GSCSA course “Time in art and art historiography”

Lecturer: Dan Karlholm, Professor of Art History, Department of Culture and Education, Södertörn University, Sweden
Dates: 22.–25. November 2021, 16.00-19.00
Level: PhD students

Please register  HERE
Registration deadline November 10

Abstract
This graduate course centers around the notions of time and temporality, which were always implicit in a historical discipline like art history, institutionalized in the nineteenth century. In the last couple of decades, however, the issue of time as something that not only grounds art history and many other human sciences has been found to complicate and challenge the normative chronologic of (art) history. The first theme of the course is Time and History, where different notions of time are addressed, and how these compare with or complicate the practice of history/historiography, which only came about with the so-called time revolution inaugurated on the basis of fossil finds disrupting the biblical creation narrative around 1800. Secondly, Chronology, Heterochrony and Anachrony will focus on the determining role of chronology in art history, and how this common-sensical structure has been challenged by other concepts and perspectives, which potentially impact the status we accord artworks. A third theme deals specifically with the complex of Contemporaneity [and contemporaneousness] and Presentism, which has been a problem of representation, power and definition related to various attempts at overcoming both modernism and postmodernism in art. The alluring idea of presentism, according to which the present seems to be expanding, absorbing the past as well as the future, is discussed. The final theme, arguably the biggest temporal conundrum in the history (and pre-history) of mankind, is The Anthropocene: Earth History and World History. Although not directly, only indirectly, relevant to art and art history, this perspective dwarfs many of our habitual quibbles on periodization, dating and attribution, but may also help us deal with the past that presently returns as our future. Throughout the course, we will discuss these themes in relation to our empirical materials of art and art history (and you are encouraged to bring your own examples to the table) as well as reflect upon how our discipline is to cope with all these temporal inflections and demands for what could perhaps be termed a post-anthropocentric and pro-geocentric art historiography.

Literature:
1. Thomas Da Costa Kaufmann, “Periodization and its Discontents”, Journal of Art Historiography, no. 2, June 2010, 1-6. Reinhart Koselleck, “Time and History”, in The Practice of Conceptual History: Timing History, Spacing Concepts, Stanford, 2002, 100-114. Daniela Bleichmar and Vanessa R. Schwartz, “Visual History: The Past in Pictures”, Representations 145, Winter 2019, 1-31.
2. Karlholm, “Is History to be Closed, Saved or Restarted? Considering Efficient Art History”; Keith Moxey, “What Time is it in the History of Art?”, Mary Roberts, “Artists, Amateurs, and the Pleated Time of Modernity”, from Time in the History of Art: Temporalty, Chronology, Anachrony, eds. Karlholm and Moxey, Routledge, 2018, 13-42, 79-100.
3. Georges Didi-Huberman, “Before the Image, Before Time: The Sovereignty of Anachronism”, in Compelling Visuality: The Work of Art in and out of History, eds. Claire Farago and Robert Zwijnenberg, Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2003, 31-44. Karlholm, “After Contemporary Art: Actualization and Anachrony”, The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, no. 51 2016, 35-54. Chris Lorenz, “Out of Time? Some Critical Reflections on Francois Hartog’s Presentism”, Rethinking Historical Time: New Approaches to Presentism, eds. Marek Tamm and Laurent Olivier, Bloomsbury, 2019, 23-42.
4. Dipesh Chakrabarty, “Anthropocene Time”, History and Theory 57, no. 1 (March 2018), 5-32. Edward S. Casey, “Mapping the Earth in Works of Art”, in Rethinking Nature: Essays in Environmental Philosophy, eds. Bruce V. Foltz and Robert Frodeman, Indiana U.P., 2004, 260-269.

The course is supported by the ASTRA project of the Estonian Academy of Arts – EKA LOOVKÄRG (European Union, European Regional Development Fund).

The group exhibition “Pinefulness” will be opened in the City Gallery on September 30, with the participation of Eike Eplik (MA, EKA Sculpture and Installation), the legendary Olimar Kallas, Reet Kasesalu, Jan Lütjohann, EKA graphics alumna Mall Nukke and EKA photography alumni Hanna Samoson and Johannes Säre. The curator is Siim Preiman, an alumnus of the Institute of Art History of EKA.

