EKA Museum “Clothed and Nude. 110 Years of Figure Study at the Estonian Academy of Arts” at EKA Gallery 19.10.–29.11.2024

EKA Museum exhibition “Clothed and Nude. 110 Years of Figure Study at the Estonian Academy of Arts”
19.10.–29.11.2024
Open Tue–Sun 12–6pm, free entry
Opening: 18.10.2024 at 5pm

In celebration of the 110th anniversary of the Estonian Academy of Arts, a significant retrospective exhibition has been organised, highlighting a theme that resonates with all who have studied here or are currently students. The depiction of the human figure – through drawing, painting and modelling from live models – has always been a cornerstone of art education, and the Estonian Academy of Arts, along with its predecessors, exemplifies this tradition.

The exhibition of the EKA Museum, titled “Clothed and Nude. 110 Years of Figure Study at the Estonian Academy of Arts”, showcases works created in the school’s studios and stored in its archives. This collection includes standing, sitting and reclining nudes, clothed models and figure groups, as well as drawings of hands and feet and other anatomical details. The selection highlights the diverse and varied ways in which the human figure can be depicted, emphasising different approaches and techniques. Academically polished images with intricate backgrounds are presented alongside monumental human representations that challenged the traditional canons at the turn of the millennium. The exhibition features both black-and-white and colour works, where classifying them as drawings or paintings based on technique or medium is no longer significant in this context.

The exhibition primarily draws from the EKA Museum’s collection, although only a small fraction of the works accumulated over the decades could be included. To represent the early decades of the school’s history, additional pieces were sourced from the Art Museum of Estonia and private collections. Figure study has also been a central theme in sculpture. However, since the original collection of the sculpture department has been lost, curatorial efforts were necessary to locate works representing three-dimensional art. Despite being in the minority, sculpture is still represented in the exhibition. Additional works were requested from artists engaged in figure study during the early 21st century to cover the period between the conclusion of the methodological collection of works at the turn of the century and the establishment of the EKA Museum in 2019. As figure drawing has been an integral part of the curriculum across all disciplines at the academy, the selection process aimed to reflect this diversity.

The exhibition features 138 artists showcasing a total of 187 works. The chance to glimpse into the formative years of well-known artists and designers is undoubtedly intriguing, while the masterpieces of lesser-known or unknown creators offer their own delightful surprises. The arrangement of the exhibit enhances this excitement by juxtaposing works not along a traditional chronological timeline, but instead focusing on the harmony and interplay between the pieces.

The artists participating in the exhibition:

Eero Alev, Jüri Arrak, Raivo Behrsin, Britta Benno, Teddy Böckler, Rem Dementjev, Olga Dubrovskaja, Herald Eelma, Jaan Elken, Herlet Elvisto, Merike Estna, Margarita Feofanova, Nikolai Guli, Heikki Halla, Gerda Hansen, Inga Heamägi, Hugo Hiibus, Aleksander Igonin, Ants Jaanimägi, Andrus Johani, Aivar Juhanson, Iris Jurma-Kangur, Sandra Jõgeva, Pille Jänes, Villu Järmut, Heli Jürissaar (Kase), Jüri Kaarma, Katrin Kaev, Catlin Kaljuste, Maria Kallau, Anu Kalm (Anderson), Elin Kard, Gleb Karlsen, Saskia Kasemaa, Alice Kask, Eve Kask, Jüri Kask, Maret Kernumees, Ando Keskküla, Kaalu Kirme, Tiiu Kirsipuu, Raoul Koik, Epp Maria Kokamägi, Ellen Kolk, Luule Kormašova, Nikolai Kormašov, Orest Kormašov, Aimar Kristerson, Mart Krull, Epp Kubu, Viive Kuks, Leili Kuldkepp, Laura Kõiv, Andrus Kõresaar, Tõnis Kärema, Annika Künnap, Allex Kütt, Vello Laanemaa, Heldur Lassi, Pille-Riin Lass, Tõnu Lauk, Emil Lausmäe, Malle Leis, Tea Lemberpuu, Ly Lestberg, Mihkel Liinat, Silvi Liiva, Bruno Lillemets, Ivika Luisk (Kivik-Luisk), Anu Maarand, Aet Maasik, Viktor Madison, Ülle Marks, Vladimir Matiiko, Aarne Mesikäpp, Rein Mets, Gregorio Migliaccio, Peeter Mudist, Maarit Murka, Tõnu Mäsak, Arseni Mölder, Reigo Nahksepp, Mall Nukke, Liisa Nurklik, Lydia Nüüd, Evald Okas, Kaido Ole, Jaan Paris, Ede Peebo, Imbi Ploompuu (Karu), Urmas Ploomipuu, Mari Prekup, Mark Antonius Puhkan, Aapo Pukk, Kaie Pungas, Brenda Purtsak, Laura Põld, Matti Pärk, Katrin Pärt, Liisi Pääsuke, Tiit Pääsuke, Tiit Rammul, Tiina Reinsalu, Uno Roosvalt, Eesi Rosenberg, Peeter Rudaš, Sirje Runge (Lapin), Tõnis Saadoja, Hugo Sepp, Kati Simpson, Piret Smagar, Jaak Soans, Tõnu Soo, Aleksander Suuman, Silja Šergalin, Juri Šestakov, Vladimir Taiger, Mari-Liis Tammi-Kelder, Endel Taniloo, Anne Tapper, Olga Terri, Evi Tihemets, Tiina Tiitus, Ilmar Torn, Margus Tõnnov, Maria-Kristiina Ulas, Peeter Ulas, Anne Vaher, Katrin Vaher, Valentin Vaher, Silver Vahtre, Mall Valk (Sooster), Janika Vesberg, Heldur Viires, Hanna Vinter, Ekke Väli, Eduard Wiiralt, Elisa Margot Winters

Curated by: Reeli Kõiv
Exhibition design and co-curation by: Britta Benno
Graphic design by: Pärtel Eelmere
Assistant:Anna Birgitta Erikson

The exhibition is accompanied by an eponymous catalogue featuring large reproductions of all the displayed works. In addition to a historical overview relevant to the theme, the book is enriched with interviews from drawing instructors Tiit Pääsuke, Matti Pärk, Maiu Rõõmus, Maria-Kristiina Ulas, Ülle Marks and Tõnis Saadoja, discussing the significance and meanings of learning to depict the human figure. These interviews are complemented by an essayistic reflection on figure drawing at the academy by printmaker and drawing instructor Britta Benno. Additionally, recollections of their student years from Peeter Ulas and Herald Eelma, gathered by Jüri Hain, are also republished.

The catalogue is authored and compiled by Reeli Kõiv, the head of the EKA Museum, and includes a foreword by Rector Mart Kalm.

The publication is a bilingual edition that combines both Estonian and English in a single volume, with language editing by Elo Rohult and translation by Epp Aareleid. The 288-page catalogue was designed by Stuudio Stuudio and printed at Tallinn Book Printers.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Sadolin Estonia.
Opening drinks from Põhjala Brewery.

On 4 November at 15:00 Ulvi Haagensen will defend her thesis “In the In-Between: Explorations into the Line Between Art and Everyday Life as Seen Through the Eyes of a Practising Visual Artist” (“Vahepealsuses. Uurimusi kunsti ja igapäevaelu vahelisest joonest visuaalkunstniku silmade läbi”).

The public defence will be held in EKA (Põhja pst 7), room A501. The defence will be broadcast on EKA TV.
The defence is in English.

Supervisors: Dr. Liina Unt (University of Tartu), Dr. Jan Guy (University of Sydney)

External reviewers: Prof. Mika Elo (University of the Arts Helsinki), Dr. Rolf Hughes (EIT Culture & Creativity)

Opponent: Prof. Mika Elo

The field of contemporary art with its avant-garde legacy often meets, overlaps and clashes with ordinary everyday life, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. For an artist working within this field the relationship between art and life can be particularly intriguing; sometimes it’s puzzling, and at other times it can be difficult to distinguish one from the other, to know when something is or isn’t art, and is or isn’t life.

