Calendar
Ongoing
16.03.2025 — 06.04.2025
Jana Mätas at Keskpuur
The Last Spring at the Central Market and the Exhibition in Keskpuur
A new exhibition is now open at the Keskpuur gallery on the second floor of the Central Market building in Tallinn. The artist Jana Mätas’ “Oli siis siin nagu midagi. Või siis ei ole” (There Was Something Here, or Maybe Not) invites viewers to reflect on the past, present, and future of the Central Market through materials, while contemplating the ever-present change in everything. The exhibition will remain open until April 6.
“When preparing for the exhibition, I visited the market quite often. I have always enjoyed environments that are a bit neglected and untidy, but right now, I enjoy it even more the more I think about neatly arranged cobblestones, aesthetically pleasing sales counters, and high-gloss white furniture. The people in these places are different, too.
And then one day, I remembered that the gravel roads leading to my childhood country house came from all directions. The cars passing by always drove with a white cloud behind them. All the plants by the roadside were covered with a thick layer of dust. I remember walking barefoot on the gravel road, the dust thick between my toes, and my calves were gray up to my knees. One had to walk very carefully so that it wouldn’t hurt too much on the soles. Sometimes, among the dusty stones, you could find ones that sparkled.”
Jana Mätas is an artist living and working in Tallinn, whose works are rooted in the physical world surrounding humans. Her pieces often begin with found objects, materials considered of little value, or abandoned items. The artist works largely intuitively to create surreal, worlds that exist outside of words. She has studied Estonian language and literature at the University of Tartu, dance at the Viljandi Culture Academy, and graduated with a BA in photography from the Estonian Academy of Arts (2021). Since 2023, she has been studying contemporary art at the same institution (MA). *Oli siis siin nagu midagi. Või siis ei ole* is her first solo exhibition.
In her works, Jana Mätas combines various material arts, craft techniques, light, space, literature, photography, and moving images.
Keskpuur is a gallery located on the second floor of the Central Market building in Tallinn. The new construction of the Central Market will begin this coming summer, and the market, along with the gallery, will disappear.
Graphic design: Jana Mätas, Grete Kangro
The Last Spring at the Central Market and the Exhibition in Keskpuur
A new exhibition is now open at the Keskpuur gallery on the second floor of the Central Market building in Tallinn. The artist Jana Mätas’ “Oli siis siin nagu midagi. Või siis ei ole” (There Was Something Here, or Maybe Not) invites viewers to reflect on the past, present, and future of the Central Market through materials, while contemplating the ever-present change in everything. The exhibition will remain open until April 6.
“When preparing for the exhibition, I visited the market quite often. I have always enjoyed environments that are a bit neglected and untidy, but right now, I enjoy it even more the more I think about neatly arranged cobblestones, aesthetically pleasing sales counters, and high-gloss white furniture. The people in these places are different, too.
And then one day, I remembered that the gravel roads leading to my childhood country house came from all directions. The cars passing by always drove with a white cloud behind them. All the plants by the roadside were covered with a thick layer of dust. I remember walking barefoot on the gravel road, the dust thick between my toes, and my calves were gray up to my knees. One had to walk very carefully so that it wouldn’t hurt too much on the soles. Sometimes, among the dusty stones, you could find ones that sparkled.”
Jana Mätas is an artist living and working in Tallinn, whose works are rooted in the physical world surrounding humans. Her pieces often begin with found objects, materials considered of little value, or abandoned items. The artist works largely intuitively to create surreal, worlds that exist outside of words. She has studied Estonian language and literature at the University of Tartu, dance at the Viljandi Culture Academy, and graduated with a BA in photography from the Estonian Academy of Arts (2021). Since 2023, she has been studying contemporary art at the same institution (MA). *Oli siis siin nagu midagi. Või siis ei ole* is her first solo exhibition.
In her works, Jana Mätas combines various material arts, craft techniques, light, space, literature, photography, and moving images.
Keskpuur is a gallery located on the second floor of the Central Market building in Tallinn. The new construction of the Central Market will begin this coming summer, and the market, along with the gallery, will disappear.
Graphic design: Jana Mätas, Grete Kangro
03.04.2025 — 06.04.2025
Aivar Tõnso “Light Matter in Dark State” at EKA Gallery 3.–6.04.2025
Aivar Tõnso’s solo exhibition “Light Matter in Dark State”
EKA Gallery 3.–6.04.2025
Open Thu–Fri 2–10 pm Sat 12–10 pm Sun 12–6 pm, free entry
Opening: 3.04.2025 at 6 pm
Aivar Tõnso’s exhibition “Light Matter in Dark State” continues his experiments in the field of sound art that grew out of his musical work. The spatial sound exhibition, created with the Ebakõlar System, which relies on the sound characteristics of various materials, aims to push the boundaries of the listening experience, inviting viewers not only to listen, but also to actively perceive and participate in the sound space. It is possible to move within a sound composition without a definite beginning and end, which can be entered at any moment in time from any freely chosen direction.
Since sound and imagination are the central themes in Tõnso’s work, he also considers the character of sounds important, and as one way to achieve unique sounds, he often uses the constantly evolving Ebakõlar System built on the basis of various physical materials. Unlike commercial speakers designed for listening to music, Ebakõlar System do not try to play the widest possible sound frequency spectrum evenly. Each speaker has its own unique raw and undesigned character resulting from the properties of the material. It is also a process where the material visible to the eye acquires new hidden meanings due to the excitation by sounds.
Photos of the Ebakõlar System can be downloaded here.
Aivar Tõnso is a musician, sound artist and curator of interdisciplinary cultural events. He has been involved in electronic music creation since the early 90s and has participated in projects such as Hüpnosaurus, Kismabande, Kulgurid and Ulmer. Having long ventured into the fringes of club music and experimental electronic music, he has been active in the field of sound art in recent years both as an artist and as the organizer of the Üle Heli festival.
On Saturday, April 5th at 3 pm, artist Aivar Tõnso will give a guided tour at the exhibition in English.
The event is part of the Tallinn Music Week city program. Check out the full program here.
Graphic design by: Jaan Evart
Light design by: Rene Manivald Tamm
Technical support: Erik Hõim
The exhibition is supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Sadolin Estonia, Tallinn City and Tallinn Music Week.
Opening drinks from Põhjala Brewery.
Thanks: Ian Simon Märjama, Maria Aua, Märt Vaidla, Tarvo Porroson, Tiina Tõnso, Timo Toots, Madis Reivik, Raivo Raidvee
Aivar Tõnso “Light Matter in Dark State” at EKA Gallery 3.–6.04.2025
Thursday 03 April, 2025 — Sunday 06 April, 2025
New MediaAivar Tõnso’s solo exhibition “Light Matter in Dark State”
EKA Gallery 3.–6.04.2025
Open Thu–Fri 2–10 pm Sat 12–10 pm Sun 12–6 pm, free entry
Opening: 3.04.2025 at 6 pm
Aivar Tõnso’s exhibition “Light Matter in Dark State” continues his experiments in the field of sound art that grew out of his musical work. The spatial sound exhibition, created with the Ebakõlar System, which relies on the sound characteristics of various materials, aims to push the boundaries of the listening experience, inviting viewers not only to listen, but also to actively perceive and participate in the sound space. It is possible to move within a sound composition without a definite beginning and end, which can be entered at any moment in time from any freely chosen direction.