The exhibition deals with Estonians’ relationship with the environment and is an attempt to raise awareness of the impact of today’s actions on the future of dreams through bitter humor and affordable gestures.

The exhibition is part of Tallinn Art Hall’s ongoing exhibition series, which pays special attention both to the possibility of being good and to ecological responsibility in conditions of certain destruction. The series is an institutional attempt to find an ethically suitable platform for dealing with burning issues. Therefore, we have excluded all single-use materials from the standard ‘toolkit’ of a contemporary art exhibition, using as few materials as possible – and only things found on site.

A curatorial tour with Siim Preiman will take place on October 2 at 12pm. The exhibition will remain open until 28 November.

Pine-fulness is part of the series of events organised by Goethe-Institut, entitled World Wild Wald. 

Tallinn City Gallery (Harju 13) is open from Wednesday to Sunday 11–6 pm, free entry.

Estonian Academy of Arts
Graphic Design Department presents

Åbäke
ENTER FATIMA, or what happened at Tel Aviv Airport when the custom officer scanned my luggage and saw body parts

Wednesday, 29 September, 7om
Narva Art Residency (NART)
Joala 18, Narva, Estonia
or online at tv.artun.ee

The Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of EKA will bring a number of exciting architects and urban planners, both theoreticians and practitioners from all over the world, to the Open Lectures series in Tallinn this autumn. This semester lecture series will be opened by Erika Henriksson, who will take the stage in the hall of EAA on Thursday, September 30 at 6 pm with a lecture “Architherapy”.

The lecture will be broadcast on EKA TV and it can be watched later together with all previous lectures on the website www.avatudloengud.ee.

Guests of EAA are asked to follow all Covid safety rules and be prepared to prove their infection safety. There is no on-site testing.

Erika Henriksson is a building architect and practice-based researcher working in an intersection between architecture, craft and art.

Her field is altering practices of architecture and reoccurring themes in her work are social and material relations, ethics of care and ways to spatially engage with speculations of life itself.

During the lecture Erika will be presenting the practice and concept of Architherapy which been given form through a four year long explorative and performative process of transforming an old and abandoned building standing next to a rehabilitation clinic in a small rural locality called Järvsö in Sweden

At the moment Erika is finalising her practice based PhD-thesis, Performing Architherapy – About crafting a building practice for caring relations and working on a site-specific spatial installation in the forest of Rena, Norway

The Faculty of Architecture of the Estonian Academy of Arts has curated the Open Lectures on Architecture series since 2012 – each year, a dozen architects, urbanists, both practicing as well as academics, introduce their work and field of research to the audience in Tallinn.

All lectures are in English and free

https://www.erikahenriksson.com

Curators: Sille Pihlak, Johan Tali

The lecture takes place in cooperation with the Estonian Museum of Architecture and is part of the Future Architecture platform 2021. Future Architecture is the first pan-European platform of architecture museums, festivals and producers, bringing ideas on the future of cities and architecture closer to the wider public.

Funded by European Union Creative Europe Programme.

The series is funded by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.

Flows into Being. Eighth Estonian Small-Scale Sculpture Exhibition and the Annual Exhibition of the Estonian Sculptors’ Union in Gallery Pallas.

22.09.2021 – 23.10.2021

On Wednesday, 22 September at 5 p.m. the Eighth Estonian Small-Scale Sculpture Exhibition will be opened in the Gallery Pallas alongside the Annual Exhibition of the Estonian Sculptors’ Union. 

Among participating artists there are many of EKA’s alumni, current tutors and artists. 

