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Open Lecture: Benjamin Moua
25.04.2023
Open Lecture: Benjamin Moua
Accessory Design
Benjamin Moua is a NYC-based designer and creative making his return to EKA on April 25th, 2023 to share his insights on the current state, and future, of product design highlighted by topics in innovation, artificial intelligence, streamlined 3-D manufacturing, the global economy, sustainability, and consumer demand.
His previous experience with brands like Reebok, Target, Adidas, Dick’s Sporting Goods, UNIQLO, Terramar Sports, New Balance and collaborative partnerships as a designer for the Boston Marathon, the New York City Marathon, the London Marathon, Wimbledon, and the US Open has allowed him the unique opportunity to stretch his interdisciplinary design experiences from Hardlines-to-Softlines goods, Color-to-Construction, Trend-to-Merchandising, and Print&Pattern-to-Production, with his uniquely expansive career taking varying turns from fashion into consumable goods.
The lecture will be in english, approximately 45 minutes long with a Q&A session afterwards to provide the audience to ask questions.
Posted by Andres Lõo — Permalink
Open Lecture: Benjamin Moua
Tuesday 25 April, 2023
Accessory Design
Benjamin Moua is a NYC-based designer and creative making his return to EKA on April 25th, 2023 to share his insights on the current state, and future, of product design highlighted by topics in innovation, artificial intelligence, streamlined 3-D manufacturing, the global economy, sustainability, and consumer demand.
His previous experience with brands like Reebok, Target, Adidas, Dick’s Sporting Goods, UNIQLO, Terramar Sports, New Balance and collaborative partnerships as a designer for the Boston Marathon, the New York City Marathon, the London Marathon, Wimbledon, and the US Open has allowed him the unique opportunity to stretch his interdisciplinary design experiences from Hardlines-to-Softlines goods, Color-to-Construction, Trend-to-Merchandising, and Print&Pattern-to-Production, with his uniquely expansive career taking varying turns from fashion into consumable goods.
The lecture will be in english, approximately 45 minutes long with a Q&A session afterwards to provide the audience to ask questions.
Posted by Andres Lõo — Permalink
04.05.2023
Public architecture lecture: Klaske Havik
Architecture and Urban Design
A series of open architectural lectures will be held this 2023 spring under the title “Triggers of Architecture”. The theme brings architects and theoreticians to Tallinn, who analyze the root causes of architecture and the means of making it.
On May 4, at 6 pm, Klaske Havik will analyze the connections between literature and architecture with the lecture “Between the lines. Poetic imagination in architecture”. Creative imagination is one of the most important tools of every creator, including an architect. Using examples, Klaske Havik examines how poetic imagination works, how some key thinkers and architects conceptualize it.
Klaske Havik is an architect, scholar and writer. She is professor of Architecture at TU Delft, holding the chair of Methods of Analysis and Imagination. Advocating a literary approach to architecture to address societal issues, Havik published, among many other edited books and articles, Urban Literacy. Reading and Writing Architecture (2014). She was editor of architecture journals de Architect and OASE, and initiated the Writingplace Journal for Architecture and Literature. Havik’s literary work appeared in poetry collections and literary magazines. She is Chair of the EU COST Action Writing Urban Places. New Narratives for the European City – an international and interdisciplinary network that seeks for more socially inclusive and locally specific urban places through the investigation of local narratives. In Estonia, Klaske has written for Maja and Ehituskunst, and been part of the thesis board at EKA.
Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of EKA presents a dozen unique practitioners and valued theorists in the field in Tallinn every academic year.
The lectures are intended for all disciplines, not only for students and professionals in the field of architecture. All lectures take place in the large auditorium of EKA, are in English, free of charge.
The lecture series is supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.
Curated by Andres Ojari
https://www.facebook.com/EKAarhitektuur/
Additional information:
Tiina Tammet
E-post: arhitektuur@artun.ee
Tel. +372 642 0071
Posted by Tiina Tammet — Permalink
Public architecture lecture: Klaske Havik
Thursday 04 May, 2023
Architecture and Urban Design
A series of open architectural lectures will be held this 2023 spring under the title “Triggers of Architecture”. The theme brings architects and theoreticians to Tallinn, who analyze the root causes of architecture and the means of making it.
On May 4, at 6 pm, Klaske Havik will analyze the connections between literature and architecture with the lecture “Between the lines. Poetic imagination in architecture”. Creative imagination is one of the most important tools of every creator, including an architect. Using examples, Klaske Havik examines how poetic imagination works, how some key thinkers and architects conceptualize it.
