“On the Other Side of the Great Oblivion” in NART

The exhibition “On the Other Side of the Great Oblivion”, curated by Maria Helen Känd, will open at Narva Art Residence, exploring the feeling of emptiness and disconnection or being lifted into the air, brought about by forceful changes and movement from one phase of life to another.

Eike Eplik and Urmas Lüüs are known for their installational staging of the space, while Manfred Dubov and Angela Maasalu translate charged emotional states onto canvas.

The exhibition allows the viewer to perceive that everything happens in a constant state of in-betweenness. The present moment is split into two halves. We accommodate scenarios that are waiting to be fulfilled, offering a space for imagination and growing out of reach before they unfold and start to transform, decrease and warp once again. The uncanny, ritualistic, at times playful and somewhat humorous works strike a wedge into our consciousness. As the sharp blade of the sword falls behind us, the exhibition guides us through space-time continuums, within the reach of great powers, oblivion, reconciliation and dreams.

The title of the group exhibition is inspired by the Estonian poet Jaan Kaplinski’s poem from his collection “Raske on kergeks saada” (“It is Hard to Become Light”, 1982). The poetic self conveys a mystical experience of time and space, where the person has not yet received a time, a space or a name. For Kaplinski’s poetic self, the experience of the unknown is not one of misery or of a dark state of mind. On the contrary, letting go of the self brings enlightenment. Reaching the enlightened state, however, can be hard work, full of losses and renunciations.

The exhibition is opens 10 December 2022 at 4 pm and it stays open until 5 February 2023.

Opening times:
Thu, Fri 15.00–19.00, Sat 13:00–21:00, Sun 13.00–19.00

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Graphic design: Henri Kutsar

Exhibition supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, City of Narva, Water Fox OÜ 

The artists participating in the exhibition are EKA alumni and lecturers, and the curator Maria Helen Känd is a curatorial student at EKA.

Mini-conference “Defining Public in the Space” will take place at the Estonian Academy of Arts on December 8th, 11 a.m. till 4 p.m.

The discussions will focus on the art in public space as a consideration of aesthetic and political decision-making and will discuss topics such as the responsibility of public space in shaping ethical values in society, the reflection of history, and the rights and freedom of author. Several international practitioners and experts in the field will give short presentations under the thematic blocks “Public Space as an Archive” and “Public Space and its Authors”.

The conference will take place within the framework of international collaborative project PARTGO. PARTGO is a joint programme of theoretical research and practical workshops between the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), the Dublin College of Art and Design (NCAD), the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) and the Turku Academy of Arts (TUAS) focusing on the educational aspects of teaching public art. The project started in 2018 and named conference is one of its final events.

www.partgo.eu

Conference will be held in English and live streamed in EKA TV www.tv.artun.ee

Public Space as an Archive 

Mini-presentations(10-15 min) of each speaker, followed by moderated discussion (1h)

11:00 opening words, Kirke Kangro
11:05 Andres Kurg – Maarjamäe: Two Ideologies of One Aesthetic
11:20 Linda Kaljundi – Museum Ethics in the Age of Decolonisation – Estonian and Eastern European perspectives
11:35 Marek Tamm – Lives and Afterlives of a Public Building: The Baltic Exchange
11:50-12:50 panel discussion, moderator Kirke Kangro

13:00-13:30 coffee break (30min)

Public Space and it’s Authors

13:30 Taavi Talve – Paldiski Project: Case Study
13:45 Villu Jaanisoo – Everything is Possible: Destruction and Eternal Life
14:00 Eglė Grėbliauskaitė – Let’s Not Forget Not to Remember
14:15 Yoko Alender – Urban Space and its Wounds
14:30-15:30 panel discussion, moderator Rebecca Duclos

Edith Karlson (EKA Sculpture and Installation BA and Contemporary Art MA) has created the scenography for Hanna Kritten Tangsoo and Sigrid Savie’s show “COWBODY/ Oh wow, it’s you!”, which will be premiered on December 5 at Kanuti Gildi SAAL.