Since sound and imagination are the central themes in Tõnso’s work, he also considers the character of sounds important, and as one way to achieve unique sounds, he often uses the constantly evolving Ebakõlar System built on the basis of various physical materials. Unlike commercial speakers designed for listening to music, Ebakõlar System do not try to play the widest possible sound frequency spectrum evenly. Each speaker has its own unique raw and undesigned character resulting from the properties of the material. It is also a process where the material visible to the eye acquires new hidden meanings due to the excitation by sounds.
Photos of the Ebakõlar System can be downloaded here.
Aivar Tõnso is a musician, sound artist and curator of interdisciplinary cultural events. He has been involved in electronic music creation since the early 90s and has participated in projects such as Hüpnosaurus, Kismabande, Kulgurid and Ulmer. Having long ventured into the fringes of club music and experimental electronic music, he has been active in the field of sound art in recent years both as an artist and as the organizer of the Üle Heli festival.
On Saturday, April 5th at 3 pm, artist Aivar Tõnso will give a guided tour at the exhibition in English.
The event is part of the Tallinn Music Week city program. Check out the full program here.
Graphic design by: Jaan Evart
Light design by: Rene Manivald Tamm
Technical support: Erik Hõim
The exhibition is supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Sadolin Estonia, Tallinn City and Tallinn Music Week.
Opening drinks from Põhjala Brewery.
Thanks: Ian Simon Märjama, Maria Aua, Märt Vaidla, Tarvo Porroson, Tiina Tõnso, Timo Toots, Madis Reivik, Raivo Raidvee
06.04.2025 — 15.04.2025
Mari Männa’s “Triptych” at Uus Rada Gallery
This place is not easy to find. It is one of those places you cannot search for until you are already there. It is a secret location where history seems to have come to a halt. A place that does not adhere to ordinary spatial logic but exists somewhere between the spheres.
Is this place something that once was, is now, or is yet to come? The only thing that is clear is that danger and beauty walk hand in hand here. We can sense this from the stories that begin to unfold from the reliefs created by an unknown master. The stone speaks, but not directly—whispering, hinting, in a language understood only by those who know how to listen.
Mari Männa’s new composition is inspired by the iconography of the Karja church. The artist invites the visitor to reflect on the medieval in the context of the present day.
Mari Männa (1991) is a sculptor and installation artist from Estonia, interested in construction and formation of narratives and how they influence our lives. Männa is currently exploring Estonian pre-Christian pagan traditions and folklore, examining their impact on cultural identity and spirituality.
06.-15.04.2025
Gd: Mihkel Kleis
Thanks to: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Ian, Piret, Mihkel
Finissage: 11. 04 19:00, dj Romanss
Mari Männa’s “Triptych” at Uus Rada Gallery
Sunday 06 April, 2025 — Tuesday 15 April, 2025
Installation and SculptureThis place is not easy to find. It is one of those places you cannot search for until you are already there. It is a secret location where history seems to have come to a halt. A place that does not adhere to ordinary spatial logic but exists somewhere between the spheres.
Is this place something that once was, is now, or is yet to come? The only thing that is clear is that danger and beauty walk hand in hand here. We can sense this from the stories that begin to unfold from the reliefs created by an unknown master. The stone speaks, but not directly—whispering, hinting, in a language understood only by those who know how to listen.
Mari Männa’s new composition is inspired by the iconography of the Karja church. The artist invites the visitor to reflect on the medieval in the context of the present day.
Mari Männa (1991) is a sculptor and installation artist from Estonia, interested in construction and formation of narratives and how they influence our lives. Männa is currently exploring Estonian pre-Christian pagan traditions and folklore, examining their impact on cultural identity and spirituality.
06.-15.04.2025
Gd: Mihkel Kleis
Thanks to: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Ian, Piret, Mihkel
Finissage: 11. 04 19:00, dj Romanss
04.04.2025 — 20.04.2025
Kadri Liis Rääk “Morphogenesis” at ARS Project Space
Kadri Liis Rääk, “Morphogenesis” Opening: April 4, 2025, at 18:00 04.04.–20.04.2025 Open Mon–Sun, 12–18 ARS Project Space, Pärnu mnt. 154, Tallinn
Kadri Liis Rääk presents an immersive exhibition at ARS Project Space that explores multisensory encounters between space and the body.
“Morphogenesis” functions as a poetic ecosystem, offering opportunities for embodied interaction. The exhibition reveals metamorphoses of the creative process—transformations of materials that have taken shape through the artist’s sensitive, persistent handiwork. This method is morphogenetic, a process of giving form to ideas, creating and transforming materials, similar to biological processes and life cycles. Combining natural and synthetic matter and merging ancient craft techniques with contemporary practices, the artist creates a timeless space to contemplate relationships between mental, physical, and social realms. How do we perceive ourselves when faced with the boundaries between self and the Other? What beliefs and values shape our relationship with the environment and those around us?
Displayed sketches, drawings, and sculptures visualize the artist’s thought processes and express personal bodily experiences. The exhibition intertwines found materials, soft and rigid sculptures, creative residues, and old works reinterpreted alongside new pieces, layering new meanings. “Morphogenesis” serves as a refuge for sensitive organisms, inspired by spatial experiences from Icelandic and Peruvian landscapes as well as the forests of Hiiumaa.
Kadri Liis Rääk is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher, focusing on creating immersive and tactile environments. Operating simultaneously in the expanded fields of art and design, she investigates how tactile interactions with artworks shift perceptions and foster dialogues extending beyond the visible. She studied scenography (BA) and contemporary art (MA) at the Estonian Academy of Arts and autonomous design (MA) at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent (KASK, Belgium). Her works engage with bodily and symbolic narratives, addressing entanglements and dialogues between humans and other life forms. She has participated in exhibitions and residencies in Peru, Czech Republic, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, and Estonia.
Sound design: Ekke Västrik
Special thanks: Raimond Põldmaa, Marika Agu, Kerli Praks, Siim Toomet, Liina Unt, Kristjan Vahtra
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Estonian Artists’ Association
Kadri Liis Rääk “Morphogenesis” at ARS Project Space
Friday 04 April, 2025 — Sunday 20 April, 2025
Contemporary ArtKadri Liis Rääk, “Morphogenesis” Opening: April 4, 2025, at 18:00 04.04.–20.04.2025 Open Mon–Sun, 12–18 ARS Project Space, Pärnu mnt. 154, Tallinn
Kadri Liis Rääk presents an immersive exhibition at ARS Project Space that explores multisensory encounters between space and the body.
“Morphogenesis” functions as a poetic ecosystem, offering opportunities for embodied interaction. The exhibition reveals metamorphoses of the creative process—transformations of materials that have taken shape through the artist’s sensitive, persistent handiwork. This method is morphogenetic, a process of giving form to ideas, creating and transforming materials, similar to biological processes and life cycles. Combining natural and synthetic matter and merging ancient craft techniques with contemporary practices, the artist creates a timeless space to contemplate relationships between mental, physical, and social realms. How do we perceive ourselves when faced with the boundaries between self and the Other? What beliefs and values shape our relationship with the environment and those around us?
