DILEMMA: ORPHEUS and EURYDIKE

International workshop
from 11.01.2016 –15.01. 2016

Dilemma
Labyrinth theatre workshop inspired by Orpheus and Eurydike
DAMA 2016 Tallinn, Estonian Academy of Arts, Scenography Department

Short synopsis
Dilemma – a situation, in which we find ourselves in front of any choice, be it about a problem in daily life or solving fundamental problems. The myth of Orpheus and Eurydike is the source of our 5-day-journey with labyrinth-experiences in three different buildings. The aim is to keep the silent power of music alive in our fear-filled world. Joseph Campbell´s The Hero’s Journey (http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero’s_journey.htm) structure will guide us through the different steps and aspects of the narrative providing a universal frame to play with. We evolve our sensible spatial mind in order to have a dialogue with Space, Object and Light. Unexpected dialogue partners will brighten our viewpoints as explorers, researchers, mediators in the field of the performance arts and theatre. Each day we discover, create and perform short scenes of Labyrinth Theatre through solo and collaborative work. In an interactive theatre project, we will focus on directing and acting as artists, dissolving authorship throughout the process.

*Keywords:
Labyrinth; Site-specific; Space; Dialogue; Improvisation; Collaboration; Interactive Theatre; Dissolving an Authorship; Dilemma.

Professor of Scenography Lilja Blumenfeld’s designs were exhibited in an international exhibition curated by Wimbledon College of Arts at National centre for Performing Arts, Beijing and Mingyuan Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai .

Faculty of Design
Open Lectures 2016
Wednesdays at 5.30 pm
Estonia pst 7, rm 426
Curator/Moderator Prof Tanel Veenre

20.01 Robert Kõrvits / digiturundusagentuuri Pingpong Marketing juht

Kuidas teha müügile orienteeritud digiturundust, mis on samas ka maksimaalselt automatiseeritud. Ja kuidas seda teha ka piskuga. Usun, et oma tööde müük on kõige motiveerivam ja kunstnikud pole nii rikkad, et raha eest teha omale imagoreklaami. Automatiseeritus tähendab kahte olulist apekti – nagunii on tuhat asja vaja teha ja enda turundamine ei saa vôtta lõviosa ajast ning teiseks annab see juurde mõõdetavust ja põnevat sisendit sellest, mis publikule korda läheb. Seega – ausalt kommertslik lähenemine. Heast kunstnikust on parem vaid hea ja rikas kunstnik

27.01 Maris Takk / Eesti Disainikeskuse kommunikatsioonijuht

Maris on Eesti disainiskeenel tegutsenud EKA kunstieaduse eriala lõpetamisest alates, nii et pea 10 aastat, olles nii disainist kirjutaja-toimetaja, galerist, promootor ning viimased 5 aastat Eesti Disainikeskuse kommunikatsiooni- ja projektijuhit. Selle kogemuse baasil räägib Maris sellisest loomast, nagu Eesti disaini ökosüsteem – kes on seal olulisemad tegelased nõudluse ja pakkumise poolel, millist rolli nad mängivad, kuidas töötab disaini promotsioon, mis on kitsaskohad jne. 

3.02 Jeroen Carelse / lecturer in Aalto University, Carelse OÜ designer and analysist. 

Mixing research+art+business. Extrasensory Perception & Design, Imagination, Intuition and creativityAuthenticity and creativity. What does it mean to be authentic and how does one become authentic? Does authenticity result in creativity? Are there differences in art and design that comes from the place of authenticity?

10.02 Maire Milder / AS Baltika brändingu ja jaekontseptsioonide arendusdirektor

Vaistude ja sisetunde kuulamise roll äris. Teatud eluperioodil tehtud otsused kui kogemused, millelt kasvab kindlustunne tuleviku tegemiste tarvis. 

17.02 Ian Lambert / Head of Art, Design & Communication School of Arts & Creative Industries Edinburgh Napier University

Tendences in industrial and craft processes in UK

24.02 Heiskame lipud ja mõtleme kodumaale – mida saan mina disaineri ja kunstnikuna teha, et Eesti oleks parem paik?

2.03 Greg Clark / Art Director for KOOR packaging design

„I’d like to talk about what I consider the most important part of successful packaging design – story telling. Due to near unlimited choice of brands these days within the fast moving consumer goods market – the steps you have to take in order that your design relevant to the target market. I’ll throw in a few case studies and experiences from around the world and also with KOOR too.“

9.03 Dan Mikkin, Brand Manual partner/designer

The role of packaging in the value proposition of a product 

Dan will introduce the role of packaging in the value proposition of a product –

what functional tasks it performs as well as how it helps to sell the brand

(and your product, naturally).

