications and exhibitions, such as Armin Linke, Yael Davids, and Aglaia Konrad.

Since 1990 she has taught graphic design at various institutions such as the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam (where she also served as head of the graphic design department), Yale School of Art in New Haven and currently NLN at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague.

The talk is held in English.

Paulius Petraitis will hold an artist talk at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, October 25 in EKA room A-501.

The artist has been invited to hold a masterclass “Images in Conflict: How to Respond to War?” in the department of photography on October 24–28.

Everyone is invited to take part in the artist talk!

Paulius Petraitis is an artist-theorist and independent curator based in Vilnius. Much of his work explores the role of technology in meaning-making and examines ways in which photographic images function in online and offline environments. Petraitis curated On Photographic Beings (2020) at the Latvian National Museum of Art and Vorsprung durch Technik (2021) at Atletika in Vilnius.

His personal project A man with dark hair and a sunset in the background (2017-20) explores visual recognition through a dialogue-based approach with an image interpretation software, and was published by 6 chairs books and  Lugemik.

His artist’s books are held in numerous institutional collections, including libraries at MoMA, The Met, MACBA, as well as Clark Art Institute and Joan Flasch Collection.

TASE’21 and EKA (Estonian Academy of Arts) Young Artist’s Award winner Karolin Poska in Hobusepea Gallery!

TASE’21 and EKA (Estonian Academy of Arts) Young Artist’s Award winner Karolin Poska will open her solo exhibition Pressure of the Gaze in Hobusepea gallery at 18:00 on Wednesday, October 19th, 2022. Exhibition will be open until November 14, 2022.

Karolin Poska: “Do you know the feeling when someone else has fixed their gaze on you? You can simply tell that someone is controlling you, stalking you with the gaze, measuring you or trying to create a visual contact. You feel it even if it is outside the field of vision, or you may realize this from the corner of your eye.

People assure that they literally feel how the eyes of “Mona Lisa” painted by Leonardo da Vinci are following them, irrespective of the physical location of the spectator. This phenomenon – when the eyes of an artwork observe the spectator in the room – is called the Mona Lisa effect. However, researchers have found that this phenonenon won’t apply to Mona Lisa since the gaze of the painted figure has been directed too much to the right.

Creating a direct eye contact is perhaps the most frequent and powerful non-verbal signal exchanged between human beings; it is also a means of intimacy, frightening and social influence. Eye contact is such a primeval way of communication common to all animal species: predators intensely keep their eye on their prey before the moment of dashing towards it; babies become intimate with their parent through visual contact; fish turn their eyes black during an aggressive act.

The oldest found fossil’s eyes are 540 million years old, the first Homo habilis or the archaic human dates back to approximately 2 million years ago. Now I feel different when looking out of the window, knowing that I am using eyes of the precedecessors being 538 million years older than a human being.

It is easier to catch human gazes than those of other species since human eyeball has a special construction – we have more sclera (the white layer of an eye). That, in turn, makes it much easier to identify the movement of the iris of an eye that has darker colour as well as determining the direction of the gaze due to constrasty colours. Surprisingly, human eyes have the closest similarity with the ones of an octopus and a squid who both have big eyes consisting of the lens, the iris and one big vitreous body.

According to my calculations, the old town of Tallinn has 77 street cameras, so you were probably looked at already when you were on your way to the gallery. You probably did not perceive this because the surveillance cameras have less constrasty eyes and different construction. Also, the sculpture in the old town that you probably passed did not follow you with its eyes since it wears glasses and unfortunately has no sclerae. And yet, lots of people say that it is namely the eyes of an artwork that make you feel something.

While preparing for the current exhibition, I went to galleries and streets and looked at art; and also looked at others looking at art and let the artworks look at me and my act of looking. I really hope that you will find something worth looking at!”

Karolin Poska (b. 1991) is a performance artist, choreographer and dancer who lives and works in Tallinn. She has graduated from the department of dance art at the Viljandi Culture Academy of the University of Tartu. In her artistic practice, Poska tries to understand what it feels to live in the world at the given moment – she enjoys transforming reality, playing with objects and the audience’s expectations. Poska recently obtained MA degree in contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts and she was given the Young Artist Award. Poska’s two recent works “For Your Nirvana” (2020) and “Untititled” (2021) were nominated to the Estonian Theatre Awards in the category of dance and performance art.

Original photo: Helemai Alamaa

Thank you for the dialogue and technical assistance: Theodore Parker and Maret Tamme.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Garage48, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonian Research Council and TSENTER Competence Center invite you to create the future of wood. This time all the creative and out of the box ideas are welcome to rebuild Ukraine in a green and sustainable manner. 

Ukraine has been fighting a war on their home since February 24th. They need our ongoing support now as much as when the invasion began. We believe that the Future of Wood makeathon can be a place to contribute to this matter. Let’s create collaboration between Estonia and Ukraine to build, create and revalue the use of wood, for the purpose of rebuilding in Ukraine.

The end result we seek at the makeathon is either physical or digital prototypes. So whether you are someone who works with a CNC machine, a chisel or a laptop – we welcome you. We’re welcoming students, working practitioners, experts and enthusiasts. You can join with or without an idea, as an individual or a team.

The focus topic this year are:

• Modular, circular and climate neutral construction;
• Technologies for rapid design, engineering and production;
• Smart valorization of biomass in construction and long-lasting products;
• Roll-up, Fold-up, Flip-up, Pack-up – products that fit perfectly into, onto or next to modular buildings.

See more information about the machinery available, our experts and the focus topics on our website

SIGN UP NOW

Pre-event

Estonian Research Council and EAS are hosting a SekMo (sectorial mobility measure) cooperation day for entrepreneurs and researchers that will be focused on wood. It is a great way to have 1:1 discussions between entrepreneurs and researchers regarding their problems and field of study. Use this opportunity to build a base for future cooperation and brainstorm ideas that can be turned into a physical prototype at the Garage48 Future of Wood: Rebuild Ukraine makeathon.

More information

Register 

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at noora@garage48.org

Põhja puiestee 7, Tallinn – Estonia Academy of Arts

Garage48 Future of Wood 2022 is financed by the Estonian Academy of Arts, the Estonian Research Council, and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia

Estonia will be represented at the 4th Triennial of Young Textile Art in Lodž (YTAT) by EKA textile artists Helena Kisant, Anni Kivisto and Krista Leesi.

As many as 18 art schools from 11 countries responded to the invitation of the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz: Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Japan, USA, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia and Poland. Students and last-year graduates of these schools will present the most interesting realizations of the past three years during the competition exhibition.

EKAt on esindamas 3 autori tööd: 

Helena Kisant “skin of nature”
Design Faculty Textile Design, second year BA 2021/2022
Tutors: Krista Leesi, Piret Valk

Anni Kivisto „Crossing Everyday Life and Creative Process: Handmade Rug in Punch Needle  Technique“
Design Faculty Textile Design, Master’s Programme Graduate  2020/2021
Tutors: Taavi Hallimäe, Johanna Ulfsak

For the first time, an element of the event will be the YTAT MENTORS exhibition, showcasing the works of academic teachers from the art academies invited to participate in the competition. 

In this category, the work “CANT STOP DANCIN’” by Krista Leesi, assistant professor of EKA Textile Department, is on display.

The exhibition will be open from October 9th to December 31st 2022 iat the City Art Gallery in Lodž, 44th Sienkiewicza Street, Poland.