Open lecture: Kate Brown (MIT) “The Self-Provisioning City: Urban gardening in Europe and North-America”

Open lecture of the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture of the Estonian Academy of Arts, in cooperation with and the Estonian Centre for Environmental History at Tallinn University on September 17 at 4pm.

Five-thousand Parisian farmers grew vegetables for two million Parisians at the turn of the nineteenth century. Black residents of Washington, DC paid down on their homes during the Great Depression by maintaining gardens on their urban lots. Soviet and Cuban urbanites staved off a famine in the 1990s after the collapse of Soviet agriculture by farming urban peripheries. These stories have been missed in plain sight because they do not coincide with ideas of urban progress and neat categorizations dividing urban from rural. Recapturing these stories points to the efficacy of small-holder intensive farming in urban areas which produce a wealth of waste than can be recycled into nutrients. These stories also point to a history of urban commons and mutual aid societies that undermine triumphal or inevitable histories of capitalism.

Kate Brown is a Professor in History of Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose research interests illuminate the point where history, science, technology, and bio-politics converge to create large-scale disasters and modernist wastelands. She is the author of several prize-winning books, including Plutopia: Nuclear Families in Atomic Cities and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters (2013), and Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future (2019). Her studies on Chernobyl point to the lasting impact of the nuclear catastrophe, but also to the role of local specialists and communities in coming to terms with its effects, as also explained in this interview. In the framework of her new project on urban gardening Kate Brown does fieldwork also in Estonia. She also discusses the reasons why we should recapture the stories of urban gardening in the article Resurrecting the Soil.

More information: https://sts-program.mit.edu/people/sts-faculty/kate-brown/

The language of the lecture is English.

The lecture is organised in co-operation between the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture of the Estonian Academy of Arts, the Estonian Centre for Environmental History at Tallinn University and the Centre of Excellence for Intercultural Studies at Tallinn University. Kate Brown is the visiting leading researcher at the Centre of Excellence for Intercultural Studies at Tallinn University, funded by the EU Regional Development Funds in the framework of Tallinn University’s ASTRA project (activity A7).

Amongst the many well-known international photo artists at Art Fair Foto Tallinn, organized by the EKA photography department born Estonian Photographic Artists’ Association and the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center, EKA Young Artist Prize winner Sten Eltermaa, EKA photography alumni Sigrid Viir, Paul Kuimet, Kristina Õllek, Krista Mölder and Cloe Jancis are exhibiting.

Art fair Foto Tallinn 2021 takes place from September 2nd to 5th at Kai Art Center. The fair is  dedicated to introducing a wide range of contemporary photography, and its 10th edition will feature the latest works by 37 Estonian and international participants. The fair welcomes artists and galleries from 12 different countries across the world. 

As the opening event of the 6th Tallinn Photomonth Biennial, Foto Tallinn offers exhibiting artists, galleries and project spaces an opportunity to introduce their works to a diverse audience and grow their network of professional contacts.

Foto Tallinn’s diverse programme includes book launches, artist talks, panel discussions, webinars, and curated tours of the fair. The program can be found here. The list of artists, gallerists and project spaces taking part in the fair can be found here.

Foto Tallinn is open Thursday to Saturday from 11am to 8pm and Sunday from 11am to 6pm. The fair tickets are available on-site or can be bought in advance here.

Foto Tallinn 2021 is curated by Isabella van Marle: “At Foto Tallinn 2021 we will present work by galleries and many emerging artists with different backgrounds, and practices. Participating artists are adopting multidisciplinary approaches, experimenting with the materiality of the medium and work amongst others with computer vision photogrammetry, installation and sound.”

Visiting Foto Tallinn is a great way to discover contemporary photography and meet artists and gallerists who will be present during the fair days. The fair also offers an opportunity to learn more about collecting (photographic) art. The Foto Tallinn team will be available to advise visitors in their selection.

Foto Tallinn 2021 is organized by the Estonian Union of Photography Artists and the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center.

 A selection of press images can be found here.