Along comes a short overview of Brand Manual’s recent works on the subject.

16.03 Aap Piho / Warm North disainerEesti disainer – tüüp nagu šveitsi nuga. Kuidas ehitada üles oma kaubamärki? ja Stella Soomlais / nahadisainer, Soomlais Design omanik Käsitööline, kunstnik või disainer? Oma kaubamärgi ülesehitamine, turundus, töötamine klientidega. Tellimus vs seeriatoode.

23.03 Rasmus Rask / jäätisefirma La Muu asutaja

Väärtuste ja missiooni roll äris. Ettevõte kui inimene, kel on oma väärtused ning suured eesmärgid. Mida järjekindlamalt ta neid põhiideid järgib, seda tugevamaks inimene/bränd muutub. 

30.03 Kaupo Kikkas / fotograaf Foto – toote uus vältimatu reaalsus. Soovitud ja soovimatu kujutis. Foto mõjust teistele ja sulle. 2015 kevadsemestri tudengite lemmikloeng.

6.04 Johanna Tammsalu / õppinud Londonis loomingulist reklaami ja Madriidis tootedisaini, Tamma Design disainistuudio asutaja

Oma ideede arendamisest läbi põrumise ja mugavustsoonist väljumise kaudu. Ehetest lampideni, prillidest mööblini.

13.04 Helen Sildna / TMW peakorraldaja

Loov-ettevõtjana oma maailma ülesehitamine. Väärtuspõhine äri, maailmavaate, poliitika ja majanduse ühisosa.

20.04 Leo Rohlin / keraamika grand old man 50 aastat EKA (ERKI) vilistlasena. Intervjuu iseendaga. 

Nägemus disaini-tarbekunsti-käsitöö problemaatikast, õppeprotsessist, eneseteostusest peale õpinguid. Iseenda kogemusest suure plaanini. 

27.04 Seminar / ümarlaud. 

Kuhu ma soovin end disainimaastikul positsioneerida? Millised on minu strateegiad? Kellega võiksin teha koostööd? Kuidas oma tegevust finantseerida?

Kui mõni loeng jääb ära, siis on varuvariandina taskus Tanel Veenre / ehtekunstnik

Kust saab kõik alguse? Kunstniku positsioonilt disainimaastikule sisenemine. Oma kaubamärgi ülesehitamine. Raamatupidamisest veebipoe haldamiseni, sotsiaalmeedia turundusest koostööprojektideni (teiste disainerite, stilistide, ettevõtetega). Fotokujutise ja keele roll (oma loo jutustajana) kaubamärgi kommunikatsioonis. Lihtsad küsimused loovettevõtja elust – kuidas kujuneb toote hind? Kus ja kellele müüa (disainipoed, enda showroom-stuudio või kaubamaja)? Mis imeloom on saateleht? Kuidas toimub toodete tagastamine? Aja planeerimine? Pakendid ja graafiline disain? Kust saada toetust kaubamärgi arendamiseks? Kuidas hallata eelarvet, võimalikud kasvutempod ja investeeringud? Kuidas elada nii, et ei oleks kunagi igav?

The Estonian Academy of Arts will hold an Open Day for all interested prospective students and others on March 24th, 2016. All lectures are open for visitors as well as there will be exhibits, information hours in departments and other activities. All are welcome! More information will be available soon.

Rundum Prooviruum: Kristin Reiman
idle time disquiet
12.01-17.01.2016, Rundum artist-run space, Pärnu mnt. 154
On Tuesday, 12 January at 18:00 Kristin Reiman will open her exhibition idle time disquiet at Rundum artist-run space (Pärnu mnt. 154). Artist talk will follow at 18:30.
“Only I didn’t know that the constant mild unease was boredom. /…/ We were all thoroughly numbed by boredom. There was nothing we could do to escape it, with its uninterrupted droning and flickering.”
– Marlen Haushofer “The Wall”
Idle time is the time associated with waiting, or when something is not being used while it could be. The amount of free time could be used for anything, yet the potential is so vast it generates anxiousness and every possibility seems distant. One ends up doing nothing and falling into boredom. The boredom, however, is a nervous boredom: pacing, loitering, fidgeting, passing time just to pass time, pointless movements and the repetition of them, waiting for something to start while not aware of what it is, feeling unsatisfied and not knowing what to do. The momentum of movement is kept in order to occupy oneself and hide the uneasiness of the lack of purpose. When still, every small movement, like the flickering of lights or humming of electricity, becomes induced, driving one disquiet to escape it.
Kristin Reiman (1992) is studying in the Installation and Sculpture department of the Estonian Academy of Arts, has been on exchange studies in Antwerpen Royal Academy of Arts and completed a traineeship in the Estonian Pavilion in the 56th Venice Biennale. Since 2012, Reiman has actively exhibited her work in Estonia and abroad, including Lithuania and Belgium.
Exhibition will stay open til 17. January
Opening hours: every day 13:00 – 18:00
Address: Pärnu mnt 154
Rundum is supported by the Estonian Ministry of Culture
For more information:
www.rundumspace.com
https://www.facebook.com/rundumspace
—
www.rundumspace.com
https://www.facebook.com/rundumspace