Displayed sketches, drawings, and sculptures visualize the artist’s thought processes and express personal bodily experiences. The exhibition intertwines found materials, soft and rigid sculptures, creative residues, and old works reinterpreted alongside new pieces, layering new meanings. “Morphogenesis” serves as a refuge for sensitive organisms, inspired by spatial experiences from Icelandic and Peruvian landscapes as well as the forests of Hiiumaa.
Kadri Liis Rääk is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher, focusing on creating immersive and tactile environments. Operating simultaneously in the expanded fields of art and design, she investigates how tactile interactions with artworks shift perceptions and foster dialogues extending beyond the visible. She studied scenography (BA) and contemporary art (MA) at the Estonian Academy of Arts and autonomous design (MA) at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent (KASK, Belgium). Her works engage with bodily and symbolic narratives, addressing entanglements and dialogues between humans and other life forms. She has participated in exhibitions and residencies in Peru, Czech Republic, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, and Estonia.
Sound design: Ekke Västrik
Special thanks: Raimond Põldmaa, Marika Agu, Kerli Praks, Siim Toomet, Liina Unt, Kristjan Vahtra
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Estonian Artists’ Association
03.04.2025 — 28.04.2025
Zody Burke’s “The House of Asterion” at Hobusepea
On the 3rd of April at 6pm, Hobusepea gallery will open Zody Burke’s solo exhibition “The House of Asterion”. A live performance will take place at 7pm by experimental musician & performance artist Nick Klein (US/DE).
A new series of works shall be introduced to gallery visitors, featuring sculptural high reliefs, illustrations (accompanied by short stories written by the artist), and several 3D floor-based sculptures, many of which contain oblique allegories to the Labyrinth of Greek mythology. These new works endeavor to challenge viewers to reconsider how modernity reimagines spaces of disorientation and entrapment. Through magical-realist reinterpretations of classical mythology, Burke offers varying glimpses of alternate narratives woven through the labyrinth. The sculpture Pasiphaë, Queen of the Rodeo draws thematic references from both the foundational Greek myth that inspired Borges’ story and contemporary Americana, bridging two distinct cultures—an ongoing theme in Burke’s work. The upstairs space, conceived in the clarity of the white cube, serves as a prelude to the darker, more visceral experience below. The exhibition utilises mythological tools to probe broader questions of power, identity, and the spaces we inhabit—whether spatial, digital, cultural, or existential.
Zody Burke (b.1991, Manhattan) is an American multimedia artist and musician who is currently living and working in Tallinn, Estonia. Informed by her perspective as a New Yorker displaced by the city’s economic inaccessibility, Burke creates cyphers through sculpture and other media through which to cartograph the complexity of American identity within late capitalism, exploring how this mutable identity is refracted and transfigured through the mirror of other cultural spatiality. Often utilizing narrative structures, she is interested in interfacing world-building with geological time, and visualizing a diffusion of boundaries between distinct countries & their national mythologies by the omnipresence of what lies beneath. She recently completed her master’s thesis at the Estonian Academy of Art, which attempted to bridge sociopolitical narratives, legacies, and trajectories of industrialization between Estonia & the USA.
Location Hobusepea gallery (Hobusepea 2, Tallinn)
The opening 03.04.2025 kell 18:00
Open for visit Mon, Wed-Sun 11am to 6pm
Curator Liisi Kõuhkna
Graphic design Taylor “Tex” Tehan
Title Typeface Brian Uhl
Technical support Hobusepea gallery, Gregor Sirendi
Support/Grateful to:
Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Paavli Kultuurivabrik, Valge Kuup Studio, Estonian Academy of Arts, Batuudijuss, Pruulikoda Tuletorn, Punch Club, Põhjala Pruulikoda, Kanuti Gildi Saal, Dan Edelstein, Nora Schmelter, Taylor “Tex” Tehan, Gert Gutmann, Lauri Raus, Jordan Reyes, Roberta Staats, Nora King, Harry Figueroa, Lara Brener, Nick Klein, Oscar Ramos, Jane Treima, Diandra Rebase, Michael Anthony Farley, Laura De Jaeger, Kerli Kurikka, Kaspar Kannelmäe, Composite EE, Karjase Sai
Zody Burke’s “The House of Asterion” at Hobusepea
Thursday 03 April, 2025 — Monday 28 April, 2025
Contemporary ArtOn the 3rd of April at 6pm, Hobusepea gallery will open Zody Burke’s solo exhibition “The House of Asterion”. A live performance will take place at 7pm by experimental musician & performance artist Nick Klein (US/DE).
A new series of works shall be introduced to gallery visitors, featuring sculptural high reliefs, illustrations (accompanied by short stories written by the artist), and several 3D floor-based sculptures, many of which contain oblique allegories to the Labyrinth of Greek mythology. These new works endeavor to challenge viewers to reconsider how modernity reimagines spaces of disorientation and entrapment. Through magical-realist reinterpretations of classical mythology, Burke offers varying glimpses of alternate narratives woven through the labyrinth. The sculpture Pasiphaë, Queen of the Rodeo draws thematic references from both the foundational Greek myth that inspired Borges’ story and contemporary Americana, bridging two distinct cultures—an ongoing theme in Burke’s work. The upstairs space, conceived in the clarity of the white cube, serves as a prelude to the darker, more visceral experience below. The exhibition utilises mythological tools to probe broader questions of power, identity, and the spaces we inhabit—whether spatial, digital, cultural, or existential.
Zody Burke (b.1991, Manhattan) is an American multimedia artist and musician who is currently living and working in Tallinn, Estonia. Informed by her perspective as a New Yorker displaced by the city’s economic inaccessibility, Burke creates cyphers through sculpture and other media through which to cartograph the complexity of American identity within late capitalism, exploring how this mutable identity is refracted and transfigured through the mirror of other cultural spatiality. Often utilizing narrative structures, she is interested in interfacing world-building with geological time, and visualizing a diffusion of boundaries between distinct countries & their national mythologies by the omnipresence of what lies beneath. She recently completed her master’s thesis at the Estonian Academy of Art, which attempted to bridge sociopolitical narratives, legacies, and trajectories of industrialization between Estonia & the USA.
Location Hobusepea gallery (Hobusepea 2, Tallinn)
The opening 03.04.2025 kell 18:00
Open for visit Mon, Wed-Sun 11am to 6pm
Curator Liisi Kõuhkna
Graphic design Taylor “Tex” Tehan
Title Typeface Brian Uhl
Technical support Hobusepea gallery, Gregor Sirendi
Support/Grateful to:
Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Paavli Kultuurivabrik, Valge Kuup Studio, Estonian Academy of Arts, Batuudijuss, Pruulikoda Tuletorn, Punch Club, Põhjala Pruulikoda, Kanuti Gildi Saal, Dan Edelstein, Nora Schmelter, Taylor “Tex” Tehan, Gert Gutmann, Lauri Raus, Jordan Reyes, Roberta Staats, Nora King, Harry Figueroa, Lara Brener, Nick Klein, Oscar Ramos, Jane Treima, Diandra Rebase, Michael Anthony Farley, Laura De Jaeger, Kerli Kurikka, Kaspar Kannelmäe, Composite EE, Karjase Sai
06.03.2025 — 06.05.2025
Andrew Hill: “Scaled Views. Details from the CCA Archive”
From 6 March, exhibition by artist and graphic designer Andrew Hill, titled “Scaled Views. Details from CCA Archive”, showcasing findings from the archive of Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art will be open at the library of Estonian Academy of Arts.