Klaske Havik is an architect, scholar and writer. She is professor of Architecture at TU Delft, holding the chair of Methods of Analysis and Imagination. Advocating a literary approach to architecture to address societal issues, Havik published, among many other edited books and articles, Urban Literacy. Reading and Writing Architecture (2014). She was editor of architecture journals de Architect and OASE, and initiated the Writingplace Journal for Architecture and Literature. Havik’s literary work appeared in poetry collections and literary magazines. She is Chair of the EU COST Action Writing Urban Places. New Narratives for the European City – an international and interdisciplinary network that seeks for more socially inclusive and locally specific urban places through the investigation of local narratives. In Estonia, Klaske has written for Maja and Ehituskunst, and been part of the thesis board at EKA.
Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of EKA presents a dozen unique practitioners and valued theorists in the field in Tallinn every academic year.
The lectures are intended for all disciplines, not only for students and professionals in the field of architecture. All lectures take place in the large auditorium of EKA, are in English, free of charge.
The lecture series is supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.
Curated by Andres Ojari
https://www.facebook.com/EKAarhitektuur/
Additional information:
Tiina Tammet
E-post: arhitektuur@artun.ee
Tel. +372 642 0071
Posted by Tiina Tammet — Permalink
27.04.2023
Эстонская академия художеств в Нарве: мастер-классы, консультации портфолио, экскурсия итд.
27. апреля с 14:00-17:30 Эстонская академия художеств откроет свое временное представительство и будет ждать в гости школьников и абитуриентов!
Будем рассказывать про факультеты и условия поступления, также пройдут мастер-классы, консультации портфолио, экскурсия в Нарвский замок со студентами факультета охраны памятников старины и многое другое. Пожалуйста, зарегистрируйтесь, тогда мы сможем лучше подготовиться к вашему приходу. Встречаемся в Нарвской арт-резиденции, по адресу Йоала 18, Нарва!
РЕГИСТРАЦИЯ: https://forms.gle/15faYAYnGLNdJgr57
ПРОГРАММА
- Целый день:
- Инфопункт – студенты ЭКА раздают брошюры и отвечают на вопросы
- Презентация факультета графического дизайна, показ работ и печатей
- Студенты факультета моды, текстиля и аксессуаров рассказывают про свое обучение
- Консультации по портфолио от студентов факультета свободных искусств – приносите свои работы и получите советы по составлению портфолио!
- 14.30–15.15 Мастер-классы от факультета моды, текстиля и аксессуаров
- 15.30–16.00 Презентация факультета искусствоведения и охраны памятников старины
- 16.00–17.00 Экскурсия от факультета Охраны памятников старины у реставрируемого Нарвского замка
Дополнительная информация:
Маарйа Пабут
специалист по связям с общественностью
maarja.pabut@artun.ee
Posted by Maarja Pabut — Permalink
Эстонская академия художеств в Нарве: мастер-классы, консультации портфолио, экскурсия итд.
Thursday 27 April, 2023
27. апреля с 14:00-17:30 Эстонская академия художеств откроет свое временное представительство и будет ждать в гости школьников и абитуриентов!
Будем рассказывать про факультеты и условия поступления, также пройдут мастер-классы, консультации портфолио, экскурсия в Нарвский замок со студентами факультета охраны памятников старины и многое другое. Пожалуйста, зарегистрируйтесь, тогда мы сможем лучше подготовиться к вашему приходу. Встречаемся в Нарвской арт-резиденции, по адресу Йоала 18, Нарва!
РЕГИСТРАЦИЯ: https://forms.gle/15faYAYnGLNdJgr57
ПРОГРАММА
- Целый день:
- Инфопункт – студенты ЭКА раздают брошюры и отвечают на вопросы
- Презентация факультета графического дизайна, показ работ и печатей
- Студенты факультета моды, текстиля и аксессуаров рассказывают про свое обучение
- Консультации по портфолио от студентов факультета свободных искусств – приносите свои работы и получите советы по составлению портфолио!
- 14.30–15.15 Мастер-классы от факультета моды, текстиля и аксессуаров
- 15.30–16.00 Презентация факультета искусствоведения и охраны памятников старины
- 16.00–17.00 Экскурсия от факультета Охраны памятников старины у реставрируемого Нарвского замка
Дополнительная информация:
Маарйа Пабут
специалист по связям с общественностью
maarja.pabut@artun.ee
Posted by Maarja Pabut — Permalink
22.04.2023 — 28.04.2023
Elis-Hetty Leppik and Rebeka Kruus at Vent Space Gallery
Animation
On April 22 at 6:00 p.m., EKA animation students Elis-Hetty Leppik and Rebeka Kruus will open the exhibition Come on in, coffee is still hot at Vent Space Gallery.
The exhibition invites viewers to enter the animator’s apartment, where everyday life is intertwined with colorful creations.
The exhibition will remain open until April 28. Every day, 2–7 pm.