COWBODY/ Oh wow, it’s you! engages with shifting focus from extraordinary to the habitual. Bringing together expectations and outcomes, it smoothes into a world where intimacy is exercised from a distance and sometimes only half a sentence is just enough. Sigrid and Hanna Kritten invite the audience to witness a hotpot of dance, sculpture, music and fitness trampolines where in a form of self-defense two bodies enjoy finding the struggle, or struggle to find joy.

Two rather young women. The voice between their thin lips sounds incredibly low. Their seemingly fragile, passive bodies gasp with intensity. They do not offer services but serve. Serving paradoxes, transformations and power. They are self-regulating, self-regenerating. Concrete and figurative. In life-size. They surprise and are surprised. They whisper roars. They play with domesticated forms – crawling, skipping – making the bushes go upside down. 

A very daily routine of believing in a moment where everything will be just fine. Belief that is somehow holding everything loosely together. You are a subject to forces you cannot understand that drive you apart. You are a real person. Don’t worry. The oxygen is flowing. So now you can finally let yourself go, can’t you?

You are maybe always on my mind.

Hanna Kritten Tangsoo is a Berlin-based choreographer and lighting artist. She studied dance at Viljandi Cultural Academy 2011-2014 and graduated BA Dance, Context, Choreography Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz/ HZT Berlin 2014-2017. During her studies at HZT she started to work as a theater technician at the university and thus came into contact with lighting design. In 2021 she participated in the ETC Electronic Theater Controls Ltd Fred Foster Student Mentorship Program International branch program. Hanna Kritten is one of the co-founders of Suddenly, a performing arts collective based in Berlin. Since 2017 Hanna Kritten has been a freelance artist in both dance and lighting.

Sigrid Savi is a freelance performing artist based in Berlin and Tallinn. She graduated choreography/dance teaching at Viljandi Culture Academy 2015. She has presented her first solo work Imagine There’s a Fish (Sōltumatu Tantsu Lava) in Glasgow, Riga, Berlin, Hammerfest, Kiev, Nuremberg and Vilnius. Savi presented her second solo work Pushing Daisies (Kanuti Gildi SAAL) at the International performing arts festival SAAL Biennaal 2019. Savi has collaborated with Jon Konkol on not this pillow fight in New York (Panoply Performance Lab) and Berlin (grüntaler9) and with Edith Karlson on Let’s get lost I know the way (Sōltumatu Tantsu Lava, Tallinn Art Hall) at Tallinn Art Hall.

Choreography: Hanna Kritten Tangsoo, Sigrid Savi
Music, sound design: Markus Daßau
Scenography: Edith Karlson
Dramaturgy: Ruslan Stepanov
Lighting Design: Hanna Kritten Tangsoo
Project management: Maarja Kalmre
Technical support: Henry Kasch
Co-producing: Kanuti Gildi SAAL, Hanna Kritten Tangsoo, Sigrid Savi
Supported by: Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Rahmen von NEUSTART KULTUR Germany, Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Special thanks to: Heneliis Notton

Language no problem

Premiere on December 5th 2022 at Kanuti Gildi SAAL

Performance on December 6th will be followed by an artist talk led by Kai Valtna

Urban Studies will host a zine launch on Tuesday, December 6th at 7 p.m., presenting the final outcome of Urban Studies’ Studio 3. 

This semester, the students of the second year of Urban Studies have been dealing with the theme of “urban nothing”. What disappeared in this case is “the pizza from the box”, and a non-zine has been materialised, featuring individual contributions, inspired by various urban voids.

To celebrate the last studio ever of MUR21, Urban Studies Department is hosting a launch event to give everyone a taste. 

The boxes will be the first to inhabit the new “EKA Zine Library” – if you have any laying around that you might wanna add to the archive, bring it with you. 

Studio 3 was taught by Helen Runting and Leonard Ma.

Contributions by Nora Soo, Paul Simon, Jarþrúður Iða, Nabeel Imtiaz, Luca Liese Ritter, Christian Hörner, Carl-Magnus Meijer, Paula Veidenbauma

December brings an opportunity to experience, in an exhibition format, works produced by students in the Faculty of Fine Arts as their term projects: every day there will be a fresh crop of university students’ works on display in the gallery.

Works in contemporary art, prints, installation, sculpture and painting curricula will be on display. On each morning of the marathon, a new exhibition will be installed and in the evening the exhibit will give way to the next one. Hopefully, viewers will be able to keep up with the pace of the young artists.