Influenced by his experience of working at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design library and archive, Andrew treated the CCA archive as material deposit and shaped his findings to be exhibited in various compositions of the A4 format. Therefore, the showcase focuses on rendering of scale and the indefinite potential of archival material and possible interpretation and not so much on reconstructing past events. In this exhibition, the focal point lies on the infrastructure of the exhibits, on the quotidien information carriers, which shape the material into a bureau aesthetic exposition.
Andrew Hill is an artist and graphic designer from Nova Scotia, Canada, currently based in Tallinn. He is a founder of the Halifax Art Book Fair and OTCHO, a periodical about fingerboarding. His work in public libraries and immigration archives informs his approach to publishing and organizing. He dreams of being illuminated by an Emeralite, next to a stack of yearbooks, sleeping in a banker’s box.
The exhibition is curated by Marika Agu from the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art.
The exhibition will be open until 6 May 2025.
Andrew Hill: “Scaled Views. Details from the CCA Archive”
Thursday 06 March, 2025 — Tuesday 06 May, 2025
LibraryFrom 6 March, exhibition by artist and graphic designer Andrew Hill, titled “Scaled Views. Details from CCA Archive”, showcasing findings from the archive of Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art will be open at the library of Estonian Academy of Arts.
Influenced by his experience of working at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design library and archive, Andrew treated the CCA archive as material deposit and shaped his findings to be exhibited in various compositions of the A4 format. Therefore, the showcase focuses on rendering of scale and the indefinite potential of archival material and possible interpretation and not so much on reconstructing past events. In this exhibition, the focal point lies on the infrastructure of the exhibits, on the quotidien information carriers, which shape the material into a bureau aesthetic exposition.
Andrew Hill is an artist and graphic designer from Nova Scotia, Canada, currently based in Tallinn. He is a founder of the Halifax Art Book Fair and OTCHO, a periodical about fingerboarding. His work in public libraries and immigration archives informs his approach to publishing and organizing. He dreams of being illuminated by an Emeralite, next to a stack of yearbooks, sleeping in a banker’s box.
The exhibition is curated by Marika Agu from the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art.
The exhibition will be open until 6 May 2025.
03.04.2025 — 25.05.2025
Anu Jakobson “Finite_Jest.psd” at EKA Billboard Gallery 3.04.–25.05.2025
Anu Jakobson’s solo exhibition “Finite_Jest.psd”
EKA Billboard Gallery 3.04.–25.05.2025
Open 24/7, free
Opening: 3.04.2025 at 6.30 pm
Anu Jakobson’s paintings explore internet culture by using symbols and images that are widely spread online. Much like ancient civilizations used hieroglyphics and stone carvings for representation to encode power, myth, and collective identity, Jakobson’s work similarly engages with contemporary symbols. The cloudiness achieved with an airbrush emphasizes the virtual, while the painting itself resembles a file of poor quality. By translating these fleeting digital symbols into the physical permanence of a painting, the work reflects a return to classical representation. It suggests that, in the age of excessive information, our need to document and decode reality mirrors the visual storytelling of past civilizations.
Curated by: Kaisa Maasik
The exhibition is supported by Tallinn City.
Opening drinks from Põhjala Brewery.
Anu Jakobson “Finite_Jest.psd” at EKA Billboard Gallery 3.04.–25.05.2025
Thursday 03 April, 2025 — Sunday 25 May, 2025
PaintingAnu Jakobson’s solo exhibition “Finite_Jest.psd”
EKA Billboard Gallery 3.04.–25.05.2025
Open 24/7, free
Opening: 3.04.2025 at 6.30 pm
Anu Jakobson’s paintings explore internet culture by using symbols and images that are widely spread online. Much like ancient civilizations used hieroglyphics and stone carvings for representation to encode power, myth, and collective identity, Jakobson’s work similarly engages with contemporary symbols. The cloudiness achieved with an airbrush emphasizes the virtual, while the painting itself resembles a file of poor quality. By translating these fleeting digital symbols into the physical permanence of a painting, the work reflects a return to classical representation. It suggests that, in the age of excessive information, our need to document and decode reality mirrors the visual storytelling of past civilizations.
Curated by: Kaisa Maasik
The exhibition is supported by Tallinn City.
Opening drinks from Põhjala Brewery.
Future
10.04.2025
EKA Doctoral School Conference 2025
Annual Conference of EKA Doctoral School will take place on 10 April 2025.
Please register by 01.04.
PROGRAM
08.20 – Registration
08.30 – Opening words
prof. Linda Kaljundi (EKA Vice Rector for Research)
Panel 1: Cultural Heritage & Conservation, moderator prof. Victoria Donovan
08.35 Footwear Fashion in Late Medieval Europe
Tuuli Jõesaar (supervisors dr. Erki Russow, dr. Marquita Volken)
09.10 Climate Impact on Wall Paintings and Salt-Induced Decay
Mariam Sagaradze (supervisors dr. Lisa Shekede, dr. Anneli Randla, prof. Hilkka Hiiop)
09.45 Rethinking of Historical Wood Waste
Aljona Gineiko (supervisors dr. Mihkel Kiviste, dr. Riin Alatalu)
10.20 Eiffel’s Lighthouses and the Theseus’s Paradox: A Study of Identity and Change
Indrek Laos (supervisor dr. Riin Alatalu)
10.55 – Coffee, tea, snacks (15 min)
Panel 2: Art & Design, and Art History & Visual Culture, moderators dr. Jaana Päeva and prof. Andres Kurg
11.10 Painting as a Mirror: Symmetries and Reflections.
Sirja-Liisa Eelma (supervisor dr. Alari Allik)
11.45 Listen To My Scream: Autotheory in Practice-Based Research
Maria Kapajeva (supervisors dr. Redi Koobak, prof. Annika von Hausswolff)
12.20 What Kind of Art is Expected in School Buildings?
Karin Paulus (supervisors prof. Virve Sarapik, prof. Kara Diane Brown)
12.55 Oak Night: Looking for Any-Space-Whatevers in the Poststructuralist Thicket of Estonian Experimental Art and Literature in the 2000s
Sven Vabar (supervisors prof. Virve Sarapik, prof. Jaak Tomberg)
13.30 – Lunch break (30 min)
Panel 3: Architecture & Urban Planning, moderator dr. Jan van Schaik
14.00 Non-manifold Topology in Digital Architectural Models: Bridging Spatial Design and Industrial Production
Kaiko Kivi (supervisor dr. Renee Puusepp)
14.35 New Force Majeure in Urban Greenery: Nature Restoration and Amending
Regulation of the European Parliament and The Council
Karin Bachmann (supervisors prof. Urve Sinijärv, prof. Mart Kalm)
15.10 Climate Branding, Local Perceptions, and the YIMBY-NIMBY Conflict: The Case of Putukaväil Place-Making
Karina Vabson (supervisor prof. Maroš Krivy)
15.45 Chapters of Temperate. The Challenge of Doing More with Less in Urban
Greening
Anna-Liisa Unt (supervisor dr. Epp Lankots)
16.20 – Coffee, tea, snacks (10 min)
16.30 – Decolonising Research and Curating in Ukrainian Industrial Areas (= Institute of Art History and Visual Culture open lecture)*
prof. Victoria Donovan (University of St. Andrews), moderator prof. Linda Kaljundi
17.50 – Break (10 min)
18.00 – The Work is the Knowledge (= Faculty of Architecture open lecture)*
dr. Jan van Schaik (RMIT University, MvS Architects, Melbourne), moderator dr. Siim Tuksam
* The lectures are organised in cooperation with the Estonian Doctoral School. Project “Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies” (2021-2027.4.04.24-0003) is co-funded by the European Union.
