Category: Departments

This workshop is structured on architecture, numbers and cognition with a primary focus on public space/traffic. Two broader topics pervade the workshop. One of them is more physical, involving translating the world into parameters, and the other is mapping social activities/feelings. The broad goal is to find connections between the two sets of topics. The environment around us consists of a number of physically countable and measurable parameters, which we can use to describe it (width of a carriageway, location of a cafe). Which parameters are best in describing or designing the world?

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In cities everywhere in the world, new complex and high density large-scale urban transformation projects are initiated and implemented, like La Defense in Paris, HafenCity in Hamburg, West-Kowloon in Hongkong or Marina Bay in Singapore. These enormous undertakings represent today an established form of practicing urbanism aiming to reconfigure or extend major urban centralities.

These projects, however, tend to behave quite unpredictably. Their long realisation periods often induce changing programmes or building ensembles, political and economic constraints influence their successful completion and, very importantly, their far-reaching impact on the local and global context is mostly not effectively assessed. Therefore, these urban transformations asks for a strategic approach, where phasing, adaptability and adjustment to the context are constantly monitored in order to inform their proper operation.

This is what professor Kees Christiaanse will be discussing during his open lecture at the Estonian Academy of Arts, as part of the Unfinished City research programme. The lecture will take place on Thursday, 6 June 6 pm in auditorium A101.

Kees Christiaanse studied architecture and urban planning at TU Delft. In 1980 he joined the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and was appointed partner in 1983. In 1989 he founded his own company, now KCAP Architects&Planners, in Rotterdam. In 1990 he co-founded ASTOC Architects and Planners in Cologne and was partner until 2002.

Kees focuses in his work on urban assignments in complex situations and on guiding of urban processes. He is an expert in the development of university campuses and in the revitalisation of former industrial, railway and harbour areas and is a supervisor of several international urban developments. Throughout his career Kees has always combined teaching and research with his professional work within KCAP, which has generated fruitful cross-fertilisations.

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Unfinished City is a three-year large-scale research project conducted by the Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Architecture in cooperation with the City of Tallinn. The research project asks what could be a good and livable city in the 21st century and how this could be reflected in the urban development of Tallinn. The project focuses on exploring Tallinn’s urban design visions and spatial future scenarios. The research will be carried out thanks to the support from the real estate company Kapitel, which contributes almost half a million euros to the project over three years.

This Thursday, June 6 at 6pm you are kindly invited to take part in a series of lectures by the German conceptual artist Mischa Kuball, Danish artist and experimental designer Charles Michalsen and Spanish born, Brussels and Berlin based artist-filmmaker Alex Reynolds.

Location: Estonian Academy of Arts 5th floor, room A501.

Approximate schedule:
18:00–18:45 Charles Michalsen „Every good idea consists of good material“
18:45–19:30 Alex Reynolds
19:30–20:15 Mischa Kuball „What do we expect when we go public?“

For more info:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19mRR2A_sr804dY-9MyXmZI4LwVJsf8x_?usp=sharing

Charles Michalsen https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/157215/157216
https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/475017/475018

Alex Reynolds
http://www.alexreynolds.net/

Mischa Kuball
http://www.mischakuball.com/
http://www.public-preposition.net/

Public lectures are a part of the event Portfolio Café held at the Estonian Academy of Arts Library from June 6 to 7. All the presenting artists belong to this year’s group of experts who have been invited to, within these two days, give feedback to the graduates at the Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Fine Arts and Design.

Portfolio Café is supported by the European Union European Regional Development Fund, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Goethe-Institut Estland and Erasmus +.

This Thursday, June 6 at 6pm you are kindly invited to take part in a series of lectures by the German conceptual artist Mischa Kuball, Danish artist and designmaker Charles Michalsen and Spanish born, Brussels and Berlin based artist-filmmaker Alex Reynolds.

Location: Estonian Academy of Arts 5th floor, room A501.