Posted by Andres Lõo — Permalink
Elis-Hetty Leppik and Rebeka Kruus at Vent Space Gallery
Saturday 22 April, 2023 — Friday 28 April, 2023
Animation
On April 22 at 6:00 p.m., EKA animation students Elis-Hetty Leppik and Rebeka Kruus will open the exhibition Come on in, coffee is still hot at Vent Space Gallery.
The exhibition invites viewers to enter the animator’s apartment, where everyday life is intertwined with colorful creations.
The exhibition will remain open until April 28. Every day, 2–7 pm.
Posted by Andres Lõo — Permalink
04.04.2023 — 03.06.2023
Sidney Lepp at Kanal Gallery
Contemporary Art
Sidney Lepp residency exhibition “Leave the keys outside..I know these doors, I know these windows..doors, windows..day of open doors..open doors day..window closed – door open, door closed – window open..each window is a door?”
Kanal gallery is attended by interdisciplinary artist Sidney Lepp, who started a month-long residency in the Liiva-ATE in early April. To experience the exhibition process, everyone interested will be able to meet the artist in Kanal gallery in April. The exhibition exhibits behind-the-scenes of the art field and opens to viewers how the production of the exhibition or project takes place – why and based on what are choices made; how to get the exhibition to the gallery and how the artist developes during the process.
The artist considers it to be the most important part to show an otherwise invisible fragment of the exhibition – process, preparations, production. Usually the audience is directed to consume the artist’s final work, and without context and numerous co-texts it is difficult to read it. This time, the window is opened right in the middle of the creative process. It is possible to see how ideas and nuances that influence the result arise. By becoming part of the process, it is possible to interact with the work of the gallery as well as the activities of the artist.
The exhibition focuses on the artist’s ideas, discussions, activities of installers and the gallerist, and their interpersonal dynamics. The exhibition exhibits opinions that influence the process. The project gives the participants the opportunity to see the exhibition in the special stages of its emergence, becoming aware of a possible lack of motivation or, on the other hand, a creative outbreak. In any case, the situation may be interfered with if desired. The aim is to show sincerely and honestly how much work, failures and successes accompany the production of one exhibition.
The documentation of the two-month process contains topics that have proved to be current in society during this period, later serving as a time capsule as a reminder of this moment.
The idea is inspired by William Grieve’s cult (documentary) film series “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm 1-3.”
Visual introduction to the exhibition.
Sidney Lepp (1994) is a fluidum that adapts very quickly to the (art) scene. Most of the time, he handles the space in an installation and grafts onto the works such features as to be as interactive as possible. Sidney is a graduate of the EAA in fine arts with a BA and a MA in contemporary art. His current playing field has been Tallinn, Riga, Berlin, Kiev and Brussels.
https://cca.ee/ajakiri/mida-motlevad-noored-kunstnikud
The exhibition will be open until 3 June 2023.
Graphic design: Henri Kutsar
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Võru linn
Kanal gallery
Liiva 11a, Võru, 65609
Mon-Fri 12-17 Sat 12-15
Additional information:
Mari Škerin / gallerist
+372 53449447
Posted by Andres Lõo — Permalink
Sidney Lepp at Kanal Gallery
Tuesday 04 April, 2023 — Saturday 03 June, 2023
Contemporary Art
Sidney Lepp residency exhibition “Leave the keys outside..I know these doors, I know these windows..doors, windows..day of open doors..open doors day..window closed – door open, door closed – window open..each window is a door?”
Kanal gallery is attended by interdisciplinary artist Sidney Lepp, who started a month-long residency in the Liiva-ATE in early April. To experience the exhibition process, everyone interested will be able to meet the artist in Kanal gallery in April. The exhibition exhibits behind-the-scenes of the art field and opens to viewers how the production of the exhibition or project takes place – why and based on what are choices made; how to get the exhibition to the gallery and how the artist developes during the process.
The artist considers it to be the most important part to show an otherwise invisible fragment of the exhibition – process, preparations, production. Usually the audience is directed to consume the artist’s final work, and without context and numerous co-texts it is difficult to read it. This time, the window is opened right in the middle of the creative process. It is possible to see how ideas and nuances that influence the result arise. By becoming part of the process, it is possible to interact with the work of the gallery as well as the activities of the artist.
The exhibition focuses on the artist’s ideas, discussions, activities of installers and the gallerist, and their interpersonal dynamics. The exhibition exhibits opinions that influence the process. The project gives the participants the opportunity to see the exhibition in the special stages of its emergence, becoming aware of a possible lack of motivation or, on the other hand, a creative outbreak. In any case, the situation may be interfered with if desired. The aim is to show sincerely and honestly how much work, failures and successes accompany the production of one exhibition.