PRESS RELEASE
Tallinn Art Hall
Ülle Marks & Jüri Kass
Vüüming
Art Hall Gallery
17.12.2015 – 10.01.2016

You are cordially invited to the opening on December 18th at 5 p.m!

This exhibition of drawings called Vüüming denotes initiation and dedication. Be it the initiation into the skill and nature of drawing or being a man/woman.

The generation of designers and architects who arrived in Estonian art during the late 1960s shook the relationship between professionalism and innovativeness, introducing outsiders amongst those who approached the art world through a single art medium. The newcomers associated with their surroundings as a collective body, a living environment, which included an awareness of style and trend creation, as well as the will and ability to change the urban space and quality of life. By the late 1970s and early 1980s – a time when Jüri Kass (s. 1956) had already entered art and design graphics – Andres Tolts, Jüri Okas, Ando Keskküla, Leo Lapin, Villu Järmut, Ülo Emmus, Silver Vahtre and many others had already established themselves in the fine arts. Some predominantly, others as a sideline. Even today Jüri Kass has one foot in design and the other in art.
Ülle Marks (b.1963) completed a traditional in-depth programme in one medium – graphic arts. At the end of the 1980s, when her works started appearing in exhibitions, Estonian graphic art as a trademark was already waiting for her with: a) a large number of emotionally supersensitive and labour-intensive female artists whose skills were Ülleunsurpassable; b) Estonian art scene in general was undergoing great changes. Ülle Marks brought with her a powerfully generalised and focused image and an expressively traced line, which culminated in Grand Prix awards at the 1992 Tallinn Print Triennial and Intergrafia’94 World Award Winners Gallery in Katowice, Poland.

When Ülle and Jüri joined forces at the end of the decade, a strong tandem was born, which was active in both: in the graphic art and design landscape. “A few years ago, in collaboration with Jüri Kass, Ülle Marks, who garnered the most prizes in graphics during the 1990s, made a change in direction and started using digital photos. Marks and Kass command the situation splendidly, by demonstrating an effective symbiosis of graphic art and photography,” Eha Komissarov wrote in 2000.
Black-and-white asceticism and the expressiveness of the human body – whether zoomed in or out, in close-ups or movement seen from a distance – captivated them both and still do. Time and again they return to difficult and meaningful messages, searching for simplicity and purity in the world order. “The rediscovered old seems new,” (Kreg A-Kristring about Jüri Kass’s paintings at the Sammas Gallery, 2001) and “Based on international experience, there is a fatiguing amount of mixing on the technical side of the global graphic picture. The high-quality command of classical graphic techniques is quite an elitist phenomenon,” (interview with Jüri Kass by Urve Eslas in the Postimees newspaper, 2007).

This exhibition of drawings called Vüüming denotes initiation and dedication. Be it the initiation into the skill and nature of drawing or being a man/woman – Jüri’s monumental resolute guards, who surround Ülle’s transparent figures brimming with vulnerable hesitation, are filled with a longing for order and values and the readiness to defend them.

Art Hall Gallery
17 December 2015 – 10 January 2016
Vabaduse väljak 6
Wed-Sun 12 noon to 6 p.m., free
www.kunstihoone.ee