Public lectures are a part of the event Portfolio Café held at the Estonian Academy of Arts Library from June 6 to 7. All the presenting artists belong to this year’s group of experts who have been invited to, within these two days, give feedback to the graduates at the Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Fine Arts and Design.

Approximate schedule:
18:00–18:45 Charles Michalsen
18:45–19:30 Alex Reynolds
19:30–20:15 Mischa Kuball

To find out more about the lecturers and topics see the documents attached to the invitation.

Portfolio Café is supported by the European Union European Regional Development Fund, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Goethe-Institut Estland and Erasmus +.

The course teaches icon painting. The painting process follows the authentic icon painting technique – egg tempera mixed from dry pigments, multi-layered painting, etc. Each participant will have the opportunity to paint their own icon.
Parallel to the painting process, the participants will receive an overview of the iconographic principles and meanings in icon painting, the materials and techniques used, as well as their conservation process.

The participants will learn essential skills in historical icon painting and get an introduction to the history, significance and conservation process of icons.

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The Department of Ceramics at the Estonian Academy of Arts invites you to participate in an international Clay 3D Printing workshop. Ceramics have properties that allow them to be used in the most disparate fields. We usually don’t consider that ceramics are all around us, not just in kitchenware, but also in bathrooms, swimming pools and public interiors, and that stoves and fireplaces, and even houses, are made of fired clay. Top-quality ceramics can be found in medical equipment, audio technology and the air and space industry. Clay is a sensitive, flexible and versatile material with its own technological limits, which the participants will learn during the workshop.
3D printing in clay allows us to print three-dimensional objects or models at a lower cost and more easily. For ceramists, it represents a new technological possibility, while for others it gives a chance to convert digital sketches into real three-dimensional objects.
During this course, participants will learn the technical skills of 3D printing and printing in clay: creating G-code and STL files, plus preparation of the clay and printing.
The aim of the course is to use innovative thinking to discover new ways of printing, using clay and printed ceramics. The end of the workshop will feature a pop-up exhibition of the objects created.
Every participant needs to bring their own laptop. All other materials are provided, and students may keep the objects they print.

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Silvia Sosaar would like to request the honour of your presence at the opening of her exhibition “Unconscious Patient” on 31 May 2019 at EKKM at 5pm (Põhja pst 35, Tallinn). The exhibition is on view until August 30th 2019.

How to prepare, mobilise and attune a person to experience contemporary art?
Smells are the trigger of contextual memory. Smells are a central element of sensory processes, which are necessary for the development of a functioning memory and based on which the contextual memory is able to conjure up the past. The contextual memory functions when we associate a space with an event (because something once took place in that space) or associate a song with a special person, enabling us to be able to access a past reality once again – the same applies to the sense of smell. Smells affect moods and emotions. The aroma installation at the Showcase Gallery is open to visitors throughout the summer and will form the “basecamp” for the aroma-tours/performances that will take place in June, July and August in Tallinn’s urban space and in large shopping centres, Smell-O-Rama film screenings and a lecture on aroma marketing. Dates to be finalised.

In addition to the events at the Showcase Gallery, with the aroma installation in collaboration with EKKM café, the artist would like to direct visitors’ attention to the fact that many Estonian companies use aroma machines in their work environments daily – dentists, mini golf courses, spas, hotels, clothing stores, etc. across the whole of Estonia and the world, as well as the Estonian National Museum all implement the “scent marketing” service. Normally, people are not aware of this or don’t even notice that something is different; that their state of mind, desires and the most primary levels of their moods are being manipulated. This is also used in the military industries of various countries, where those entering war-zones are acclimatised with synthetic analogies to the smell of burning human flesh, spent gunpowder, sewage with the aim of softening the effects of the trauma awaiting them.

