The Urban Models Studio Presents: The Sun Rises from Eastern Viru – the Edge of Estonian Tomorrow”

Are you interested in keeping up-to-date with the latest discussions and topics of Estonian urbanism?

Our group of students studying Urban Studies, Architecture, and Urban Planning warmly invites you to join us on this journey of collectively curated exhibition.

SAVE THE DATE! 16 OF MAY at 15:00 in front of the main entrance of EKA. The final grading of Urban Studies Urban Models course is tutored by Kristi Grišakov & Keiti Kljavin.

The sun is rising from Eastern Estonia, as the title suggests, the hope for better and more just futures is on the horizon. The displayed experiments and projects aim to reflect the development prospects of the county, situated on the edge of Estonian land. We explore urban districts and towns of Ahtme, Järve and the Kiviõli where mono-functionality of extractivistic production has challenged to respond to the surplus of housing caused by the outmigration. By exploring various topics related to (in)tangible aspects of habitation in Ida-Virumaa county our projects are based on on-site analysis, local exploring, reinventing and rethinking approaches towards shrinkage, adaptation and re-use.

Some of us try to approach the typologies and forms of architecture in new modalities, and integrate facilities according to the actual needs of current habitats. Others attempt to restart the time in the city or see the new ways of residing for transnational communities. Together with 6 projects we paint a multilayered picture to have a glimpse into the future of Ida-Virumaa, challenging the condition of shrinkage in Eastern Estonia.

Students: 

Aleyna Canpolat, Alp Eren Özap, Axelle Boireau, Diana Drobot, Ishrat Shaheen, Jim Wolff, Kalina Trajanovska, Larisa Illetterati, Maria Laura Bendezu Ulloa, Martin Sepp, Noa Ruijten, Simon Baguette

The exhibition “Fregment_21:12” by second-year jewelry and blacksmithing students of the Estonian Academy of Arts, will be held in the Long Leg Gate Tower of Old Town, Pikk Jalg 2, between May 19 and June 4.

The exhibition reflects eight young artists’ curiosity about preserving something – what they think is worth keeping and passing on, and in what way. The desire to keep what is important to oneself has always existed. What is preserved gives us a sense of security, that even though the world around us is changing at breakneck speed, there is something that remains the same. But when trying to store something, its nature also changes. Isn’t keeping something unchanged a failed endeavor from the very beginning?

Over the years, both our values and what is held sacred change, but the original information about something important always remains. Wisdom for life is passed on through knowledge and skills, and we hope to continue to be better than before with that. All previous experiences are somehow embedded into our DNA and manifest under certain conditions when it is necessary to save us from destruction. Despite our own contradictions and self-destructiveness, we also have a survival mechanism coded into us. To trigger it, we just need to know the right code or  the right time – let it be 21:12 for example.

Artists: Aleš Rezler, Elis Liivo, Lara Herrmann, Maarja Hallika, Madlen Hirtentreu, Madli Pajos, Helen Tiits and Paul Aadam Mikson will perform at the exhibition.

Supervisors: Eve Margus and Nils Hint

Thanks: Bruno Lillemets, Jens Andreas Clausen, Kristo Pachel, Taavi Teevet, Sander Haugas, Villu Mustkivi

Lara Žagar’s solo exhibition “Herbaryum 2188″ at VENT Space gallery

Opening: 19.05.2023  at 19.00
Exhibition is open till 25.05
12.00-17.00 every day

Lara Žagar (1993) is a visual and contemporary artist from Ljubljana. She graduated from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering – Department of Fashion Design (2018) and is attending the Master’s programme at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana (2021-) – Department of Video and New Media. She creates long-term projects in which she explores the visual experience of the environment and her relationship to it. She is interested in different approaches to new media art and combines installation , video , photography , light and sound.

This research discovers the ecosystem of the future, breaks it down and analyses only one part of it in detail. These are the remains of organic matter that have been transformed into inorganic forms during the fossilisation process, leaving imprints that speak of a specific period and place in history. We are looking at a fossil record, or a fossil herbarium, a record of a living organism that exists in a world that has not yet come into being, but which reflects a picture of a relatively present world that is about to come to an end in this kind of form and presentation

In the empty bear cage of the Tallinn Zoo, starting from May 19th, the exhibition “Unbounded Nature” by the glass and ceramics students of the Estonian Academy of Arts can be seen.