More information:
Triin Metsla, triin.metsla@artun.ee
Mirje Tammaru, mirje.tammaru@artun.ee
Annual Conference of EKA Doctoral School will take place on 10 April 2025.
Please register by 01.04.
PROGRAM
08.20 – Registration
08.30 – Opening words
prof. Linda Kaljundi (EKA Vice Rector for Research)
Panel 1: Cultural Heritage & Conservation, moderator prof. Victoria Donovan
08.35 Footwear Fashion in Late Medieval Europe
Tuuli Jõesaar (supervisors dr. Erki Russow, dr. Marquita Volken)
09.10 Climate Impact on Wall Paintings and Salt-Induced Decay
Mariam Sagaradze (supervisors dr. Lisa Shekede, dr. Anneli Randla, prof. Hilkka Hiiop)
09.45 Rethinking of Historical Wood Waste
Aljona Gineiko (supervisors dr. Mihkel Kiviste, dr. Riin Alatalu)
10.20 Eiffel’s Lighthouses and the Theseus’s Paradox: A Study of Identity and Change
Indrek Laos (supervisor dr. Riin Alatalu)
10.55 – Coffee, tea, snacks (15 min)
Panel 2: Art & Design, and Art History & Visual Culture, moderators dr. Jaana Päeva and prof. Andres Kurg
11.10 Painting as a Mirror: Symmetries and Reflections.
Sirja-Liisa Eelma (supervisor dr. Alari Allik)
11.45 Listen To My Scream: Autotheory in Practice-Based Research
Maria Kapajeva (supervisors dr. Redi Koobak, prof. Annika von Hausswolff)
12.20 What Kind of Art is Expected in School Buildings?
Karin Paulus (supervisors prof. Virve Sarapik, prof. Kara Diane Brown)
12.55 Oak Night: Looking for Any-Space-Whatevers in the Poststructuralist Thicket of Estonian Experimental Art and Literature in the 2000s
Sven Vabar (supervisors prof. Virve Sarapik, prof. Jaak Tomberg)
13.30 – Lunch break (30 min)
Panel 3: Architecture & Urban Planning, moderator dr. Jan van Schaik
14.00 Non-manifold Topology in Digital Architectural Models: Bridging Spatial Design and Industrial Production
Kaiko Kivi (supervisor dr. Renee Puusepp)
14.35 New Force Majeure in Urban Greenery: Nature Restoration and Amending
Regulation of the European Parliament and The Council
Karin Bachmann (supervisors prof. Urve Sinijärv, prof. Mart Kalm)
15.10 Climate Branding, Local Perceptions, and the YIMBY-NIMBY Conflict: The Case of Putukaväil Place-Making
Karina Vabson (supervisor prof. Maroš Krivy)
15.45 Chapters of Temperate. The Challenge of Doing More with Less in Urban
Greening
Anna-Liisa Unt (supervisor dr. Epp Lankots)
16.20 – Coffee, tea, snacks (10 min)
16.30 – Decolonising Research and Curating in Ukrainian Industrial Areas (= Institute of Art History and Visual Culture open lecture)*
prof. Victoria Donovan (University of St. Andrews), moderator prof. Linda Kaljundi
17.50 – Break (10 min)
18.00 – The Work is the Knowledge (= Faculty of Architecture open lecture)*
dr. Jan van Schaik (RMIT University, MvS Architects, Melbourne), moderator dr. Siim Tuksam
* The lectures are organised in cooperation with the Estonian Doctoral School. Project “Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies” (2021-2027.4.04.24-0003) is co-funded by the European Union.
More information:
Triin Metsla, triin.metsla@artun.ee
Mirje Tammaru, mirje.tammaru@artun.ee
10.04.2025
KVI Open Lecture: “Life in Spite of Everything: Decolonial Approaches to Writing and Research”
In this public talk, Victoria Donovan will introduce how decolonial thinking has informed her research and projects, as well as her new book Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East (2025). Life in Spite of Everything is a cultural portrait of Ukraine’s east before it was devastated by Russia’s full-scale invasion. It is a history on foot through the beautiful Donbas region, a celebration of its past and present, and its people’s tenacity, creativity and independence. Victoria will discuss the book in conversation with the historian and curator Linda Kaljundi (Estonian Academy of Arts).
Victoria Donovan is a Professor of Ukrainian and East European Studies and the Director of the Centre for Global (Post)socialisms at the University of St Andrews. She works at the intersection of heritage studies, urban history, visual anthropology, and the public humanities. She is the co-producer of academic research, literature, exhibitions, archives, community workshops, and artistic practice exploring the industrial history and heritage of eastern Ukraine and the UK. She is the author of Chronicles in Stone: Preservation, Patriotism, and Identity in Northwest Russia (2019); Limits of Collaboration: Art, Ethics, and Donbas (2022); and Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East (2025).
Lecture will be held in cooperation of Institute of Art History and Visual Culture and Estonian Doctoral School for Humanities and Arts Project “Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies” (2021-2027.4.04.24-0003) is co-funded by the European Union.
KVI Open Lecture: “Life in Spite of Everything: Decolonial Approaches to Writing and Research”
Thursday 10 April, 2025
Institute of Art History and Visual CultureIn this public talk, Victoria Donovan will introduce how decolonial thinking has informed her research and projects, as well as her new book Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East (2025). Life in Spite of Everything is a cultural portrait of Ukraine’s east before it was devastated by Russia’s full-scale invasion. It is a history on foot through the beautiful Donbas region, a celebration of its past and present, and its people’s tenacity, creativity and independence. Victoria will discuss the book in conversation with the historian and curator Linda Kaljundi (Estonian Academy of Arts).
Victoria Donovan is a Professor of Ukrainian and East European Studies and the Director of the Centre for Global (Post)socialisms at the University of St Andrews. She works at the intersection of heritage studies, urban history, visual anthropology, and the public humanities. She is the co-producer of academic research, literature, exhibitions, archives, community workshops, and artistic practice exploring the industrial history and heritage of eastern Ukraine and the UK. She is the author of Chronicles in Stone: Preservation, Patriotism, and Identity in Northwest Russia (2019); Limits of Collaboration: Art, Ethics, and Donbas (2022); and Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East (2025).
Lecture will be held in cooperation of Institute of Art History and Visual Culture and Estonian Doctoral School for Humanities and Arts Project “Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies” (2021-2027.4.04.24-0003) is co-funded by the European Union.
10.04.2025
Open Architecture Lecture: Jan van Schaik
The 2025 spring semester session of the Open Lectures “City as Novel Ecosystem” focuses on landscape architecture, specifically the interaction of the city, people and nature. In connection with the EKA doctoral school conference taking place on April 10, the lecture series will include a lecture by one of the seminar’s keynote speakers on the meaning of research methods.
On April 10 at 6 pm, Dr. Jan van Schaik will give an open lecture “The work is the Knowledge” in the EKA main auditorium.