The documentation of the two-month process contains topics that have proved to be current in society during this period, later serving as a time capsule as a reminder of this moment.
The idea is inspired by William Grieve’s cult (documentary) film series “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm 1-3.”
Visual introduction to the exhibition.
Sidney Lepp (1994) is a fluidum that adapts very quickly to the (art) scene. Most of the time, he handles the space in an installation and grafts onto the works such features as to be as interactive as possible. Sidney is a graduate of the EAA in fine arts with a BA and a MA in contemporary art. His current playing field has been Tallinn, Riga, Berlin, Kiev and Brussels.
https://cca.ee/ajakiri/mida-motlevad-noored-kunstnikud
The exhibition will be open until 3 June 2023.
Graphic design: Henri Kutsar
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Võru linn
Kanal gallery
Liiva 11a, Võru, 65609
Mon-Fri 12-17 Sat 12-15
Additional information:
Mari Škerin / gallerist
+372 53449447
Posted by Andres Lõo — Permalink
14.04.2023
Vaim Sarv at EKA Gallery
Gallery
Vaim Sarv Live Performance @ Entropy Gauntlet (EKA Gallery) on Friday, April 14, 7 pm.
As part of the programming for the Entropy Gauntlet group exhibition, performance artist and experimental musician Vaim Sarv (EE/USA) will be playing free, using voice and electronics to respond to the exhibition themes revolving around the porousness of post-western notions of national identity and it’s haunted histories.
Free admission!
Posted by Andres Lõo — Permalink
Vaim Sarv at EKA Gallery
Friday 14 April, 2023
Gallery
Vaim Sarv Live Performance @ Entropy Gauntlet (EKA Gallery) on Friday, April 14, 7 pm.
As part of the programming for the Entropy Gauntlet group exhibition, performance artist and experimental musician Vaim Sarv (EE/USA) will be playing free, using voice and electronics to respond to the exhibition themes revolving around the porousness of post-western notions of national identity and it’s haunted histories.
Free admission!
Posted by Andres Lõo — Permalink
12.04.2023 — 22.06.2023
Madlen Hirtentreu, Rait Prääts and Anna Škodenko at Kunsthalle Kohta
Contemporary Art
Artists:
Gabrielė Adomaitytė (Lithuania/Netherlands, 1994); Māris Ārgalis (Latvia, 1954–2008); Milla Aska (Finland, 1993); Marikki Hakola (Finland, 1960); Madlen Hirtentreu (Estonia, 1993); Elvyra Kairiūkštytė (Lithuania, 1950–2006); Miska Kukkohovi (Finland, 2001); Daria Melnikova (Latvia, 1984); Rait Prääts (Estonia, 1952); Anna Škodenko (Estonia, 1986); Viktor Timofeev (Latvia/US, 1984); Justinas Vilutis (Lithuania/France, 1991)
Co-authors:
Anders Kreuger (Sweden/Finland, 1965); Jaakko Pallasvuo (Finland, 1987); Miša Skalskis (Lithuania/Finland, 1994)
Kunsthalle Kohta, Helsinki
Opening 12.04, 6pm
“For some reason they thought this exhibition should be titled Amber. Amber could be a natural resource, a souvenir, a wall colour, or a way to accidentally preserve mosquitos full of dinosaur blood, making Jurassic Park possible.
They are imagining this curator. Her name is Amber. She is on a Baltic-Nordic tour, taking the long trip from LA to Vilnius, making her way through Riga, Tallinn and Helsinki to look for inspiration. Afterwards – Ibiza, for fun and romance.
Maybe Amber is from a tiny spa town with an air of mystery. Shallow Springs, Wyoming. Shallow Springs, Arizona. She has left town, she has made it in the art world, but what happened in Shallow Springs is haunting her dreams.
On her way across the Baltic-Nordic zone Amber sees what other curators were not able to see. This survey of the region is not giving her the typical post-Soviet archive, austere-but-cozy Lutheran interiors, mystified relationships to lichen or strained X-is-the-new-Berlin coolness.
Amber is having a great time. These sites appear lavish and bewitching to her. Maybe it is her presence that makes them so. She is dancing. People think too much, she tells herself. Her new Baltic friends offer her a super-slim cigarette. Is it a Vogue? she asks. No, a Glamour, her friend responds.”
