2009
"HAPPY TOGETHER" IN TALLINN
Tallinn Art Hall
29. January - 1. March 2009
Vabaduse Square 6
W-M 12 – 6 pm
Opening Reception on WEDNESDAY, January 28 at 6 pm
Opening party in KUKU club at 8 pm:
With Moby Dictator (Fin)
DJ-s Mika Hannula & Minna Henriksson
Petra Bauer - performance-lecture Deleted Swedish Stories *
at the Estonian Academy of Arts, on Wednesday, January 28, in room nr. 201,at 2 pm.
YKON Game v.0.3 **
at the Tallinn Art Hall on Saturday, January31from 2 pm – 9pm.
Happy Together is a group exhibition of contemporary visual art, which brings together artists from the Southeast-European, Baltic and Nordic countries. The aim of the exhibition is to explore different situations
in contemporary societies that have their roots in conflict situations, which have emerged from actions, where the collective mind is stronger than the individual.
The exhibition presents a number of prominent contemporary artists and through the range of artistic approaches generates an interesting combination of artworks ranging from drawing to video, installation and performance. What the participating artists all share in their practice is an interest in the topic in question and are approaching it in various, challenging ways.
The participants are: Petra Bauer, Sweden; Birgir Birgisson, Iceland; Igor Grubic, Croatia; Mika Hannula, Finland/Germany; Minna Henriksson, Finland/Turkey; Hanna Jaanisoo, Finland; Villu Jaanisoo, Estonia/Finland; Kiba Lumberg, Finland; Kristina Norman, Estonia; Karl Ingar Roys, Norway; YKON (Ulu Braun, Sasha Huber, Tellervo Kalleinen, Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Tomas Träskman), Finland; Katarina Zdjelar, Serbia/The Netherlands; Ahmet Ögut, Turkey/The Netherlands.
Our idea is to create and generate a platform to think through critically yet constructively the idea of a collective and a community. The basic realization that we follow is that collective identities are important and even necessary. The task is to confront them and to work with them to fruitful and tolerant ends.
With this collective effort, with this invitation to think with, we are asking: Who are we when we claim we belong to a certain community? What happens when the sense of belonging to a community becomes more dominant for our actions than our individuality; does being part of a particular community also require that there is an Other outside of it; when is a sense of collective identity constructive and when is it deconstructive, regressive and dangerous; is there even a possibility for a positive and constructive kind of sense of collective identity.
As it has now materialized, in a productive even if unintended way, Happy Together serves as a sort of pre-view to the upcoming Venice Biennial. Three of the participants will be presented at their national pavilions next summer, namely, Norman for Estonia, Ögut for Turkey and Zdjelar for Serbia.
The exhibition is initiated and curated by Mika Hannula, professor for artistic research at the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts of the University of Gothenburg and Minna Henriksson, artist living and working in Helsinki and South-east Europe, and organized together with the Centre of Contemporary Art, Estonia and Tallinn Art Hall.
Press release is composed by Mika Hannula and Minna Henriksson.
*Taking as example events in Sweden, historically and in the present day, Bauer argues that societies are to a large extent constructed on information that has been consciously hidden, forgotten or overlooked by history.
**YKON invites you to take part in the pilot version of the YKON Game, which is a world simulation game for 12 to 25 players, and a modern variation of the famous World Game developed by Buckminster Fuller in
the 1960s. Fuller's idea was to create a subversive tool to "make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone." RSVP info at ykon dot org.
Thanks to: Foundation for Arts Initiatives, , Nordic Council of Ministers, Mondriaan Foundation, Centre for Icelandic Art, The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists (SÍM), Icelandair, Embassy of Sweden in Tallinn, Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Eesti Kultuurkapital, YKON, Embassy of Finland in Tallinn, VIVID, EMARE European Media Artists in Residence Exchange, Fonds BKVB, Pernod Ricard Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts
More information:
Anders Härm
anders at kunstihoone dot ee
www.kunstihoone.ee
Photos:
Mika Hannula poster from series Just because..., 2009, poster, 60 x 90 cm
Birgir Birgsson photo from series Blond artists, 2009, laminated photo on mdf, 55 x 55 cm
VELLO VINN IN ANTWERP
XYZ present the group exhibition entitled Goldfish Suddenly Dead, at Extra City Centre for Contemporary Art, Antwerp.
The exhibition will include works by Dirk Braeckman, T.S. Eliot, Jan Fabre, Boris Groys, Vassilis Karouk, Mark Manders, Poka-Yio, Lucas Samaras, Gregor Schneider, Vello Vinn, and Eva Vretzaki. Goldfish Suddenly Dead is a short story about loss: actual, remembered or projected. Vello Vinn (b. 1939) is included in the show with graphic series Environment (1983), the artist’s participation was made possible trough the Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia.