Silvia Sosaar (born 1979) is an interdisciplinary artist living in Tallinn. She works with photography, video, performance and installation. The main focus of her interest is the person – tackling the encounters between artist and subjects. Sosaar graduated from the photography department (BA) at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2017. In the same year, she started her master’s studies in contemporary art, faculty of fine arts at EKA, where she is presently studying. Sosaar is a member of the Estonian Union of Photography Artists (FOKU).
In addition to Estonia, she has participated in group exhibitions in London, Milan and Madrid. Sosaar’s short film “Finding Elvis” participated at the “60 Second Intl. Film Festival” in Islamabad.
Her first solo exhibition “Shiny Shoe Salon” took place in 2017 at EKA Gallery in Tallinn.
She is one of the co-founders of ;paranoia publishing and has participated at numerous performances connected to presentations of publications.  She is a founding member of skaala publishing.

The artist would like to thank the department of photography at Estonian Academy of Arts, EKKM Café, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, aroomiturundus.ee, Marten Esko, Aksel Haagensen, Cloe Jancis, Marge Monko, Immanuel Poltimäe, Eve Roosna, Hanno Soans.

Exhibition „iTouch Store” Darja Popolitova

Vault Room of A-Gallery, Hobusepea 2, Tallinn

The exhibition can be visited from 31 Mayto 1 July 2019.
The opening will take place on 7 June at 6 p.m.

Darja Popolitova’s exhibition examines touch as a part of digital culture: the tactility of digitally transmitted jewellery images, given the excessive focus on the phone and the screen.

The audience can also see the works in their representations —in the form of a video ad where the author attempts to find answers to the following questions: can the digital representation of the jewellery have tactile features?, how does the digital representation of jewellery affect real jewellery on a tactile level? and, how does the use of digital media change the relationship between jewellery and tactility?.

The jewellery and objects at the exhibition are meant to solve the potential problems of the digital age. The titles of the work speak for themselves: “Hot Not Only Online Phone Case”, “Silicon Nail for Touching Screen”, “Digital Detox Brush”, etc.

The exhibition is laid out as a shop and this is not accidental. Media critic Erkki Huhtamo brings a parallel between a museum and a shop, the tradition of which is related to “tactiloclasms” — tactile rules and prohibitions in public places. Similarly to the old days where you could have access to the product in a shop only with the help of a shop assistant, in the exhibition room touching the jewellery is not permitted due to security requirements. Namita Gupta Wiggers, the jewellery historian, spoke of the fact that jewellery perception in the museum is limited to the vision, while the potential destination of the jewellery is the body.

Replacing the sense of touch with the vision continues in the Internet age. Darja Popolitova notes that she has been inspired by AliExpress e-shop ads. “Reviewing products —even without buying them —offers me certain pleasure,” commented the artist. “As I read a book by the media theorist Laura U. Marks, I went deeper into the meaning of the term “tactile visuality offered by Laura U. Marks. At one moment everything came together in my head: I treat the images of the products with a certain plasticity — my eyes do not see, but “touch” these images.That is why I decided to explore the tactile properties of the images of jewellery with my exhibition.”

Darja Popolitova was born in 1989 in Sillamäe and lives and works in Tallinn. She is currently doing a PhD at Estonian Academy of Arts. Darja designs jewellery using innovative technologies and mixed media. Recently, Darja Popolitova has participated in exhibitions at the Art and Design Museum in New York (2019), the Kunstnerforbundet gallery in Oslo (2018) and the fourth biennial of contemporary jewellery, METALLOphone in Vilnius (2018). Darja Popolitova is represented by the following galleries: Marzee in Nijmegen, Beyond in Antwerp, and Door in Mariaheide. Her work is included in the collection of the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design and also in private collections. The work of Darja Popolitova was awarded the scholarships of the Ministry of Culture and Adamson-Eric in 2018. She also received the scholarship of Young Jewellery in 2015.