Posted by Andres Lõo — Permalink
Madlen Hirtentreu, Rait Prääts and Anna Škodenko at Kunsthalle Kohta
Wednesday 12 April, 2023 — Thursday 22 June, 2023
Contemporary Art
Artists:
Gabrielė Adomaitytė (Lithuania/Netherlands, 1994); Māris Ārgalis (Latvia, 1954–2008); Milla Aska (Finland, 1993); Marikki Hakola (Finland, 1960); Madlen Hirtentreu (Estonia, 1993); Elvyra Kairiūkštytė (Lithuania, 1950–2006); Miska Kukkohovi (Finland, 2001); Daria Melnikova (Latvia, 1984); Rait Prääts (Estonia, 1952); Anna Škodenko (Estonia, 1986); Viktor Timofeev (Latvia/US, 1984); Justinas Vilutis (Lithuania/France, 1991)
Co-authors:
Anders Kreuger (Sweden/Finland, 1965); Jaakko Pallasvuo (Finland, 1987); Miša Skalskis (Lithuania/Finland, 1994)
Kunsthalle Kohta, Helsinki
Opening 12.04, 6pm
“For some reason they thought this exhibition should be titled Amber. Amber could be a natural resource, a souvenir, a wall colour, or a way to accidentally preserve mosquitos full of dinosaur blood, making Jurassic Park possible.
They are imagining this curator. Her name is Amber. She is on a Baltic-Nordic tour, taking the long trip from LA to Vilnius, making her way through Riga, Tallinn and Helsinki to look for inspiration. Afterwards – Ibiza, for fun and romance.
Maybe Amber is from a tiny spa town with an air of mystery. Shallow Springs, Wyoming. Shallow Springs, Arizona. She has left town, she has made it in the art world, but what happened in Shallow Springs is haunting her dreams.
On her way across the Baltic-Nordic zone Amber sees what other curators were not able to see. This survey of the region is not giving her the typical post-Soviet archive, austere-but-cozy Lutheran interiors, mystified relationships to lichen or strained X-is-the-new-Berlin coolness.
Amber is having a great time. These sites appear lavish and bewitching to her. Maybe it is her presence that makes them so. She is dancing. People think too much, she tells herself. Her new Baltic friends offer her a super-slim cigarette. Is it a Vogue? she asks. No, a Glamour, her friend responds.”
Posted by Andres Lõo — Permalink
05.04.2023 — 14.04.2023
Textile Design Exhibition: Stitch-Sensory-Story
Faculty of Design
Participants:
Marie Kanger,Marion Laev,Agnes Isabelle Veevo,Gréta
Þorkelsdóttir,Paula,Xingpei Shen
Tutor:
Zane Shumeiko
Time:
05.04.-14.04.2023
09:00-20:00
Graphic design:
Gréta Þorkelsdóttir
The exhibition Stitch-Sensory-Story displays student work created during the Experimental free-motion machine and hand embroidery course, offered by the Textile Design department in spring 2023.
The course explored the techniques and processes of experimental stitching on various materials and surfaces using free-motion machine and hand stitching techniques.
It investigated the participants’ sensory experiences (tactility, visual, auditive, smell and others) during the making process and after. Each student produced their own personal stitched (memory, emotion, physical, sensory) story.
Each work is accompanied by the students’ written text about their
experience.
Posted by Andres Lõo — Permalink
Textile Design Exhibition: Stitch-Sensory-Story
Wednesday 05 April, 2023 — Friday 14 April, 2023
Faculty of Design
Participants:
Marie Kanger,Marion Laev,Agnes Isabelle Veevo,Gréta
Þorkelsdóttir,Paula,Xingpei Shen
Tutor:
Zane Shumeiko
Time:
05.04.-14.04.2023
09:00-20:00
Graphic design:
Gréta Þorkelsdóttir
The exhibition Stitch-Sensory-Story displays student work created during the Experimental free-motion machine and hand embroidery course, offered by the Textile Design department in spring 2023.
The course explored the techniques and processes of experimental stitching on various materials and surfaces using free-motion machine and hand stitching techniques.
It investigated the participants’ sensory experiences (tactility, visual, auditive, smell and others) during the making process and after. Each student produced their own personal stitched (memory, emotion, physical, sensory) story.
Each work is accompanied by the students’ written text about their
experience.
Posted by Andres Lõo — Permalink
06.04.2023 — 28.04.2023
“Entropy Gauntlet” at EKA Gallery 6.–28.04.2023
Contemporary Art
Entropy Gauntlet
Zody Burke, Taylor “Tex” Tehan, Joonas Timmi, Lauri Raus April 6 – April 28, 2023
Opening: April 6, 6pm–9pm
“There is nothing more mysterious than a TV set left on in an empty room … Suddenly the TV reveals itself for what it really is: a video of another world, ultimately addressed to no one at all, delivering its images indifferently, indifferent to its own messages. You can easily imagine it still functioning after humanity has disappeared.”