* We kindly ask all visitors of Foto Tallinn 2021 over the age of 18 to present a COVID-19 certificate (proof of vaccination, proof of having recovered from COVID-19 in the past 180 days, or proof of a recent negative test) and your ID to participate in the event. There is no rapid testing on-site. Please note that if you do not present a COVID-19 certificate, you will not be allowed to participate in the event and your ticket will not be reimbursed.

As part of the workshop, EKA students design shoes for children in an orphanage.

12 foreign students from 8 European countries from the departments of product design, jewelery, ceramics, architecture, graphic design, photography are participating, none of whom have made shoes before.

12 children of Tallinn Children’s Home are also learning to design and make shoes. The workshop also marks the 20th anniversary of the orphanage.
Supervisors are Kelian Luisk (EST), Macarena Gimenez (IT), Nicolas Denolle (FR)

Macarena Gimenez is an Argentine-Italian footwear maker with a studio in Denmark. Nicolas Denolle has long been a graphic designer for the world-famous brand Camper and now works for Apple. In this workshop, Denolle will guide the illustration.

The workshop takes place in two parts. For two days, students make shoes for the children and then illustrate them.

According to the color chart and the given theme, the students help the children to make designs for the shoes and then the children transfer their homemade drawings / motifs to their designed shoes.

This is an Erasmus workshop in the Accessory and Binding Design Department of EKA.

Estonian Academy of Arts is launching a new event series called ROHEKA which promotes green lifestyle and sustainable development topics in EKA. The series consists of one-day events taking place once a month, focussing on important topics like waste management, sustainable learning, community, work environment, energy efficiency, etc.

The first event of ROHEKA series will take place this Wednesday, September 1, when EKA will introduce its sustainability principles and share tips for sorting physical and digital waste.

The day starts at 10am with presentations, continues with a playful online waste-quiz and ends with collective cleaning in EKA building. The first half of the event will take place digitally and will be broadcast on EKA TV. Collective cleaning, starting at 12.30, takes place all over the house. We’ll gather in EKA courtyard.

PROGRAMME

10.00 Introduction of the ROHEKA event series (EKA TV)

10.15 Lecture “Green EKA” (EAA TV)

11.00 Introduction of the RING application (EKA TV)

11.15 PAUSE

11.30 Waste quiz – registration form HERE. EKA merch as a prize! (registered users will be sent a link to the online quiz)

12.00 Lecture “Digital Waste” (EKA TV)

12.30 Collective cleaning of EKA building under the guidance of environmental specialist Johanna Vahtra. (We’ll gather in the courtyard)

Young Artist MA award
07.09.–23.09.2021
opening: 07.09, 5 PM

At the exhibition Hopscotch Aksel Haagensen and Triin Kerge will present elements from their respective childhoods. Both artists approach a broader analysis of memory through their own personal memories.

As a young child in Australia, Aksel drew a lot of birds. There were many birds in Australia and they were all so interesting and colourful and different. Recently, Aksel asked his mother which bird had been his favourite and his mother said there was no such thing, “… you liked them all!” He wasn’t simply fascinated by the common popular birds, instead drawing every bird he could, constantly. Haagensen is interested in the subtle otherness of being an Australian-Estonian.

As a young child, Triin visited her great aunt at Voka, Ida-Viru County. Her great aunt lived in an apartment building and from the window all one could see were prefabricated buildings, sandpits and climbing frames. From Voka, Triin remembers picking chamomile, a machine for walnut-shaped waffles and a dating show on television, which made everyone laugh. Recently Triin visited Voka and while walking towards the shop, she remembered that it was from that very shop that to her great delight a roly poly toy was bought for her. At the exhibiton Kerge looks at the nature and materiality of memories.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Thanks to  Marika Alver, Saskia Lillepuu, Katarina Meister, Irmeli Terras, Marcin Teterycz, Tallinn University of Technology, Valge Kuup

On 31 August, all EKA members, students and staff, and their family members can get vaccinated against COVID-19 in EKA Gallery.  The second dose will be provided four weeks thereafter.

The immunisation will be done by East Tallinn Central Hospital.  Please register: Kaja Kivit Mon-Fri from 9-17 at the Info Desk by calling tel 626 7301 or writing kaja.kivit@artun.ee

Vaccination will take place in the EKA Gallery from 9-11. The vaccine used is Moderna mRNA Spikevax. Please bring your ID.