More information:
Jüri Kass: jyrikass@hot.ee
Ülle Marks: ylle.marks@artun.ee

Press release compiled by:
Tamara Luuk
tamara@kunstihoone.ee

Selection panel: Andreas Nilsson (SE), Anna Virtanen (FI), Teet Suur (EE) and Siim Preiman (EE)
The organisers of Kilometre of Sculpture (kmS) are pleased to extend a warm invitation to all artists working in any field or genre to submit applications to participate in our open call exhibition, which will be held in the public space of the town of Rakvere in July 2016.
Applications close 23 January 2016
Artists applying to the open call for 2016 will be expected to respond to the specific context of the township of Rakvere, selecting from the multitude of sites and situations that exist across this varied urbanscape, as well as the conceptual considerations presented below by our guest curator, Anna Virtanen. A site map, which can be viewed on our website, shows a circle approximately 1 kilometre across indicating a suggested area within which artists can explore potential sites for their work. As this area is only meant as a guide, sites outside the circle will also be considered if the reasoning behind the choice of site is clear.
The following reflects the initial curatorial impulse:
“How to approach a city unfamiliar to you, in an unfamiliar country? How to work in the public space, with a manner sensitive to the context at hand, when you’re not familiar with the stories, memories or meanings attached to it? As a way of approaching these questions, in our initial theme for the 2016 edition of Kilometre of Sculpture, we take a look at monuments. Considering monuments as manifestations of the invisible, of values, agendas, ideologies or histories. Or looking at them in relation to the notions of permanence and temporality – of the material aspects, of the invisible linked to them. Looking at monuments as representing something that is hoped to be static, emphasizing this even with their material qualities, holding onto something temporary.”
Anna Virtanen
Kilometre of Sculpture
Kilometre of Sculpture is an international outdoor art exhibition held every year in the public space of a regional city in Estonia. The town of Rakvere in northern Estonia hosts the exhibition every two years in conjunction with the Baltoscandal theatre festival, while different regional Estonian towns host the exhibition in the intervening years. KmS adopts a mixed model involving a curated section and an open call to deliver a single cohesive exhibition under the guiding vision of our curator. In addition, kmS also has a side program of exhibitions and events known as kmX that is largely sourced via connections with regional towns in neighbouring countries (often involving the twin town network).
The site map mentioned above and specific information on how to apply can be found by following the link below.
www.sculpture.ee/en/apply
General enquiries: kilometre@sculpture.ee

