Time-lapse: construction of the new Estonian Academy of Arts building

Click on the video to see how the new EKA was built. Video by Estfilm Production OÜ.

EKA + Tallinn Design Festival

The 13th Tallinn Design Festival takes place this week from 10 to 16 September. Festival creative centres have sprung up all over Tallinn, including in EKA.

The theme of this year’s major design event is Human Cities. Designers, architects, urbanists and planners are committed to ensuring a more sustainable and human-friendly urban environment.

Open lectures and seminars

The presentation and peer review of the bag collection by Jaana Päeva

Photo: Toomas Tikenberg

On Wednesday 19 September at 17:00, the presentation and peer review of the BAGS FOR ME bag collection by Art and Design doctoral student Jaana Päeva will take place at the EKA Department of Accessory Design and Bookbinding (room B511).

The doctoral thesis is supervised by Prof Dr Nithikul Nimkulrat.

The peer-reviewers are Dr Outi Turpeinen and Kai Lobjakas.

The peer review of Small Town as an Event, an exhibition by Rait Rosin

A fragment from a painting by Rait Rosin

On Friday 28 September at 12:00, the peer review of the Small Town as an Event exhibition by Art and Design doctoral student Rait Rosin will take place in room A202.

The exhibition was on view at Valga Museum.

The doctoral thesis is supervised by Dr Raivo Kelomees and Dr Margus Vihalem.

The exhibition will be peer-reviewed by Dr Heie Treier and Dr Fideelia-Signe Roots.

An open lecture by Malcolm Barnard: “Fashion, Messages and Communication”

On Thursday 20 September at 17:30, room A501.

In his lecture, Dr Malcolm Barnard will outline the main features of the sender/receiver model of communication as it applies to fashion. He argues that messages are not sent or received but rather that meanings are constructed.

The lecture is organised by EKA Department of Textile Design.

Exhibition

Monument Valley (May Contain Artefacts), an exhibition by Anna Mari Liivrand at Showcase Gallery

Anna Mari Liivrand’s exhibition depicts a disproportionate, distorted view into a room similar to a garden that has been caught inside a glass chamber. The stained glass is composed out of memory shards through which a valley of frozen curiosities reveals itself. It is an ephemeral walk in the form of glass pillars, residue, lucky charms and vessels.

The exhibition can be viewed at all times and will run until 14 October.

EKA in the world

Kristi Kongi in Mexico City

A detail from Mapping the Jungle (2018), an exhibition by Kristi Kongi. Courtesy of the artist

On 21 September, Kristi Kongi, Associate Professor at the EKA Chair of Painting, will open her personal exhibition, Mapping the Jungle, at Karen Huber Gallery in Mexico City. Kongi came up with the central idea of the show a year ago while taking a DEDAZO residency in Southern Mexico. The exhibition displays a site-specific installation that invites the public to see the light and colours of the jungle through the eyes of the artist. Mapping the Jungleis curated by Leslie Moody Castro who visited Estonia in 2016 at the invitation of the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center.

Merike Estna in London

an egg, a larva, a nymph (2018) by Merike Estna, an installation view from Tallinn Art Hall. Courtesy of the artist and Temnikova & Kasela Gallery. Photo by Karel Koplimets/Tallinn Art Hall

On 20 September, Merike Estna, Associate Professor at the EKA Chair of Painting, will open her personal exhibition titled Dawn of the Swarmat Bosse & Baum in London. In addition to a new series of paintings especially made for this occasion, the exhibition will also display floor tiles and beeswax candle sculptures that were shown at the Tallinn chapter of the 13th Baltic Triennial. The exhibition opening will be accompanied by a performance, an egg, a larva, a nymph(performed by Andrius Mulokas).

To mark her personal exhibition at Bosse & Baum, Estna will publish a book, Dawn of the Swarm, designed by Ott Metusala, which will feature her works from the past three years. The publisher of the book, Lugemik, will present it at the NY Art Book Fair in September.

Krista Leesi in Portugal, Slovakia and Riga

A detail of a work by Krista Leesi

Krista Leesi, Associate Professor at the EKA Department of Textile Design, is currently showing her works at several international exhibitions:

Contextile 2018. A contemporary textile art biennial in Guimarães, Portugal (www.contextile.pt);

Textile Art of Today. A textile art triennale in Slovakia (www.textileartoftoday.com), the fifth edition of which is taking place at the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum (www.danubiana.sk).

Films by animation students shown in Hiroshima

A still from Shuma, a film by Lucija Mrzljak

On the occasion of the centenary of the Republic of Estonia, a record number of Estonian animated films were screened at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival, including a number of student films made at the EKA Department of Animation. The festival took place on 23–27 August in Hiroshima, Japan. Never before have Estonian animations, or indeed films, been shown on such a scale outside of Estonia. More than 300 Estonian animated films were screened in 34 different programmes during the festival.

Chairs designed by EKA Faculty of Architecture students shown at Helsinki Design Week

A pop-up exhibition by students of the EKA Faculty of Architecture is currently on view in Helsinki within the framework of Helsinki Design Week. The exhibition displays seats designed by first-year students from an extremely limited set of materials – a piece of plywood, wooden sticks and glue.

The students were supervised by Ilkka Suppanen, an acclaimed Finnish designer, architect and teaching staff member at Harvard University, who gives the Sitting Furniture speciality project at EKA, and the idea was to create chairs from virtually impossible materials.