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Video: Ando Naulainen

Sound Design: Andres Nõlvak

Graphic Design: Johanna Ruukholm

Artist’s gratitude goes to 3DKoda OÜ, A-Gallery, Adamson-Eric Museum,
Anastassia Dratšova, Benjamin Lignel, Daniil Popov, Doctoral School of Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonian Ministry of Culture, Kadri Mälk, Keiu Krikmann,
MakerLab Tallinn, Martina Gofman, Olesja Kulikova, Orbital Vox Stuudiod, Pire Sova,
Raivo Kelomees, Sarah Elizabeth Johnston, Shapeways Inc., Varvara Guljajeva, Vladimir Ljadov

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

ANNA KAARMA will open her personal exhibition ON THE THRESHOLD in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Thursday, May 23^rd, 2019.  

With the current exhibition, the artist is observing the borders of the personal and the public, dreams and waking, the permanent and the changing. Anna Kaarma focuses on the living environment of the district of Lasnamäe in Tallinn – the architectural and social superstructure is being unravelled to fragments charged with personal meanings and experiences.

Lasnamäe has the characteristic features of a metropolis. It is easy to remain anonymous for individuals between and inside the housing blocks that have been mathematically positioned – the intimate views into the neighbours’ lives that one gets through the windows and walls has rather the effect of a background noise than a human contact. The exhibition emphasizes the microcosm of an individual resident belonging to the so-called anonymous crowd. Everyday objects are interwoven with a personal perception of space, playful childhood memories, stories and a dreamlike logic of space.

Anna Kaarma: „In the mid-1990s, a bullet was shot into the kitchen window of my 8^th floor apartment in the Lasnamäe district. The bullet probably bounced off of the wall in ricochet, only penetrating the outer glass of the window. The pane was therefore left as it was for several years. In the context of the criminal events of the last decade of 20^th century, the bullet hole has no special value; it is more meaningful for me as a strange image from the past. It is intriguing how an element from the outer environment had intruded into the personal space, got stuck between the two spaces while creating a new field – a certain wormhole that makes it possible to go back to the space in the past. The window as the connecting link between the private and public sphere became an entry point to the third sphere, the one of memories.”

This spring, Anna Kaarma will defend an MA degree in Contemporary Arts in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has obtained a BA degree in Graphic Design at the same academy. She has also studied at Hochschule Düsseldorf and in Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School. Anna Kaarma is the laureate of Adamson-Eric Scholarship in 2017. Kaarma’s diverse artist’s practice involves publication design, artists’ books, video works as well as expansive installations. In her work, Kaarma skilfully combines the elements of graphic design, this often resulting from a 2D image to a monumental spatial installation. Anna Kaarma’s first personal exhibition „Type 121” was held in EKA Gallery in 2017 that can be considered as an ideological predecessor to her current exposition.

The artist would like to thank: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Marge Monko, Jan Kaus, Sebastian Saaremäe, Anu Vahtra, Angela Ramires, Lee Kelomees, department of installation and sculpture of Estonian Academy of Arts, Jaana Jüris, Neeme Külm, Ingvar Heamägi, department of glass art of Estonian Academy of Arts and Eve Koha, Virko Kuusk, Kaisa Maasik, Kulla Laas, Gregor Taul, Saara Bergström.

Installation of the panel block: Valge Kuup LLC.

Exhibition will be open until June 10^th, 2019.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Department of Photography of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

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

Current exhibition belongs to the programme of TASE – the annual spring graduation show festival of graduation works of Estonian Academy of Arts. The main TASE exhibition includes all MA graduation projects and selected BA projects in the new academy building on Põhja pst. 7 from May 31^st to June 16^th, 2019. The Young Artist Award and the Young Applied Artist Award will be announced at the opening of TASE’19 in collaboration with the Estonian Artists’ Association. The extensive satellite programme of the festival presents students films in TASE FILM, offers presentations of selected graduation works in TASE Elevator Talks, provides feedback to your artwork from international experts in Portfolio Cafe and opens several diverse personal and group exhibitions by students. Additional info: artun.ee/tase