SCHEDULE

1.12. Drawing, supervisors Matti Pärk, Maiu Rõõmus

2.12. Drawing, supervisor Eero Alev

3.—4.12. Scenography, supervisor Mark Raidpere

5.12. Drawing, supervisors Tõnis Saadoja

6.12. Drawing, supervisor Britta Benno

7.12. Photography, supervisors Annika Haas, Kadri Otsiver

8.12. Photography, supervisor Taavi Piibemann

9.12. Photography, supervisor Kalle Veesaar

12.12. Graphic art, supervisors Liina Siib, Eve Kask, Maria Erikson, Len Murusalu, Martinus Daane Klemet, Viktor Gurov

13.12. Graphic art, supervisors Kadi Kurema, Mark Antonius Puhkan, Aarne Mesikäpp, Maria Izabella Lehtsaar

14.12. Painting, supervisors Tõnis Saadoja, Mart Vainre

15.12. Painting, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Mihkel Maripuu, Jaan Toomik

16.12. Painting, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Alice Kask, Mart Vainre

17.12. Sculpture and Installation, supervisors Taavi Talve, Laura Põld

19.—22.12. Contemporary Art, supervisors Anu Vahtra, Jaan Toomik, Liina Siib, Taavi Talve, John Grzinich, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Marge Monko, Taavi Piibemann, Eve Kask, Maria Erikson, Kristi Kongi, Sirja-Liisa Eelma

Vent Space Gallery
Opening of the exhibition on November 26, 5-8 p.m.

The joint exhibition of Brit Kikas and Dana Lorên Vares looks at shedding the skin as a constant rebirth. Through repetition, jewelry art and graphics come together, bringing to the viewer tactile changes that form endless chains and patterns.

“There was one girl of us

We talked a lot among ourselves

We had no brothers or sisters, and neither did our father and mother

We didn’t grieve very often

Sad evil calls for beating

Besides, we knew that the parents are alive, they are hidden in a secret bunker made in the forest

We lacked upbringing, so to speak

We didn’t give anyone up

Two burning spots melted under our feet every spring

Only later did I realize that I live in the singular”

-Ene Mihkelson

Brit Kikas (1997) – He is a Master’s student of Contemporary Art of the Estonian Academy of Arts and is currently on exchange studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Finland. In 2022, Kikas was the co-curator of the youth exhibition “Slow maneuvers” of the 18th Print Triennale in Tallinn at EKKM, and in 2021 he organized his first solo exhibition “Corpora Prima” at Positiiv gallery. Previously, Kikas has participated in several group exhibitions, such as “Soft Narratives” (2020), “Spring Exhibition” (2021) in the Kunstihoone gallery. In addition, Kikas has also participated in several international group exhibitions “Book” (2021) at Kaapelitehda in Helsinki, “Blended Intensive Project” (2022) at Neuer Kunstverein Wien in Vienna.

Dana Lorên Vares (1998) Studied at the Estonian Academy of Arts in the magistracy of the department of jewelry and blacksmithing. In 2017, he staged his first dance performance “My name is how I call myself” as a collaborative project. During his undergraduate studies, he participated in several group exhibitions “Künnis” (2020), “TASE’21” (2021). During his master’s studies, Vares’ work has been represented in several joint exhibitions “Valus on” (2021), “B-106” (2022); several of them also international cooperation projects: “Notes on fashion and gender” (2022) and “Second chance” (2022). In addition, Vares has taken part in the dance production and performances “IHA” (2019), “Minevik, jag mina set samadan” (2020), “Greenfield: Fyüsis” (2018).

The exhibition is open from November 27 to December 3, from 2 to 6 p.m.

EKA Animation department invites you to join us on Wednesday (23 Nov.) from 10:30 – 12:00 in our auditorium (A101) for an insightful lecture from world-famous animated film director Theodore Ushev.

Theodore Ushev is a Bulgarian-born Canadian filmmaker who has created some of the most iconic animated films of recent decades. At the meeting Ushev introduces his animated world and talks about his working methods.

Ushev latest feature film “Phi1.618” is going to get the international premiere at PÖFF 26 | Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival!