Jan van Schaik will discuss the productive conflict inherent in reflective practice research – namely that there are both benefits and detriments to halting the flow-state of creating to critically observe that same act of creating. And he will discuss how reflective practice research is bound to a networked community of practice, and how defining and owning this binding is critical to a practitioner making a case for the existence of an original contribution to knowledge in their own work.
Dr Jan van Schaik is an artist and architect based in Melbourne. He is the director of MvS Architects, a researcher and PhD supervisor at RMIT Architecture & Urban Design, founder of +Concepts creative practice presentation and performance series, author of the Lost Tablets artwork series, and the design director of creative sector strategy and advocacy consultancy Future Tense. Making art about architecture, and vice versa, Jan is engaged in the governance and communities of both.
The lectures are intended for all disciplines, not only for students and professionals in the field of architecture.
All lectures are held on Thursdays at 6 pm in the EKA main auditorium. All lectures are in English and free of charge.
Schedule of the Spring 2025 lectures:
March 27. Toposcape: Justyna Dziedziejko & Magdalena Wnęk
April 3. Ingo Kowarik
April 10. Jan van Schaik
April 24. Taktyk
Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Faculty of Architecture of EKA presents a dozen unique practitioners and valued theorists in the field in Tallinn every academic year.
The lecture series is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Lecture by Dr. Jan van Schaik will be held in cooperation with the Estonian Doctoral School for Engineering and Technology. Project “Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies” (2021-2027.4.04.24-0003) is co-funded by the European Union.
The 2025 spring semester session of the Open Lectures “City as Novel Ecosystem” focuses on landscape architecture, specifically the interaction of the city, people and nature. In connection with the EKA doctoral school conference taking place on April 10, the lecture series will include a lecture by one of the seminar’s keynote speakers on the meaning of research methods.
On April 10 at 6 pm, Dr. Jan van Schaik will give an open lecture “The work is the Knowledge” in the EKA main auditorium.
Jan van Schaik will discuss the productive conflict inherent in reflective practice research – namely that there are both benefits and detriments to halting the flow-state of creating to critically observe that same act of creating. And he will discuss how reflective practice research is bound to a networked community of practice, and how defining and owning this binding is critical to a practitioner making a case for the existence of an original contribution to knowledge in their own work.
Dr Jan van Schaik is an artist and architect based in Melbourne. He is the director of MvS Architects, a researcher and PhD supervisor at RMIT Architecture & Urban Design, founder of +Concepts creative practice presentation and performance series, author of the Lost Tablets artwork series, and the design director of creative sector strategy and advocacy consultancy Future Tense. Making art about architecture, and vice versa, Jan is engaged in the governance and communities of both.
The lectures are intended for all disciplines, not only for students and professionals in the field of architecture.
All lectures are held on Thursdays at 6 pm in the EKA main auditorium. All lectures are in English and free of charge.
Schedule of the Spring 2025 lectures:
March 27. Toposcape: Justyna Dziedziejko & Magdalena Wnęk
April 3. Ingo Kowarik
April 10. Jan van Schaik
April 24. Taktyk
Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Faculty of Architecture of EKA presents a dozen unique practitioners and valued theorists in the field in Tallinn every academic year.
The lecture series is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Lecture by Dr. Jan van Schaik will be held in cooperation with the Estonian Doctoral School for Engineering and Technology. Project “Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies” (2021-2027.4.04.24-0003) is co-funded by the European Union.
15.04.2025
Contemporary Art and Context: Maria Lalou & Skafte Aymo-Boot
Maria Lalou & Skafte Aymo-Boot
→ Lecture performance: [UN]FINISHED
→ Screening: Barbaresou Legacy, or The Cursed One, 2024
→ Book presentation: [UN]FINISHED – Atlas of Athens’ Incomplete Buildings – A Story of Hidden Antimonuments (Jam Sam Books, 2023)
The architectural archetype of the unfinished concrete building can be found everywhere in the Athenian cityscape. Those structures, left in the middle of a discontinued building process in a seemingly never-ending pause, are signs of invisible financial and political forces defining the physical appearance of the city. With its character of a ruin of a forgotten purpose the unfinished building is at the same time pointing to the past and to the future, as a frozen moment of time preserved ever since its volume reached that concrete state. The unfinished concrete skeletons of Athens are keepers of stories that are evidence of unseen structures that form the Greek society: family, bureaucracy, and finance. The work of Lalou & Aymo-Boot makes apparent how these ever-present factors continuously influence the everyday of the city and its inhabitants.
The full story of Barbaresou Legacy, or The Cursed One is included as one of the chapters in the book [UN]FINISHED – Atlas of Athens’ Incomplete Buildings – A Story of Hidden Antimonuments by Maria Lalou & Skafte Aymo-Boot, published in 2023 by Jap Sam Books.
Maria Lalou is a Greek conceptual sculptor and experimental filmmaker. Her work focuses on the politics of the viewer in the form of installations, performances, filmic documents and publications. She has presented her work internationally in exhibitions, screenings and lectures and published two monographs: [theatro] (Onomatopee, 2015) and the camera (Dolce Publications, 2019).
Skafte Aymo-Boot is a Danish architect with an independent design and research practice. He has realised a variety of permanent and temporary works in Europe and Asia, many of which are the result of collaborations with artists operating in the overlap between architecture and visual art. He is also a partner at the architectural office OP – Open Platform in Copenhagen.
Since 2012, Lalou & Aymo-Boot have worked together on [UN]FINISHED, their continuous research on the unfinished concrete buildings of Athens. In 2020, they founded cross section archive in Athens, a space for art and architecture, exploring urban phenomena that occur in the intersection of those disciplines and how historical facts, political structures and everyday circumstances have been interfering with, forming, and directing them. They curate an annual thematic program of research and exhibitions, inviting artists, architects and thinkers to collectively investigate and expand the theme at stake, and publish the zine Document.
Contemporary Art and Context is a lecture series hosted by MA Contemporary Art and features talks by artists, curators, and researchers, offering diverse perspectives on contemporary art practices and their societal contexts.
The lecture takes place in English, everyone is welcome to join!
Contemporary Art and Context: Maria Lalou & Skafte Aymo-Boot
Tuesday 15 April, 2025
Contemporary ArtMaria Lalou & Skafte Aymo-Boot
→ Lecture performance: [UN]FINISHED
→ Screening: Barbaresou Legacy, or The Cursed One, 2024
→ Book presentation: [UN]FINISHED – Atlas of Athens’ Incomplete Buildings – A Story of Hidden Antimonuments (Jam Sam Books, 2023)
The architectural archetype of the unfinished concrete building can be found everywhere in the Athenian cityscape. Those structures, left in the middle of a discontinued building process in a seemingly never-ending pause, are signs of invisible financial and political forces defining the physical appearance of the city. With its character of a ruin of a forgotten purpose the unfinished building is at the same time pointing to the past and to the future, as a frozen moment of time preserved ever since its volume reached that concrete state. The unfinished concrete skeletons of Athens are keepers of stories that are evidence of unseen structures that form the Greek society: family, bureaucracy, and finance. The work of Lalou & Aymo-Boot makes apparent how these ever-present factors continuously influence the everyday of the city and its inhabitants.
The full story of Barbaresou Legacy, or The Cursed One is included as one of the chapters in the book [UN]FINISHED – Atlas of Athens’ Incomplete Buildings – A Story of Hidden Antimonuments by Maria Lalou & Skafte Aymo-Boot, published in 2023 by Jap Sam Books.