In the In-Between: Explorations into the Line Between Art and Everyday Life as Seen Through the Eyes of a Practising Visual Artist asks what new approaches, methods, techniques it can reveal and what alternative ways of thinking and looking it can contribute to help make sense of the enigmatic relationship between art and life.

The thesis speaks from within an art practice and in close proximity to artistic processes. It incorporates embodied and multisensory experiences, as well as humour and a playful approach that includes informal conversations between three imaginary friends – Thea Koristaja, Olive Puuvill and Artist Researcher. Their contributions allow for shifts in perspective and reveal the various ways that art and everyday life meet and collide as an artist prepares for, makes and installs and then reflects upon the three main exhibitions that form the basis of the thesis, and also in connection to cleaning performances (undertaken mainly by Thea Koristaja), other exhibitions and everyday life.

One of the aims, unfolding through the course of the research, is to reconcile art, art-making, the everyday, and research. The three imaginary friends play a key role in helping to achieve this, as do the ‘tactics of in-betweenness’ and the notion of the bricoleuse, someone who invents, improvises and makes do. Together they help reveal the ideas of ‘blurring’, ‘making strange’, ‘equalising’ and ‘destabilising’, together with ‘object-generated thinking’ as new approaches, methods and concepts that can transform, make sense of and reconcile art with everyday life.

The thesis is available HERE.

Defence Committee: Dr. Jaana Päeva, Dr. Anu Allas, Prof. Kirke Kangro, Dr. Kristi Kuusk, Prof. Indrek Ibrus, Dr. Varvara Guljajeva

Exhibition of the Department of Accessory and Bookbinding
of Estonian Academy of Arts

“Captivating bind” at EKA Library
05.10 – 05.12.2024

Satellite of the 9th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial “The Fine Lines of Constructiveness” Tallinn Applied Art Triennial.

The artist’s books of seven students of the accessories and bookbindings department are completed during the studies. These are stories from the chain of memories of the authors formed into bindings.
When starting the course, the goal was to reach deeper than a mere cosmetic level in binding. As soon as the initial beauty methods no longer worked, the students were forced to look into the book as if into a mirror. Who reflects back from there? We tried to find ways to tell stories through binding, and how to bind the reader. We looked at bookbinding as a bridge between the reader and what is being read, which wordlessly mediates thoughts.

–Urmas Lüüs

Participants in the exhibition:

Anna Abrosimova, Hanna Eliise Lahe, Meeli Kombe, Julia Korovina, Helina Raud and Jürgen Sinnep.

Tutors: Urmas Lüüs and Eve Kaaret 

«In 1972 there was still grass…»: Design Activism at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment by Kjetil Fallan

Design historian Kjetil Fallan will give a lecture ““In 1972 there was still grass…”: Design Activism at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment” on Thursday, 17 October at 16:00 in room A101. 

Kjetil Fallan’s talk will explore design interventions at, and in the wake of, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972. What can design activism tell us about the conference’s influence on future political decision-making? Or about the development of environmental thinking and ecologically informed design ideology in Scandinavia? 

The Design Open Lecture series 2024 is part of Sandra Nuut and Ruth-Helene Melioranski‘s Design Issues course. It is public and open to all; however, the seminar following the lecture will be held for the course students.

Kjetil Fallan is a Professor of Design History at the University of Oslo, where he currently leads the project Designing with/out Extractive Materials (deXmat), funded by the Research Council of Norway. His most recent books are Ecological by Design: A History from Scandinavia (MIT Press, 2022); Nordic Design Cultures in Transformation, 1960-1980: Revolt and Resilience (Routledge, 2023) (Co-edited with Christina Zetterlund and Anders V. Munch); and The Culture of Nature in the History of Design (Routledge, 2019). Fallan also serves as editor of the Journal of Design History.

On 11 October 11.30-13.00, the public review of the first creative project of Merike Rehepapp doctoral thesis “Educational design, why and how” will take place in EKA, room A202. The event is in Estonian.