On May 18, at 17.00, ten second-year students of the Estonian Academy of Arts will open a joint exhibition “Unbounded Nature” in the old bear cage of the Tallinn Zoo, which raises questions about the natural relationships of living beings with the environment and adaptation to unfamiliar settings. At the same time, the budding artists also investigate the influence of the animal cage as an exhibition venue on the meaning and interpretation of the artworks.

The works in the exhibition deal with the change of human nature at a time when the primordial nature around us is disappearing and artificiality is taking over. Will life lose its natural essence if we begin to manipulate it technologically? Or as Sara Kyllönen, one of the authors, asks with her sculptures: “Is the exploitation of the most innocent creatures a natural part of civilized society, or could it work differently?”

Annali Kruusamägi, Annika Luhaäär, Erko Lill, Helen Tiits, Kätriin Reinart, Laura Stina Parri, Marta Vikentjeva, Sara Kyllönen, Valeria Poljakova and Õnne Paulus will perform at the exhibition. Each of them approaches the topic from their own personal authorial position.

This is how Annika Luhaäär remembers almost extinct sea lilies by making new fossils from them. However, Annali Kruusamägi’s work consisting of a thousand keys explores the abundance of opportunities in our lives and how rarely we take advantage of them.

The exhibition “Limitless nature” is open from May 19 to June 18 every day from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Entrance with a zoo ticket.

The authors thank the Tallinn Zoo for their welcoming and friendly cooperation. Also tutors Laura Põldu and Kateriin Rikken, EKA’s glass art, ceramics and blacksmithing departments and the Estonian Academy of Arts Student Council and OÜ Kerakot.

The evening begins with a lecture on Socially involved design by Michał Stefanowski. He will be talking about the practice of social design and showing examples from the world and projects realized at the Design Department in Warsaw. The lecture is followed by a conversation with a focus on the impact and layers of meaning of social design. We will discuss intervention options of social design and what makes it different from other design solutions. In other words, why it is or is not important to deal with social design.

REGISTER HERE

Speakers:

Michał Stefanowski has an active design practice. As a professional, he is a member of the INNO+NPD design team. He has created designs for products, street furniture, packaging, wayfinding systems and visual communication. He is the co-author of the City Information System for Warsaw, the Information System for the Royal Castle in Warsaw and the visual identity of the National Bank of Poland, among others. He is a professor and Head of the Design Department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. 

Ruth-Helene Melioranski is the Dean of Design at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has a background in design research, practice and education, focussing on exploring how design can tackle societal challenges. She conceptualises new and emerging design practices in higher educational and professional contexts through her research-through-design projects. Her research focuses on relational design and its qualities. In her professional practice, she leads several strategic, service and co-design projects to help partners envision their future possibilities and build scenarios in healthcare and well-being.
Before her deanship, she developed the Design & Technology Futures MSc and supervised students’ teams with their design-driven innovation projects at Tallinn University of Technology. She was the founding head of the Estonian Design Centre (2008-2011) and, prior to that, the leader of the Estonian Design Year (2006-2007).

Daniel Kotsjuba is a designer working in Estonian Public Sector Innovation Team, part of Estonian Government Office. Their task is to help ministries and their sub-organisations design their services, process and strategies more user-centered. They base their work on design process, with an attention on behavioural sciences and experimentation framework.

Eva Liisa Kubinyi is a designer and creative researcher fascinated by the opportunities for children and young people to participate in society, the principles of open play and care models that support mental well-being. In her design practice, she relies parallelly on the theories of social design, service design and children’s culture.

Krulli District, light installations of the students of the Estonian Academy of Art

11.–14.05.2023

The students of the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) open an exhibition of light installations in the new Krulli District in Kalamaja. The area is named after Franz Krull’s metal and machine manufacturing company, whose product range included cast iron, steel castings and steam boilers as well as steam locomotives and even liquor production equipment.

The installations give a new lease of life to the former industrial colossus. Visitors will be taken on a trip through the whole block and its memory lanes, trapped in the glow which takes shape, absorbs, vaporizes, flows, ripples, shimmers and shines. An unforgettable experience will await, the darkened windows will once again come to life. The timeless tale glows, holding and protecting both internal and external reflections, showing the way to an exciting future.

Participating students: Saskia Krautman, Frank Kuresaar, Karl Perens, Triin Indlo, Madli Rööp, Eva Maria Põldmäe, Triinu Väikmeri, Kadri Vahar, Anna Minchenkov, Aasa Ruukel, Elle Lepik, Vivian Ilves, Katriin Maitsalu, Laura Susanna Lätte ja Annika Emilie Viigand. 