Maria Lalou is a Greek conceptual sculptor and experimental filmmaker. Her work focuses on the politics of the viewer in the form of installations, performances, filmic documents and publications. She has presented her work internationally in exhibitions, screenings and lectures and published two monographs: [theatro] (Onomatopee, 2015) and the camera (Dolce Publications, 2019).
Skafte Aymo-Boot is a Danish architect with an independent design and research practice. He has realised a variety of permanent and temporary works in Europe and Asia, many of which are the result of collaborations with artists operating in the overlap between architecture and visual art. He is also a partner at the architectural office OP – Open Platform in Copenhagen.
Since 2012, Lalou & Aymo-Boot have worked together on [UN]FINISHED, their continuous research on the unfinished concrete buildings of Athens. In 2020, they founded cross section archive in Athens, a space for art and architecture, exploring urban phenomena that occur in the intersection of those disciplines and how historical facts, political structures and everyday circumstances have been interfering with, forming, and directing them. They curate an annual thematic program of research and exhibitions, inviting artists, architects and thinkers to collectively investigate and expand the theme at stake, and publish the zine Document.
Contemporary Art and Context is a lecture series hosted by MA Contemporary Art and features talks by artists, curators, and researchers, offering diverse perspectives on contemporary art practices and their societal contexts.
The lecture takes place in English, everyone is welcome to join!
06.04.2025 — 15.04.2025
Mari Männa’s “Triptych” at Uus Rada Gallery
This place is not easy to find. It is one of those places you cannot search for until you are already there. It is a secret location where history seems to have come to a halt. A place that does not adhere to ordinary spatial logic but exists somewhere between the spheres.
Is this place something that once was, is now, or is yet to come? The only thing that is clear is that danger and beauty walk hand in hand here. We can sense this from the stories that begin to unfold from the reliefs created by an unknown master. The stone speaks, but not directly—whispering, hinting, in a language understood only by those who know how to listen.
Mari Männa’s new composition is inspired by the iconography of the Karja church. The artist invites the visitor to reflect on the medieval in the context of the present day.
Mari Männa (1991) is a sculptor and installation artist from Estonia, interested in construction and formation of narratives and how they influence our lives. Männa is currently exploring Estonian pre-Christian pagan traditions and folklore, examining their impact on cultural identity and spirituality.
06.-15.04.2025
Gd: Mihkel Kleis
Thanks to: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Ian, Piret, Mihkel
Finissage: 11. 04 19:00, dj Romanss
Mari Männa’s “Triptych” at Uus Rada Gallery
Sunday 06 April, 2025 — Tuesday 15 April, 2025
Installation and SculptureThis place is not easy to find. It is one of those places you cannot search for until you are already there. It is a secret location where history seems to have come to a halt. A place that does not adhere to ordinary spatial logic but exists somewhere between the spheres.
Is this place something that once was, is now, or is yet to come? The only thing that is clear is that danger and beauty walk hand in hand here. We can sense this from the stories that begin to unfold from the reliefs created by an unknown master. The stone speaks, but not directly—whispering, hinting, in a language understood only by those who know how to listen.
Mari Männa’s new composition is inspired by the iconography of the Karja church. The artist invites the visitor to reflect on the medieval in the context of the present day.
Mari Männa (1991) is a sculptor and installation artist from Estonia, interested in construction and formation of narratives and how they influence our lives. Männa is currently exploring Estonian pre-Christian pagan traditions and folklore, examining their impact on cultural identity and spirituality.
06.-15.04.2025
Gd: Mihkel Kleis
Thanks to: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Ian, Piret, Mihkel
Finissage: 11. 04 19:00, dj Romanss
24.04.2025
Open architecture lecture: Taktyk
The 2025 Spring semester session of the Open Lectures ”City as novel ecosystem” focuses on landscape architecture and, more specifically, urban nature.
The lecture series is being put together by landscape architects Karin Bachmann, Merle Karro-Kalberg and Anna-Liisa Unt, who have co-founded and edited the landscape architecture magazine ÕU for 7 years and are currently leading the project “Curated Biodiversity”, which experiments with ways to make urban landscaping more diverse as an environment. Therefore, the open lectures in the spring will also turn their attention to the quality of the space between buildings and, using the speakers’ words and creations, show how to make the city more biodiverse and enjoyable and how people and other species that call the city their home can live in symbiosis.
On April 24 at 6 pm, Penfornis will take the stage in the EKA auditorium to introduce the 20-year practice of the landscape architecture office Taktyk, share the outcomes of he enquiries through design, point at critical future directions.
From Rotterdam to Barcelona, from Paris to Brussels and more lately Zurich, the practice Taktyk has since 2005, been envisaged as an evolving entity, adaptive and responsive to new heterogeneous and complex challenges. For the last 20 years Taktyk acts as a conductor, curator, and mediator of transformation processes using tacit knowledge of gardening, bricolage and painting. The lecture will highlight the emergence and evolution of our voice in the field and how we envision its future.
Taktyk is a landscape architecture office based in Paris and Brussels that experiments with introducing lush plant communities into existing spatial situations. The contrast between the natural and the built environment becomes very visible in their works, because special attention is given to creating new spatial quality that arises from the overlap between the two. New environments are always born from coworking with future users.
The lectures are intended for all disciplines, not only for students and professionals in the field of architecture.
All lectures are held on Thursdays at 6 pm in the EKA main auditorium. All lectures are in English and free of charge.
Schedule of the Spring 2025 lectures:
March 27. Toposcape:
April 3. Ingo Kowarik
April 10. Jan van Schaik
April 24. Taktyk
Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Faculty of Architecture of EKA presents a dozen unique practitioners and valued theorists in the field in Tallinn every academic year.
The lecture series is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
www.avatudloengud.ee
The 2025 Spring semester session of the Open Lectures ”City as novel ecosystem” focuses on landscape architecture and, more specifically, urban nature.
The lecture series is being put together by landscape architects Karin Bachmann, Merle Karro-Kalberg and Anna-Liisa Unt, who have co-founded and edited the landscape architecture magazine ÕU for 7 years and are currently leading the project “Curated Biodiversity”, which experiments with ways to make urban landscaping more diverse as an environment. Therefore, the open lectures in the spring will also turn their attention to the quality of the space between buildings and, using the speakers’ words and creations, show how to make the city more biodiverse and enjoyable and how people and other species that call the city their home can live in symbiosis.
On April 24 at 6 pm, Penfornis will take the stage in the EKA auditorium to introduce the 20-year practice of the landscape architecture office Taktyk, share the outcomes of he enquiries through design, point at critical future directions.
From Rotterdam to Barcelona, from Paris to Brussels and more lately Zurich, the practice Taktyk has since 2005, been envisaged as an evolving entity, adaptive and responsive to new heterogeneous and complex challenges. For the last 20 years Taktyk acts as a conductor, curator, and mediator of transformation processes using tacit knowledge of gardening, bricolage and painting. The lecture will highlight the emergence and evolution of our voice in the field and how we envision its future.
Taktyk is a landscape architecture office based in Paris and Brussels that experiments with introducing lush plant communities into existing spatial situations. The contrast between the natural and the built environment becomes very visible in their works, because special attention is given to creating new spatial quality that arises from the overlap between the two. New environments are always born from coworking with future users.