The focus of the thesis is to find the reasons and ways to implement design in educational practice, through a design process and methodology created for this purpose. The practical part of the creative research has been carried out with a variety of collaborators over the last three years.
In her first creative project, Merike seeks to answer the question: what function do educational design process and methodology play in the educational landscape? What does it evoke, both visible and hidden? What kind of work does it actually do?

Supervisor: Dr. Anu Sarv, University of Tartu
Reviewers:
Dr. Kaire Uiboleht, University of Tartu
Martin Pärn, EKA and TalTech

Thanks are due to:
The supervisor and curriculum leaders for their patience and the reviewers for their willingness to contribute. A humble bow goes to Helen Arov, my faithful work partner, and my family support staff.

Rahul Sharma is currently working as a junior-researcher doctoral student in the Department of Art History and Visual Culture at Estonian Academy of Arts. His research is focused on identities in film, migration as well as gallery films. The seminar is a presentation of certain key aspects derived from his upcoming book titled The Phantasmagorical and Ethnographic World of Amit Dutta.

Amit Dutta (b. 1977) is one of the most significant contemporary practitioners of avant-garde Indian cinema. Over the course of his oeuvre, he has created a large body of cinematic works, which number over sixty. With an inherent non-narrative structure, Several of Dutta’s films arguably fall under the category of gallery films and post-cinema. This seminar will begin by looking at the concepts of post-cinema and what has been broadly described as “gallery films” (Fowler, 2004), “new cinematic aesthetic in video” (Iles, 2003) or “cinema of the exhibition” (Royoux, 2000). In particular, it will analyse how Dutta’s cinematic works re-define the contemporary gallery space through his practices. His films such as Chitrashala (2015) and A Game of Shifting Mirrors (2021) look at gallery spaces in different ways. While Chitrashala lingers onto a spectatorless gallery space only to then let loose its depiction of pahari miniatures with animated techniques, Games of Shifting Mirrors (2021) questions the role of the gallery and brings to light the displacement of art over the time-space continuum. The seminar will also briefly discuss his four part 240-minute art-installation cum cinema project Finished/Unfinished (2015). The work circumambulates around the 8th century Shaivite Masrur complex located in Kangra Valley, Himachal Pradesh, much like an old Buddhist monk lost in a religious trance. The work lets the viewers engage in a thorough 360-degree survey of the complex: part-by-part, following each detail as it circumambulates the temple from the forest paths and roads up until the sacred womb.
Dutta’s film Nainsukh (2010), which was named as the Top 30 best-biopics ever made by the New Yorker, will also be a key focal point of the discussion, in how it enlivened recreations of miniature pahari paintings, endemic to the region of Himachal Pradesh in India. Dutta’s employment of the tableaux-vivant style as well as painterly approaches to cinematic techniques will be discussed.
The seminar will look at certain aspects of the aforementioned works in close detail.
Several of Dutta’s films are available online through paid-Vimeo services, while Nainsukh can be viewed for free on Museum Rietberg’s website.

14th October at 17:30 in the room A-501 Klara Kemp-Welch will give an open lecture Free Movement? Tracking Migration and Mobility in Eastern Europe since the early 2000s

Klara Kemp-Welch is Reader in 20th Century Modernism at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. She works on modern and contemporary art from Eastern Europe. She was educated at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies and University College London and is the author of Antipolitics in Central European Art. Reticence as Dissidence under Post-Totalitarian Rule 1956-1989 (IB Tauris, 2014), Networking the Bloc. Experimental Art in Eastern Europe 1965-1981 (MIT Press, 2019) and co-editor of A Reader in East-Central European Modernism 1918-1956 with Beata Hock and Jonathan Owen (Courtauld Books Online, 2019). She is currently completing a monograph entitled “Free Movement? Documenting Migration and Mobility in Eastern Europe”.

This lecture introduces her current research project, “Free Movement?”, which is structured around three core themes: labour mobility, displacement, and border politics. With reference to a selection of lens-based case studies, I examine how contemporary artists have represented Eastern European experiences of migration and mobility since the early 2000s.