Mentor: Elo Liiv.

Architectural lighting of the light path by NGO Valgusklubi

The grand opening is on the 11th of May at 9 p.m.
Installations are visible at night, after the dawn

Supporters: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, TMW, NGO Valgusklubi, MicroWatt OÜ, Meeskond OÜ, Krulli Kvartal AS

Contemporary Drawing: Worlding in Layers
Triin Anijalg, Maria Hindreko, Sander Karjus, Kassandra Laur, Rebecca Norman, Helena Pass, Mia Rulli, Nana Schilf, Sirel Tammisto
Curator and supervisor: Britta Benno
23.05–17.06.2023
Opening: 22.05 kell 17.00

Join us for the opening of the exhibition “Contemporary Drawing: Worlding in Layers” on May 22 at 5 pm at EKA Gallery!

The openness and liminality, being in between, on the threshold, of drawing contain the immense potential of transformation, the inherent non-being and hybridisation. Becoming something or somebody feels like flowing or writing: it is a place that requires common construction; it is a time which does not flow in a linear manner. Instead of being complete, there is becoming, the endless unrolling of materials and gestures, limitless potential. The technical processes of making art are very similar to the descriptions of the becoming of a Land(scape). When printing, painting, drawing or building installations, one is adding new layers of traces from materials, colours, (conceptual) motions and other means of depiction to a base structure. In printing, one uses different methods and mechanisms of transfer to create imagery. When drawing directly onto the canvas or on paper, a new layer is created with a pencil or the tip of a brush leaving its trace. Sometimes, however, the layers are also removed: erased, washed off with water or by tearing the textile into shreds.[2]

The exhibition displays the works of students, which were completed as part of the elective course. The aim of the course was a critical analysis or rethinking of contemporary drawing art by looking at various examples, reading texts and experimental tasks. The use of the layered work method applied in the art practice of the participants: the layered combination of experimental materials and forms in the art of drawing.

[1] Britta Benno, Saamisest maa(stiku)ks. Materjalid, teadus, utoopia. ­– Leida, 25.11.22 (https://leida.artun.ee/et/issues/tehnokriitika/saamisest-maa-stiku-ks-materjalid-teadus-utoopia vaadatud: 09.05.23).

[2] Britta Benno maa, Of Becoming a Land(Scape). Material, Science, Utopia. ­– Leida, 25.11.22 (https://leida.artun.ee/en/issues/technocriticism/of-becoming-a-land-scape-material-science-utopia accessed: 09.05.23).

The Embassy of Spain and the Estonian Academy of Arts invite:

The first presentation of the fashion collection “Estonia” by Spanish fashion designer Juan Duyos in Estonia will take place on Wednesday, May 10, 2023 at 16:00 in the auditorium A–501 of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

All fashion enthusiasts and lovers are welcome!

Juan Duyos is a well-known fashion designer in Spain who, among others, designs for the Spanish royal family. The fashion collection, which will be presented for the first time in Estonia, is inspired by the Estonian land, fashion and craft culture.

“A visit to Estonian nature, the symbiosis of folklore and modernity, and the new use of old techniques was the initial impetus for the “Estonia” collection,” says Piret Puppart, professor of fashion, textile and accessory design at the Estonian Academy of Arts, who was the guide for Duyos’s trip to Estonia and himself in his work on Estonian ethnology. draws ideas from nature and folklore. Puppart adds:

“Estonia has two great sources of design inspiration that I have introduced to design-minded people over the years – one of them is nature and its organic place in everyday life. We don’t have the tallest trees, the longest rivers, the mightiest mountains, but we have a certain way of thinking and relating to it all. We can see and understand in a different way — that’s what makes our stay in nature extraordinary. Another important aspect is that tradition is a living culture, not just a museum piece. Juan Duyos had the opportunity to see folk costumes and their masters actively making them here and now.”

In Piret Puppart’s opinion, thanks to the Duyos “Estonia” collection, Estonia itself is also gaining recognition. For example, the collection was presented at last year’s Madrid Fashion Week, which received extensive coverage in the foreign press.

“Fashion and travel go hand in hand. The novelty of a new city or an unfamiliar environment can stimulate the imagination. Such was the case of Spanish fashion designer Juan Duyos, who celebrated 25 years as a fashion designer on the runway with a collection inspired by a midsummer trip to Estonia,” says Piret Puppart, fashion designer and head of EKA’s fashion department.

Please inform us of your participation via the RSVP link.