XYZ are Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, Poka-Yio and Augustine Zenakos, a curatorial trio based in Athens, who founded the Athens Biennale Non Profit Organisation in 2005. They curated the 1st Athens Biennale 2007 DESTROY ATHENS, and are artistic directors of the 2nd Athens Biennale 2009 HEAVEN, opening June 15th 2009. In 2008 the curatorial trio visited the Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia in order to gather information about the local artistic scene.
Goldfish Suddenly Dead
Curated by XYZ
April 3rd - May 3rd 2009
Extra City
Centre for Contemporary Art, Antwerp
http://www.xyzprojects.org
http://www.extracity.org
KÜLM AND MÄETAMM IN WALES
The artists taking part in Locws International: Art Across The City 2009 are: Tanya Axford, Megan Broadmeadow, Neville Gabie, Paul Granjon, Neeme Külm, Marko Mäetamm, Aisling O’Beirn, Calum Stirling.
Locws International continues its biennial programme in 2009 and presents new works by international contemporary visual artists in accessible public spaces across the City of Swansea in April and May
At the end of 2007 by the invitation of the Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia the organizers of the festival were on a research trip in Tallinn.
http://www.locwsinternational.com/
Locws international:
Art Across The City 2009
18th April - 10th May 2009
KELLER, MÄETAMM AND OLE IN CESIS
Contemporary art exhibition “Heroes of Our Time” will be opened at the Cēsis Old Brewery at 18 hours on July 25, which is the opening day of the Festival. Estonian artists such as Raul Keller, Marko Mäetamm, Kaido Ole are going to take part in the exhibition this year along with the Latvian artists Ojārs Pētersons, Monika Pormale, Anta & Dita Pence, Jānis Garančs, Kristīne Plūksna, Kaspars Podnieks, Sarmīte Māliņa & Kristaps Kalns. Exhibition is open from July 25 till August 30 (Tuesday- Sunday 11.00-18.00).
Cēsis Art Festival is taking place for the third summer in turn this year. Events in art, theatre and music will be available during the three weeks of the Festival in Cēsis. The Festival is going to take place from July 25 till August 15 this year. The participation of Estonian artists in the event is made possible by the Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia.
From the press release: “For centuries, art has served as the mechanism for creating and glorifying heroes. Sacred art, the genre inclusive of official portraits and triumphal arcs, reveals the obvious status of art as a generator of myths. The development of technologies in the 20th century robbed visual art of its manipulative prerogatives – at least to a certain extent, for heroes were now being manufactured also by the movies, press, and television. Art had to find a new niche I in turning its own creators into heroes. This exhibition could be described as an attempt to establish the way in which contemporary art today relates to its status as a reproducer of myths – once a matter of course – and explore what it is that it holds worthy of glorification. The show as a whole strives to show the criteria for, “official portraits”, and relicts of heroes of our times.”
ART FESTIVAL CĒSIS'09 / 25.07.–15.08.2009
Heroes of Our Time
Participants: Ojārs Pētersons, Monika Pormale, Anta & Dita Pence, Jānis Garančs, Kristīne Plūksna, Kaspars Podnieks, Sarmīte Māliņa & Kristaps Kalns, Kaido Ole, Marko Mäetamm, Raul Keller.
Cēsis Old Brewery
http://cesufestivals.lv/
Estonian artists in the show:
Raul Keller (b. 1973) lives and works in Tallinn. He has obtained an MA in Interactive Multimedia at the Estonian Academy of Arts. He has exhibited predominantly in Estonia and is mostly connected with experimental sound art: e.g. in 2005 he presented Jammer Station, a radio performance as part of the exhibition “Radiodays” at De Appel Centre for Contemporary Arts, Amsterdam. He has also collaborated on a number of films, both as a videographer and composer. He has worked closely with Kristina Norman who represents Estonia at the 53rd Biennale di Venezia.
http://www.hot.ee/jamjam/
Marko Mäetamm (b. 1965) lives and works in Tallinn. Mäetamm received his MA from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 1995 where he also currently works as a dean. He has been working within the mediums of graphic art, drawing, painting, video, installation, live-animation, etc. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad. In 2003 he represented Estonia at the 50th Biennale di Venezia (together with Marko Mäetamm) with a project “Marko und Kaido by John Smith” and, again, in 2007 with his own project “Loser’s Paradise”.
http://www.maetamm.net/
Kaido Ole (b. 1963) lives and works in Tallinn. He graduated as a painter at the Tallinn Art University in 1992 and has had nearly thirty solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad. Currently he heads the Department of Painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2003 he represented Estonia at the 50th Biennale di Venezia (together with Marko Mäetamm) with a project “Marko und Kaido by John Smith”.
http://www.kaidoole.eu/
Picture: Kaido Ole, Ettevaatust tikud, 2006