Participating artists: Luisa Harjak, Reelika Harlatšov, Elize Hiiop, Kadri Jäätma, Kristiina Jakimenko, Juhan Jõers, Elle Kannike, Kersti Karu, Kati Kerstna, Tiiu Kirsipuu, Ellen Kolk, Georg Kotter, Heiti Kulmar, Leena Kuutma, Ingrid Allik, Olger Lehtsaar, Elo Liiv, Karmen Machachor, Maarit Mälgi, Paul Mänd, Mari Männa, Eneken Maripuu, Piret Meos (Uibotalu), Mare Mikoff, Meiu Münt, Iris Müntel, Ann Nurga, Jüri Ojaver, Terje Ojaver, Tamar Paal, Tõnis Paberit, Hille Palm, Per William Petersen, Rait Prääts, Kaie Pungas, Silver Rannak, Hristina Rinasci, Elise Rohtaas, Ingmar Roomets, Anne Rudanovski, Kärt Seppel, Ahti Seppet, Uku Sepsivart, Gea Sibola Hansen, Kerttu Siplane, Tõnu Smidt, Hannes Starkopf, Mari-Liis Tammi, Nele Tiidelepp, Silja Truus, Andras Tukmann, Ines Villido, Ivan Zubaka.

The tradition of these open call group exhibitions was founded by the long-time sculpture collection registrar at the Tartu Art Museum Ahti Seppet in 1986. Therefore, the present edition also marks the 35th anniversary of the series.

Small-scale works from 53 authors with the longest side being no longer than 60 centimetres were selected through the application process. In addition to numerous works in classical materials like ceramics and bronze, the exhibition also includes various installations. Participants include both art students and professional authors at the height of their careers.

The theme of the exhibition invited the artists to seek for the “flow” in their creative process. This allowed the authors to explore ideas and motifs that they found individually most intriguing, joining them to theme through their creative process.

The “flow” as a phenomenon was defined by the Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It is a playful and enjoyable process that is free of criticism and can be accompanied by a loss of sense of time and a complete captivation by the joy of creation. Since most people encounter this to different extents in their everyday lives, this state is not limited to artists and musicians, but it is something shared by all humans. Therefore, instead of having a single motif as a theme, the aim of the exhibition is to consciously achieve “flow” during creation and to explore which tendencies and phenomena arise. The focus is on the process and the best result is determined by individual characteristics of the creator. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication about the history of the exhibition series containing an article by Ahti Seppet. The audience programme consists of a curatorial tour, a workshop and a discussion about the creative process.

Audience programme:
29.09.2021, 4pm–6pm Workshop “Creative assemblage from mass produced toys” (register at heiti.kulmar@gmail.com, 58581678)

6.10.2021, 5pm Curatorial tour

13.10.2021, 5pm–5.30pm Discussion group “Flow in creation”

We thank the Sculpture Department of the Pallas University of Applied Sciences and its head, Anne Rudanovski, sculptor Ahti Seppet, Estonian Sculptors’ Union, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Pallas University of Applied Sciences
Curator: Heiti Kulmar

Graphic design: Tnxalatte Design Collective

Exhibition team: Richard Adang, Anne Rudanovski, Ahti Seppet, Peeter Talvistu, Anti Saar, Reet-Pulk Piatkowska, Sculpture Department of the Pallas University of Applied Sciences.

For more info:
Heiti Kulmar
+372  58581678
heiti.kulmar@gmail.com

Galerii Pallas
Tue-Sat 11am–6pm
Riia 11, Tartu

Together with our Transform4Europe Alliance partner universities, we are celebrating the 20th European Day of Languages. An online event will take place on Friday, September 24, during which you can learn more about Bulgarian, Catalan, Estonian, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish or Spanish.

EKA will be represented at the event by Matthias Jost, lecturer at the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture, and Nesli Hazal Akbulut, guest lecturer at the Interaction Design Department. Their presentations will take place between 10.30 and 11.30.

Jost is from Germany, but he has lived in Estonia for 21 years. He speaks, thinks and translates in Estonian. Sometimes he gives lectures and seminars in Estonian.

Akbulut moved to Estonia four years ago. For her, some dotted and dashed letters, which usually are hard to pronounce for foreigners, are for her really easy, because also in Turkish they use Õ an Ü.

In addition, the event will be attended by speakers from international companies who will share personal experiences of intercultural and multilingual communication, its challenges and good practices.

Registration is required to participate. You can register until September 22 (inclusive).