“Phi1.618” screenings at PÖFF

For more information about Theodore Ushev

Join us on November 21st at 6–8 p.m. (Estonian time) to find out more information about the Garage48 Future of Wood: Rebuild Ukraine makeathon.

AGENDA

– Opening words and makeathon introduction.

– Challenges overview

– Startup Estonia Challenge: Wood industry in 2050

– Thermory & Ülemiste City Challenge: Revitalising the urban environment with timber

– Get acquainted with the submitted ideas and pitch your idea to find team members from Ukraine

– Matchmaking through breakout rooms

– Closing words

The final team formation happens at the beginning of the makeathon on Nov 25th. The pre-webinar is an additional option to start matchmaking already before.

How does the pitching work? Participants who have an idea will present the idea over a 90-second pitch. After ideas are presented, we will facilitate matchmaking over Zoom breakout rooms.

Join us at the webinar on ZOOM

Artist’s talk: Film and the Practice of Social Dreaming by Andrea Luka Zimmerman 22 November at 3.45 pm / Room A 403 

How we might resist being framed exclusively through class, gender, ability or disability, and even through geography… I will outline my working process, spanning over a decade, which contributes attention to the under-expressed intersection of public and private memory and itinerant lives, human and otherwise, often in relation to structural and political violence. Processes where radical encounters call for uncommon commons and futures, using filmmaking practice as a form of social dreaming.
Curator and event / film producer Gareth Evans will conclude the presentation by examining the various possible distribution and exhibition platforms for such work.

Andrea Luka Zimmerman is a filmmaker and artist whose engaged practice calls for a profound reimagining of the relationship between people, place and ecology. Focusing on marginalised individuals, communities and experience, her practice employs imaginative hybridity and narrative reframing, alongside reverie and a creative waywardness. Informed by suppressed histories, and alert to sources of radical hope, the work prioritises an enduring and equitable coexistence. Andrea’s feature length films have won numerous awards internationally. Andrea is Professor of Possible Film at Central Saint Martins.

www.fugitiveimages.org.uk 
https://linktr.ee/andrealukazimmerman

The peer-review of Maria Kapajeva’s exhibition “Loose Photos, Odds and Ends” will take place on 29 November 16.00 at EKA (room A202). This exhibition is the first event of Kapajeva’s practice-based doctoral studies.

The thesis is supervised by Dr. Redi Koobak (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow) and Prof. Annika Elisabeth von Hausswolff  (University of Gothenburg). The peer-reviewers of the exhibition are Dr. Ingrid Ruudi (EKA) and Prof. Mika Elo (Uniarts Helsinki).

The exhibition is open 14.06.- 30.12.2022 at Kumu, the Project Space II.

The exhibition “Loose Photos, Odds and Ends” is Maria Kapajeva’s artistic experiment: presenting a research process as an installation. What can you do and what would you do with a random collection of photographs?

Kapajeva experiments with different ways of opening up the potential of the often undervalued, under-researched, marginalised heritage of vernacular photography. In the age of automated face recognition software – partly developed by historical archives, but even more so by state and military institutions and international corporations – her project demonstrates the benefits of “slow recognition”. As she slowed down for an artistic exploration of this collection, Kapajeva also made this a part of her own homecoming, as she has lived abroad for years, just like the photos she is exploring.

Gradual identification of the photographers and the people portrayed by them reveals new perspectives on Estonian (micro-)history, which gain new meaning in the context of the permanent exhibition focusing on “landscapes of identity”. By focussing on the faces of the photographed people, their stories and some other forgotten facts which she learned from these images, Kapajeva shows her appreciation for each person and every individual story in our history.

Exhibition design: LLRRLLRR – Laura Linsi, Karolin Kull
Graphic designer: Maria Muuk
Exhibition coordinator: Magdaleena Maasik
Exhibition technician: Andres Amos
Artist’s research assistant: Ketlin Käpp
With contribution in kind by Linda Kaljundi, Annika Toots and Karmen-Eliise Kiidron

Special thanks to Liisa Kaljula, Merilis Roosalu (Tallinn City Museum – Museum of Photography), Aado Luik, Janeli Suits, Piret Karro, Lembi Anepaio, Aljona Kapajeva and the Sokk family.