Lecture will be held in cooperation of Institute of Art History and Visual Culture and  Estonian Doctoral School for Humanities and Arts

Project “Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies” (2021-2027.4.04.24-0003) is co-funded by the European Union.

There is a lunchtime opening this Saturday at Vent Space, 05. October 13.30 – 15.30. The exhibition will then be open until 13.10 – by appointment, DM @ventspace.project on instagram or email yvette.bathgate@artun.ee to meet at the space.

“Transmissions” by Caitlyn Holly Main

Caitlyn Holly Main is an interdisplinary artist, working with and between text, drawing, moving image, sculptural artefact and printmaking. She is concerned with care and intimacy, notions of emotional labour, consumption and desire. Her recent work is focused around modes of communication – the physical embodiment or remnants of connection.

Expect things like… Mating dances & traffic signals. A medium translating words and sentences and histories from a distant spirit and a Whatsapp message that reads ‘omg NO way!!!!’. A post-it with a lopsided smiling face, echolocations, an act of transcribing, and a sign held above a head during a protest. An enthusiastic gesture, my friends hands point and turn and twist, & the movements punctuate the story that they’re telling me.
Morse code, smoke signals, a phone number written on a napkin with a lipstick kiss. People like echos because they want to hear a familiar voice rippling back to them from the void or the cavern or the tunnel. A lighthouse, a radio antenna, first words and ironic slogan t-shirts. Clicking fingers, waving through the window of a moving vehicle. A kiss blown, a salute, a postcard pinned to the fridge.

Vent Space project space

6/8 Vabaduse Square, Tallinn

Vent Space is an experimental project space of EKA, which offers EKA students a public exhibition space and collaboration opportunities. Many students have had their first solo exhibition at Vent Space, as well as numerous group exhibitions, discussion groups, workshops, concerts and other events.
The international team brings together different disciplines, media, practices and skills, encouraging collaboration, spontaneity, courage and experimentation. 

FB:

https://www.facebook.com/ventspace.project

The exhibition “What happened to all the water in Venus” by Iohan Figueroa, opens at Uus Rada Gallerii (Raja 11a) At 17:00 Hrs
on 05.10.2024, The exhibition will remain open from Wednesdays to Saturdays,
from 13:00 to 19:00 until 19.10.2024

Liquid ideas that disappear fast,
slipping through the gaps of gaze,
almost impossible to grasp,
escaping in between my hands like drops of rain on a surface of glass.
They come and go, leaving behind a sensation —evaporating—
as if my mind has been drenched in something vast and unknowable.
Fluids dripping, never landing, never settling into a form,
always in motion, elusive, impossible to hold on.
The reflection reveals a distorted image, a dissolving glimpse,

reality is a blur, the lines between what is real and imagined
Always fade into a haze.
I stand in the unseen room of this and that but never fully one or the other, never
complete, never completely understood.
Nothing is solid. Everything is in constant change, a perpetual state of circularity.
Moments loop back on themselves, thoughts spiral – I lose track of beginnings and
ends.
I choose the softness of being, I am fluid, like the ideas slipping through my fingers,
like the water that shapes itself to whatever it finds.
What would be left if everything were fixed,
if every thought, every feeling, were permanent?

Iohan Figueroa 1989
Oaxaca, Mexico

Iohan Figueroa is a multidisciplinary artist from Oaxaca, Mexico, they seamlessly integrate sculpture, movement, and environmental elements into their practice. Drawing inspiration from the natural world and its wildlife, they explore the profound connections and interactions between nature and humanity. Utilizing tactile memories as a creative conduit, Figueroa translates these sensory experiences into tangible materials, viewing the body as both canvas and instrument for artistic expression. Their work reflects a deep engagement with the environment, capturing the essence of nature and its relationship with the world at large. Their research focuses on socio-spatial relations, recognizing the ephemeral nature of movement and seeking to preserve it through various means. This exploration reflects a profound understanding of the dynamic interplay between the body, space, gender and society.

Text: Iohan Figueroa, Keithy Kuuspu
Advisor: Keithy Kuuspu
Graphic Design: Seppe-Hazel Laeremans
Exhibitions is supported by: Eka Craft Studies