— Jean Baudrillard, America
Entropy Gauntlet invites you to pass a threshold into a transmutation of space. Inspired by wide-eyed summer night visits to amusement parks and roadside motels, laden with the nostalgia of childhood & playing with the expectations generated by the psychogeography of such spaces, the exhibition leads viewers to contemplate the tension between fantasies of the world we’ve inherited versus the reality of a warming planet.
Solastalgia, a concept which describes a form of emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change, presents itself materially through an amalgam of works and artifacts set inside a narrative. Within the Entropy Gauntlet is a contemporary apologue; using architecture as archetype, exploring the porousness of post-western notions of national identity and its haunted histories. Here, utopia and dystopia become uneven categories in the realm of the anthropocene.
In the tradition of transformative environmental-architectural works such as Gregor Schneider’s “Totes Haus u r” and Jonah Freeman’s “Hello Meth Lab in the Sun”, and hearkening to Robert Ashley’s operatic compositions of late capitalist melancholia, the Entropy Gauntlet manifests as a linear series of archaeological sites undergoing perpetual excavation. It is a narrative of motion and placelessness tropifying the notion that invisible, emotional environs can be injected into the visible sphere to create a sense of longing, dread, and even abject horror.
A note from the artists…
The roadside motel is a ubiquitous feature upon the sprawling face of the continental USA, but it is entirely absent in Estonia. It is taken for granted as a place where small tragedies may or may not occur. It is a location for repressed emotions to manifest due to its invisible status, despite its ubiquity in the flyover states. Within the Entropy Gauntlet, our aim is to engage with the surreality that permeates the line where memory and history interact, in an unexpected location in Tallinn; creating a hauntological simulacrum of a space that exists between destinations. The poetic transmutations of culture that occur when countries on opposite sides of the globe mirror and refract one another are acutely fertile terrain for our work.
The fact that the USA exists partially as a fantasy informed by media is intrinsic to our concept. Two out of four of us are American; despite this, the two of us have experienced our home country in ways that run contradictory to the America that exists in the imagination of the cultural status quo. The other two of us are Estonian and have spent a considerable amount of time formulating fantasies about America & weighing these fantasies against facts. To honestly engage with the USA is to deal with omnipresent shadows that resist truth & dominate the country’s emotional cartography, and with an endless deluge of popular fantasies that provide alternative images to the USA that exists.
Artist Bios:
With an eye towards the complicated nature of inherent and enforced structures, American multidisciplinary artist Zody Burke criticizes the absurdity of late capitalism and the mythologies and archetypes it generates, while leaving a liminal space for larger ways of being together.
Working with sculpture, illustration, sound, and other media, Burke has sought to establish that societal concepts of identity, symbolism, brutality and hierarchy are as tenuous as we see to craft them, and yet they paradoxically shape practically every facet of our lives.
Taylor “Tex” Tehan is an M.A. Graphic Design student from the United States and an interdisciplinary practitioner. Working with textiles, sound, metal, wood and film, his work is influenced by the landscape, nostalgia, speculative futures, mythology and romanticism of the American West. Previously working in the fashion industry, Tehan has worked as a designer for various brands, including a recent traineeship on the Menswear Design Team at Louis Vuitton in Paris. His interests meet at the cross section of fashion, music, contemporary art, film and graphic design, with a strong emphasis on experiential-environmental themes.
Joonas Timmi is an Estonian artist & designer who explores the contemporary identity of craftsmanship by combining traditional woodworking techniques with VR-modeling, 3D-printing and CNC-milling. In his work, he expresses the relations between functionality and sentimentality in objects using furniture as the main medium. Each piece aims to be a somewhat functional artifact with an emphasis on biomorphic form with anthropomorphic charisma. A recent work, “Traction” chair, was exhibited in the exhibition “Present Yet-to-Be” (Tallinn, Hobusepea gallery) in January 2022. The installation combined meandering forms of plywood with textile to create throne-like structure, inspired by the idea of alternate realities.
Lauri Raus is an Estonian songwriter & guitarist, most notable for his work in contemporary country/shoegaze ensemble Holy Motors. Through his work, he engages with western musical tropes from a distance, transfiguring his own interpretation of Americana into something subtly different and altogether unique. His band is signed to New York-based indie label Wharf Cat which has enabled him to tour the USA, allowing him to rupture, expand, and transform his relationship with the musical tradition he uses as a foundation for his art. He studies anthropology at Tallinn University.
Posted by Pire Sova — Permalink
“Entropy Gauntlet” at EKA Gallery 6.–28.04.2023
Thursday 06 April, 2023 — Friday 28 April, 2023
Contemporary Art
Entropy Gauntlet
Zody Burke, Taylor “Tex” Tehan, Joonas Timmi, Lauri Raus April 6 – April 28, 2023
Opening: April 6, 6pm–9pm
“There is nothing more mysterious than a TV set left on in an empty room … Suddenly the TV reveals itself for what it really is: a video of another world, ultimately addressed to no one at all, delivering its images indifferently, indifferent to its own messages. You can easily imagine it still functioning after humanity has disappeared.”