The lectures are intended for all disciplines, not only for students and professionals in the field of architecture.
All lectures are held on Thursdays at 6 pm in the EKA main auditorium. All lectures are in English and free of charge.
Schedule of the Spring 2025 lectures:
March 27. Toposcape:
April 3. Ingo Kowarik
April 10. Jan van Schaik
April 24. Taktyk
Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Faculty of Architecture of EKA presents a dozen unique practitioners and valued theorists in the field in Tallinn every academic year.
The lecture series is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
www.avatudloengud.ee
11.04.2025 — 27.04.2025
Spatialist Studio “Silicate Ontology I. A Material and Social History 1900-2025” EKA Gallery 11.–26.04.2025
SILICATE ONTOLOGY I. A material and social history 1900-2025
EKA Gallery 11.–26.04.2025
Opening: 11.04.2025 at 6pm
Open Tue–Sat 12–6 pm Sun 12–4 pm, free entry
Silicate embodies the evolution of 20th-century Estonian architecture. Among the few widely available materials during Soviet deficits, silicate played a crucial role in shaping both monumental and everyday architecture – from the heyday of functionalist villas to self-built garages, from standardised apartment buildings to military infrastructure.
Through a kaleidoscopic lens, the exhibition marries perspectives from material science, architectural history, and cultural anthropology to critically examine the contested status of silicate and its potential for future application. Interwoven throughout are the insights of alumni and research conducted by students and scholars of the Estonian Academy of Arts.
In an era of increasing resource constraints, the exhibition invites viewers to consider whether, and how, material contaminated by Soviet association can be reborn anew.
Curated by: Henri Kopra ja Iiris Tähti Toom (Spatialist Studio)
Technical support: Erik Hõim
The exhibition is supported by the Estonian Association of Architects, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Tallinn City, Bauroc and Sadolin Estonia.
Opening drinks from Põhjala Brewery.
Spatialist Studio “Silicate Ontology I. A Material and Social History 1900-2025” EKA Gallery 11.–26.04.2025
Friday 11 April, 2025 — Sunday 27 April, 2025
Faculty of ArchitectureSILICATE ONTOLOGY I. A material and social history 1900-2025
EKA Gallery 11.–26.04.2025
Opening: 11.04.2025 at 6pm
Open Tue–Sat 12–6 pm Sun 12–4 pm, free entry
Silicate embodies the evolution of 20th-century Estonian architecture. Among the few widely available materials during Soviet deficits, silicate played a crucial role in shaping both monumental and everyday architecture – from the heyday of functionalist villas to self-built garages, from standardised apartment buildings to military infrastructure.
Through a kaleidoscopic lens, the exhibition marries perspectives from material science, architectural history, and cultural anthropology to critically examine the contested status of silicate and its potential for future application. Interwoven throughout are the insights of alumni and research conducted by students and scholars of the Estonian Academy of Arts.
In an era of increasing resource constraints, the exhibition invites viewers to consider whether, and how, material contaminated by Soviet association can be reborn anew.
Curated by: Henri Kopra ja Iiris Tähti Toom (Spatialist Studio)
Technical support: Erik Hõim
The exhibition is supported by the Estonian Association of Architects, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Tallinn City, Bauroc and Sadolin Estonia.
Opening drinks from Põhjala Brewery.
28.04.2025
Contemporary Art and Context: Ingel Vaikla
Ingel Vaikla: You Have Become the Space – Cross-Disciplinary Translation Between ‘the Built’ and ‘the Displayed’
Artist and filmmaker Ingel Vaikla talks about her PhD research in Arts You Have Become the Space – Cross-Disciplinary Translation Between ‘the Built’ and ‘the Displayed’ that investigates modernist architectural environments, their role in fostering strong communities, and the representational strategy which conveys the existential dimension of a place. Drawing from literary translation theory, this research employs cross-disciplinary translation to transfer the formal, sensorial, historical, and conceptual characteristics of built environments into moving image practice. This approach encourages an understanding of space not merely as a subject but as an active metaphor for sociopolitical dynamics, where architecture represents past ideologies and community embodies contemporary values.
Ingel Vaikla (1992, Tallinn) is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Brussels, working primarily with video, 16mm film, and found footage. Her artistic practice explores the representation of architecture through its relationship with communities, seeking a visual language that goes beyond observing architecture as a sculptural form. Instead, she aims to convey the existential, conceptual, and ideological qualities that spaces embody. Ingel is a former resident of the HISK postgraduate program (2018–2019) and WIELS Contemporary Art Centre (2021) and is currently in the end phase of pursuing her PhD at PXL-MAD/UHasselt. Her audiovisual works, including The House Guard, Roosenberg, Double Exposure, Papagalo, What’s the Time?, EUR42 and Moi aussi, je regarde have been screened internationally at film festivals and art institutions such as IDFA in Amsterdam, Kunsthalle Wien, EKKM in Tallinn, Beursschouwburg and Bozar in Brussels, Manifesta 13 in Marseille, Videonale in Bonn, Tramway in Glasgow, the European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, and the Busan International Video Art Festival, among others.
Contemporary Art and Context is a lecture series hosted by MA Contemporary Art and features talks by artists, curators, and researchers, offering diverse perspectives on contemporary art practices and their societal contexts.
The lecture takes place in English, everyone is welcome to join!
Ingel Vaikla: You Have Become the Space – Cross-Disciplinary Translation Between ‘the Built’ and ‘the Displayed’
Artist and filmmaker Ingel Vaikla talks about her PhD research in Arts You Have Become the Space – Cross-Disciplinary Translation Between ‘the Built’ and ‘the Displayed’ that investigates modernist architectural environments, their role in fostering strong communities, and the representational strategy which conveys the existential dimension of a place. Drawing from literary translation theory, this research employs cross-disciplinary translation to transfer the formal, sensorial, historical, and conceptual characteristics of built environments into moving image practice. This approach encourages an understanding of space not merely as a subject but as an active metaphor for sociopolitical dynamics, where architecture represents past ideologies and community embodies contemporary values.
Ingel Vaikla (1992, Tallinn) is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Brussels, working primarily with video, 16mm film, and found footage. Her artistic practice explores the representation of architecture through its relationship with communities, seeking a visual language that goes beyond observing architecture as a sculptural form. Instead, she aims to convey the existential, conceptual, and ideological qualities that spaces embody. Ingel is a former resident of the HISK postgraduate program (2018–2019) and WIELS Contemporary Art Centre (2021) and is currently in the end phase of pursuing her PhD at PXL-MAD/UHasselt. Her audiovisual works, including The House Guard, Roosenberg, Double Exposure, Papagalo, What’s the Time?, EUR42 and Moi aussi, je regarde have been screened internationally at film festivals and art institutions such as IDFA in Amsterdam, Kunsthalle Wien, EKKM in Tallinn, Beursschouwburg and Bozar in Brussels, Manifesta 13 in Marseille, Videonale in Bonn, Tramway in Glasgow, the European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, and the Busan International Video Art Festival, among others.
Contemporary Art and Context is a lecture series hosted by MA Contemporary Art and features talks by artists, curators, and researchers, offering diverse perspectives on contemporary art practices and their societal contexts.
The lecture takes place in English, everyone is welcome to join!
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