Click here for more information and registration.

Join us for the opening of “Glass Struggle”, a solo exhibition by Sten Eltermaa on September 28, at 5.30 PM at EKA Gallery! 

Glass Struggle is an ongoing artistic research project based on glass as material, paradoxically fragile and extremely resilient at the same time. Glass is used in high-security buildings, and even the Pope drives around in a vehicle protected by bulletproof glass. The semantic field of glass plays an increasingly pervasive role: these days, we are all transparent, constantly looking at our own reflections on our screens, while having virtually no access to our own delicate data, which in many ways is used to control and even enslave us.

In the context of institutions and corporations we can also talk about glass as a symbol of democracy – a reference to open and equal dialogue between the people and those in power. Likewise, it refers to corporate totalitarianism and divergence of social strata. Glass Struggle is based on the semiosis of the viewer and the seen. 

The exhibition is accompanied by the online publication www.struggle.glass, which is also seen as part of one of the sculptures (“A Satellite Deviated from the Orbit”, in collaboration with Maria Lee).

Texts: Maria Lee, Sten Eltermaa

Exhibition design: Arvi Anderson, Sten Eltermaa

Graphic design: Maria Muuk

Website: Maria Muuk, Patrick Zavadskis

Translation: Madis Kuuse (ENG), Olesja Semenkova (RUS)

Thanks: Maria Lee, Arvi Anderson, Krista Loorits, Lauri Eltermaa, Sten-Erik Toos, Tõnis Vassar, Urmo Mets, Madli Ehasalu, Roman-Sten Tõnissoo, Pire Sova & EKA gallery, b210 architects, Kauss Architecture, KUU architects, Kolm Koma Architects, Ilmamaa Publishing House

Special thanks: Karmo Migur, Maria Muuk, Kadi Meriluht, Mary Magdalene

Supporters: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, MEISTRI, Salibar, Klaasissepa, joogipood.ee, nanoPruul, ÕIE, 3DLaser

The exhibition is part of the satellite programme of the Tallinn Photomonth contemporary art biennial.

EKA Textile Department presents:
‘Folding as a Language of Design’

Paul Jackson’s ZOOM lecture on THIS LINK

The presentation will describe how folding is used by designers and how it can play an important role in our sustainable future.

“All designers fold. That is, all designers fold, crease, bend, pleat, wrinkle, drape, twist and knot flat, 2-D materials to create 3-D forms. This process of transformation from 2-D to 3-D is one of the most fundamental and common languages of design, yet it is also one of the least understood.” P.J.

Paul Jackson has been a professional paper artist, designer writer and educator for almost 40-years.  He has been a folding consultant for Nike, Disney, Tetra Pak and many other companies, taught folding as a language of design in 80 Schools of Design in 11 countries, written more than 40 books and exhibited his artworks worldwide.  He says, ‘It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.’

Exhibition in the showcase of EKA Library. 

The artists’ book “How to shoplift books” by David Horvitz is a guide on how to steal books. It details 80 ways one can steal a book, from the very practical to the witty, imaginative, and romantic.

This project by David Horvitz with Edition Taube is an ongoing translation and publishing work that started in 2013. For each language, they collaborate with a publisher from the corresponding language region. The latest book in the series, the Estonian translation, was published with Lugemik Publishing, translated by Keiu Krikmann and edited by Indrek Sirkel.

All the translations published so far are on display in the showcase of the Library of the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese, Greek, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, Lithuanian, Danish, Korean, Georgian, Hebrew, Romanian, Swiss-German, Russian, Japanese, Turkish, Serbian Cyrillic, Serbian Latin, Hungarian, Icelandic, Swedish, and Estonian.

David Horvitz (b 1982) is an American artist based in Los Angeles who uses art books, photography, performance art, and mail art as mediums for his work.

The exhibition is organised by Indrek Sirkel, the Professor of Graphic Design of the Estonian Academy of Arts and the head of Lugemik Publishing. With thanks to David Horvitz, Jan Steinbach, and Mait Väljas for their kind support.

Happy reading, happy shoplifting!

More information about the book.