— Jean Baudrillard, America
Entropy Gauntlet invites you to pass a threshold into a transmutation of space. Inspired by wide-eyed summer night visits to amusement parks and roadside motels, laden with the nostalgia of childhood & playing with the expectations generated by the psychogeography of such spaces, the exhibition leads viewers to contemplate the tension between fantasies of the world we’ve inherited versus the reality of a warming planet.
Solastalgia, a concept which describes a form of emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change, presents itself materially through an amalgam of works and artifacts set inside a narrative. Within the Entropy Gauntlet is a contemporary apologue; using architecture as archetype, exploring the porousness of post-western notions of national identity and its haunted histories. Here, utopia and dystopia become uneven categories in the realm of the anthropocene.
In the tradition of transformative environmental-architectural works such as Gregor Schneider’s “Totes Haus u r” and Jonah Freeman’s “Hello Meth Lab in the Sun”, and hearkening to Robert Ashley’s operatic compositions of late capitalist melancholia, the Entropy Gauntlet manifests as a linear series of archaeological sites undergoing perpetual excavation. It is a narrative of motion and placelessness tropifying the notion that invisible, emotional environs can be injected into the visible sphere to create a sense of longing, dread, and even abject horror.
A note from the artists…
The roadside motel is a ubiquitous feature upon the sprawling face of the continental USA, but it is entirely absent in Estonia. It is taken for granted as a place where small tragedies may or may not occur. It is a location for repressed emotions to manifest due to its invisible status, despite its ubiquity in the flyover states. Within the Entropy Gauntlet, our aim is to engage with the surreality that permeates the line where memory and history interact, in an unexpected location in Tallinn; creating a hauntological simulacrum of a space that exists between destinations. The poetic transmutations of culture that occur when countries on opposite sides of the globe mirror and refract one another are acutely fertile terrain for our work.
The fact that the USA exists partially as a fantasy informed by media is intrinsic to our concept. Two out of four of us are American; despite this, the two of us have experienced our home country in ways that run contradictory to the America that exists in the imagination of the cultural status quo. The other two of us are Estonian and have spent a considerable amount of time formulating fantasies about America & weighing these fantasies against facts. To honestly engage with the USA is to deal with omnipresent shadows that resist truth & dominate the country’s emotional cartography, and with an endless deluge of popular fantasies that provide alternative images to the USA that exists.
Artist Bios:
With an eye towards the complicated nature of inherent and enforced structures, American multidisciplinary artist Zody Burke criticizes the absurdity of late capitalism and the mythologies and archetypes it generates, while leaving a liminal space for larger ways of being together.
Working with sculpture, illustration, sound, and other media, Burke has sought to establish that societal concepts of identity, symbolism, brutality and hierarchy are as tenuous as we see to craft them, and yet they paradoxically shape practically every facet of our lives.
Taylor “Tex” Tehan is an M.A. Graphic Design student from the United States and an interdisciplinary practitioner. Working with textiles, sound, metal, wood and film, his work is influenced by the landscape, nostalgia, speculative futures, mythology and romanticism of the American West. Previously working in the fashion industry, Tehan has worked as a designer for various brands, including a recent traineeship on the Menswear Design Team at Louis Vuitton in Paris. His interests meet at the cross section of fashion, music, contemporary art, film and graphic design, with a strong emphasis on experiential-environmental themes.
Joonas Timmi is an Estonian artist & designer who explores the contemporary identity of craftsmanship by combining traditional woodworking techniques with VR-modeling, 3D-printing and CNC-milling. In his work, he expresses the relations between functionality and sentimentality in objects using furniture as the main medium. Each piece aims to be a somewhat functional artifact with an emphasis on biomorphic form with anthropomorphic charisma. A recent work, “Traction” chair, was exhibited in the exhibition “Present Yet-to-Be” (Tallinn, Hobusepea gallery) in January 2022. The installation combined meandering forms of plywood with textile to create throne-like structure, inspired by the idea of alternate realities.
Lauri Raus is an Estonian songwriter & guitarist, most notable for his work in contemporary country/shoegaze ensemble Holy Motors. Through his work, he engages with western musical tropes from a distance, transfiguring his own interpretation of Americana into something subtly different and altogether unique. His band is signed to New York-based indie label Wharf Cat which has enabled him to tour the USA, allowing him to rupture, expand, and transform his relationship with the musical tradition he uses as a foundation for his art. He studies anthropology at Tallinn University.