Tõnis Laanemaa – graphic artist and painter
The group of young artists called ANK-64 bears a resemblance to EKR (Group of Estonian Artists), and was also established in the modernism-keen decade. It lasted, despite the different individual traits of its members, for quite some time, gradually becoming a legend. It was not possible to register such a group in the 1960s, nor did it have a constitution, but the members were united in a certain closeness of aesthetic ideals. Compared to the previous generation, the ANK members, with their strikingly individual style and associative symbols-images, came closer to contemporary international art. The dominant trend in the latter was pop art, which expressed the mentality of urbanism, mass culture and the consumer era in a language influenced by advertising, comic strips, and the tabloid media. It was also affected by the radical manifestations of the early decades of the 20th namely collage and assemblage. Pop art had taken root in a different society from which young Estonian artists developed. Features typical of a Western society and way of life were only beginning to turn up here, and the postmodernist eclecticism and social context of pop art aesthetics became more comprehensible a bit later, which was reflected in the work of the group SOUP-69. The ANK-like reception of pop art was essentially aesthetic; searching for style was also influenced by the legacy of the past, namely Art Nouveau and rediscovering symbolism of the time, which blended with impulses received from the barely half-a-century-old surrealism as a reactivated modernist trend. Constructing your own “aesthetic universe”, as Elnara Taidre described the work of Tõnis Vint, characterised other ANK members as well. Tõnis Laanemaa also aspired towards this, although he was not as focused as some other young graphic artists. He studied graphic art at the State Art Institute from 1961 to 1966. His graduate work was a series of tourism posters. As early as in 1961 he was elected as Chairman of the Student Research Society. A year later he was replaced by Tõnis Vint. Through the Society, Laanemaa initiated student exhibitions in the Tartu University café and Tõravere Observatory. The student display in 1964 was the first of his numerous later exhibitions. The first individual exhibition at the Tallinn Art Salon took place in 1970, after which he was admitted to the Estonian Artists’ Association. He could be compared with the graphic artist Vello Vinn who did not belong to the ANK group. Both used the novel technique of etching in relief printing: Vinn – white lines against a black background (Crab, Cat), Laanemaa – red lines against a black or brown background (Spiral I-II). Vinn’s works displayed clarity of detail and rigid symmetry of composition that characterised his later style as well. These were in a tense relationship with the gloomy, ominous and anxiety-inducing emotional impact of his symbols. In Laanemaa’s etchings, the associative undercurrent could be perceived much more weakly, the emotional content was more on the surface, expressed directly via a dynamic confusion of lines where details tended to dissolve. This approach, that largely ignored details, was influenced by a wave of abstract work in Estonian art in the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s. The artist presented similar works (Flight, Youth, Archers, all 1971) also at the 2nd produced one of his most successful posters for that exhibition.
The posters he displayed at his exhibition in 1975, clearly show the artist’s skill in the field that however remained secondary in his overall work. The relief print etchings he presented at the 3rd Two Clouds, 1974) reflected the increasing general interest in the surrounding reality in its specificity, or to be more precise – in urbanising milieux, mainly expressed by the generation of young artists who followed ANK. In rapidly changing contemporary art, generations follow one another after much shorter intervals than is normally estimated in human life.
In Laanemaa’s case too, it mattered that he was a few years older than the other ANK members, as he studied at the Tartu Art School between 1952 and 1957 where he acquired some home truths about composition. The latter did not make him exceptional in ANK: there were, after all, compositions of Jüri Arrak or Enno Ootsing in the 1970s (born in 1936 and 1940, respectively). Against the general image of ANK, Laanemaa’s “social sensitivity” stood out, a fact also mentioned by Riin Kübarsepp (Riin Kübarsepp, Anne Untera. Tõnis Laanemaa. Tallinn 2009). Besides the etching Wheels depicting rolling car wheels and the sheet To the Country showing parachutists, mention should be made of works by other young artists of the time tackling rather similar topics: Tiit Pääsuke’s painting In the Forest with a Car (1973), Kaisa Puustak’s sheets Flight and Railway with a Cloud (1974) in vernis mou-aquatint technique.
Tallinn Print Triennial. He Triennial (Wheels, To the Country, Between In the 1970s, artists aspired for photographic impression not only in traditional techniques, but photographs were used more directly as well. Laanemaa, too, was taken with this trend. Photo etching At the Dog Show (1976) secured him – together with etchings Race and Clouds – a purchase award at the 4th and the graphic artists really made an effort for these forums in their specialty. Laanemaa took part in the 5th Artists and a Super-excavator (1977). His enthusiasm for experimenting faded in the 1980s, and he produced works in line etching with more modest ambitions, such as Dance Party on St John’s Eve (1983) based on linear rhythms), Sunday on Horses (1983), Organ Concert in St Nicholas Church on 25 August 1991 (1991) and views of Tallinn.
Earlier, Tõnis Laanemaa had already begun cultivating vedutas. Some of his etchings resembling old vedutas became very popular, such as View of Tallinn with St Olaf’s Church and View of Tallinn with St Nicholas Church (1972), which were also displayed at exhibitions of Estonian graphic art abroad. Urban views were much in demand and to some extent this is still the case today. After graduating from the Art Institute, Laanemaa worked as a designer at the workshop called Ars and the Directory of Leisure Parks. In 1992 he became a freelance artist and had to adapt to the new requirements, as traditional vedutas are no longer much cultivated. This inspired him to display his urban views in the Helleman Tower in Tallinn in 2009. In the new century he has been actively exhibiting all across Estonia, involving his students at his drawing and painting studio. Selections of works often depend on the venue. For example at the exhibition in the Narva Museum’s Art Gallery in 2008 he presented large-format sheets about nature in eastern Virumaa county (Here, on the Northern Coast, The Valaste Fir, 2004, drypoint, relief print), and photo prints of the Kreenholm factory (Old Kreenholm Factory, 2007).The latter are the most successful he has done in the increasingly popular technique. On the occasion of his 70th displayed both gravures and drawings at the National Library. Besides teaching at his drawing and painting studio, he draws a lot, especially nudes. The current vigorous expressive manner of drawing brings to mind the earlier drawings from his ANK-period; like with many older artists, he can also be characterised by un retour à la jeunesse – a return to youth. Laanemaa is very fond of French and even writes poems in that language. In June 2012, together with Küllike Pihlap, he organised an exhibition of photographic prints in Triennial in 1977. The triennials had a stimulating impact triennial as well, with two outstanding etchings, Architecture (1980) and Alatskivi Castle titled Estonian and French Castles, thus marking his 75th “A return to youth” is also expressed in recent frequent displays of his paintings. After all, the artist studied painting at the Tartu Art School and showed one painting – Clouds – at his first personal exhibition. The main motif running through his newer paintings (series Timespace, and others) is the female nude, depicted in a poster-like manner, in intensive basic colours. Paintings, just like drawings, reflect the impact of Neo-expressionism and Neo-pop, demonstrating the artist’s ability to welcome modern trends, just as he did in the period of ANK.
Mai Levin

Autumn semester’s final thesis defendings take place:
Art and Design defending is on 18.11.2015 at 13.00 at Kiriku plats 1-201
Scenography, MA defending is on 11.01.2016 at 10.00 at Lembitu 12
Cultural Heritage and Protection, BA defending is on 12.01.2016 at 10.00 at Suur-Kloostri 11-103
Art History, BA defending is on 20.01.2016 at 10.00 at Suur-Kloostri 11-103