Posted by Pire Sova — Permalink
16.05.2023
War on Monuments: Debates over Russian/Soviet Heritage in Eastern and Central Europe since 2022
Cultural Heritage and Conservation
Online roundtable
Since February 2022, many Russian Imperial and Soviet statues and symbols have been removed from public space, accompanied by heated discussions in the local (social) media. The nature of the actions varies, but in several countries political rather than expert decisions have been the guiding force, with an immediate effect on the actual monuments of art, architecture and other cultural artefacts.
The international audience, at the same time, even in the neighbouring regions, has access to very few of those local debates – each country in Eastern and Central Europe has been handling similar kinds of issues on their own. To analyse these developments in more depth, a comparative approach and a longer historical perspective is needed. The situation is changing quickly, and new monuments are lost almost daily. Rather than the monuments themselves, this round table, firstly, seeks to document the local-level discussions, in order to develop a more nuanced understanding of the current situation as well as its broader contexts. Secondly, we want to learn from each other by gathering successful examples of artistic and other transdisciplinary interventions to safeguard or reinterpret those monuments.
The speakers include Linda Kaljundi, Riin Alatalu and Kristina Jõekalda (all Estonian Academy of Arts), Sofia Dyak, Iryna Sklokina (both Center for Urban History of East Central Europe in Lviv) and Mykola Homanyuk (Kherson State University, Ukraine), Maija Rudovska (independent scholar/curator, Latvia), Oxana Gourinovitch (Belarus/RWTH Aachen University), Olga Juutistenaho (Finland/Technical University of Berlin), Stephanie Herold (Technical University of Berlin, Germany), Dragan Damjanović, Patricia Počanić and Sanja Delić (all University of Zagreb, Croatia), Nini Palavandishvili (independent scholar/curator, Georgia), Małgorzata Łukianow (University of Warsaw, Poland), Linara Dovydaitytė (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania) and Ivo Mijnssen (independent scholar/journalist, Austria).
The online roundtable can be followed via live video stream on the Facebook page of the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture, Estonian Academy of Arts on Tuesday, 16th May 2023, from 14.00 to ca. 19.00 (Tallinn time, EEST).
If you wish to get involved as a discussant and receive a Zoom link, please let us know here by 15th May.
More information: Kristina Jõekalda (kristina.joekalda@artun.ee), Linda Kaljundi (linda.kaljundi@artun.ee).
Posted by Annika Toots — Permalink
War on Monuments: Debates over Russian/Soviet Heritage in Eastern and Central Europe since 2022
Tuesday 16 May, 2023
Cultural Heritage and Conservation
Online roundtable
Since February 2022, many Russian Imperial and Soviet statues and symbols have been removed from public space, accompanied by heated discussions in the local (social) media. The nature of the actions varies, but in several countries political rather than expert decisions have been the guiding force, with an immediate effect on the actual monuments of art, architecture and other cultural artefacts.
The international audience, at the same time, even in the neighbouring regions, has access to very few of those local debates – each country in Eastern and Central Europe has been handling similar kinds of issues on their own. To analyse these developments in more depth, a comparative approach and a longer historical perspective is needed. The situation is changing quickly, and new monuments are lost almost daily. Rather than the monuments themselves, this round table, firstly, seeks to document the local-level discussions, in order to develop a more nuanced understanding of the current situation as well as its broader contexts. Secondly, we want to learn from each other by gathering successful examples of artistic and other transdisciplinary interventions to safeguard or reinterpret those monuments.
The speakers include Linda Kaljundi, Riin Alatalu and Kristina Jõekalda (all Estonian Academy of Arts), Sofia Dyak, Iryna Sklokina (both Center for Urban History of East Central Europe in Lviv) and Mykola Homanyuk (Kherson State University, Ukraine), Maija Rudovska (independent scholar/curator, Latvia), Oxana Gourinovitch (Belarus/RWTH Aachen University), Olga Juutistenaho (Finland/Technical University of Berlin), Stephanie Herold (Technical University of Berlin, Germany), Dragan Damjanović, Patricia Počanić and Sanja Delić (all University of Zagreb, Croatia), Nini Palavandishvili (independent scholar/curator, Georgia), Małgorzata Łukianow (University of Warsaw, Poland), Linara Dovydaitytė (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania) and Ivo Mijnssen (independent scholar/journalist, Austria).
The online roundtable can be followed via live video stream on the Facebook page of the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture, Estonian Academy of Arts on Tuesday, 16th May 2023, from 14.00 to ca. 19.00 (Tallinn time, EEST).
If you wish to get involved as a discussant and receive a Zoom link, please let us know here by 15th May.
More information: Kristina Jõekalda (kristina.joekalda@artun.ee), Linda Kaljundi (linda.kaljundi@artun.ee).
Posted by Annika Toots — Permalink