Post-Colonialism and Estonia

Estonian 1/2011Art

1 1 One Question Anders Härm about Facebook and art criticism 3 Dealing With Yourself Through Others Liina Siib interviewed by Eero Epner 6 Eat, Pray, Love... Anu Allas 10 Post-colonialism and Estonia Tiit Hennoste interviewed by Eero Epner 16 The National Representation Beauty Contest Karolina Łabowicz-Dymanus 19 If It’s Part Broke Half Fix It Virginija Januskeviciute

23 Salto and The Garden of Eden Triin Ojari 28 Interview with Karli Luik from Salto 30 Contemporary Art Encompasses All the Rest Maria Lind interviewed by Eero Epner

34 Notes on Paul Kuimet Pille Epner 39 What is Estonian Sound Art Maria Juur 42 As for music... Andres Lõo 43 Raul Keller interviewed by Eero Epner 44 Exhibitions

Estonian Art is included All issues of Estonian Art are also available on the Internet: http://www.estinst.ee/eng/estonian-art-eng/ in Art and Architecture Complete (EBSCO). Front cover: Liina Siib. From the photo series Apartness, 2008 Back cover: Back cover of Andres Lõo’s album Skeletons on Rock, 2009 Estonian Art 1/2011 (28). Published by the Estonian Institute 2011. ISSN 1406-3549 (online version ISSN 1406-5711) Editorial board: Tiina Abel, Andres Kurg, Piret Lindpere, Mart Meri, Johannes Saar Editor: Eero Epner Graphic design: Angelika Schneider Translator: Tiina Randviir, Marcin Wawrzynczak (article by Karolina Łabowicz-Dymanus) Those wishing to obtain a copy of Estonian Art, Language editor: Richard Adang please send the Estonian We thank: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, The Art Museum of Estonia Institute an International Photo credits: Liina Siib (front cover, pp 3-9), Marko Mäetamm (pp 16-18), Karli Luik (p 24), Raivo Hool and Raul Keller (p 38), Reply Coupon to cover the Raul Keller (pp 39-41), Anu Vahtra (p 41) postal expenses. Printed at Puffetinvest

Estonian Institute Suur-Karja 14 10140 Tallinn, Estonia http://www.estinst.ee email:[email protected] phone: (372) 631 43 55 fax: (372) 631 43 56

One Question

Anders Härm, curator, art historian and essayist, how has it come about that the dating-format Facebook has become an important platform of information and exchange of views for Estonian art criticism, and what does this say about our institution of criticism? I think that one of Facebook’s advantages is its spontaneity. Available technology has directed flows of information on a larger scale, it is no longer a problem to make your own television or radio programmes and put them up, and all this is happening at the grass-roots level: there is no direct institutional guid- ance. The success of Facebook also, of course, reflects the decreasing art criticism in traditional media, and here the blame lies with the traditional media: the dailies do not have art critics on their payrolls, except for the weekly Sirp. I’m actually not sure whether I mourn their demise. I probably would not bother to storm into battle to get 3000-character exhibition “reviews” to published. If there is no more space – and there isn’t and won’t be – I’d prefer a brief comment by a professional instead of a text with pretentions of being analytical and critical. Facebook offers exactly such tips, and there you find people whose opinions you take seriously. All the best people in the art field I know are on Facebook. Without exception. What characterises the field of today’s Estonian art? Total over-production in conditions of total under- financing. A great deal is being produced, but mostly relying on people’s own means, using family contacts. The natural economy, just like during the Middle Ages. Father builds you an installation, and you help him to fix the roof in summer. And still there is so much art that nobody can consume it all and nobody keeps an eye on it consistently. This used to be the task of art criticism: to observe and select. Nobody fulfils this function any more. Nobody is able to get an overview, including myself; it is just impossible to be everywhere.

ONE QUESTION 1 As for the view that Facebook means trivi- that, the space allocated to criticism gradually alising or withdrawing criticism, I certainly do diminished, and editors demanded increas- not agree because, after all, we had nowhere to ingly brief, hard-hitting and understandable withdraw to anyway. In the 1990s, the reviews articles, which were hardly more than recom- in papers tried to be more theoretical, aspired mendations. Most professionals obviously to the analysis of phenomena by means of wanted more. Papers, too, were not keen to some theoretical models, but this has totally have critics on regular salaries: the distanc- disappeared today. Various discourses are ing was mutual. So far, only the media have afloat, whereas theorising has become rather been blamed, although what we lack here in problematic and the view prevails that readers Estonia is the skill to write about art compre- are not interested – the end result is hope- hensibly, but at the same time cleverly – as, lessly vague. Who were the writers before? for example, Matthew Collings does. The cen- Professional art historians who knew the tral problem in today’s Estonian art is how to scene inside out. Now we have people loosely get the average citizen to relate to art. We can connected with art, not professionals with have blockbuster-type exhibitions, packed wider knowledge outside their narrow fields, with visual candies, which might be massive and they don’t write regularly, but quite occa- hits elsewhere (e.g. Everything Is Going to Be sionally. Criticism used to fulfil an apologetic Alright), but in Estonia – nothing. Nothing. No function, emerging through certain groups excitement, no reverberations in the media. and art movements. At some point, it became I am not only blaming my colleagues: we professional: being an art critic became a job behave like other institutions in the cultural in its own right. Neoliberal politics has caused field, but the media are simply not interested. the profession to vanish: art is being written Not one bit. For several years we tried to get about by people who are not connected with NU Performance on the Morning Television it on a daily basis. There is unsystematic emo- programme, but they feared that someone tionalising. I do not care if someone is clearly might crack eggs over their heads, and the biased, but when I don’t see him or her con- interview never happened! We planned to stantly writing, or publishing pieces about organise this year’s performance festival in random things, this is of no help to anyone. a hotel. We started negotiations. Everything Criticism has several functions: commu- was quite bueno, until we used the word “per- nication with wider audiences and with col- formance”. That was the end of it. Irrational leagues, and providing feedback to artists. fears of contemporary art are strongly rooted. Ideally, a critic would fulfil all these func- If Facebook can change something in that tions. The professional criticism that lasted sense, I am certainly all for it. in Estonia until the 2000s did all this. After

Having spent an intensive /Entry of Maria-Kristiina day at the conference, I Soomre, at that time a expected to track down curator of the Kumu Art all the hottest art news on Museum, on Facebook at Facebook. No such luck - it 11.28 p.m. on 27 May. By is totally dominated by 9:00 the next morning, the Venice biennial. Hey, she had received over you out there, I don’t want 20 comments./ to know what’s going to happen next week; I want to Anders Härm know what happened today! 1977), curator and art critic Where are you, what’s up?

2 ONE QUESTION Liina Siib A Woman Takes Little Space 2008–2011 Digital pigment print 30 x 45 cm Dealing with Yourself Through Others Interview with Liina Siib

I recently saw Alexei Yurchak’s book on your ing, being emphatically apolitical, refusing to table, Everything was forever, until it was no participate in elections etc. more: The last Soviet generation… The concept of ‘the last Soviet generation’ This surely does not relate to your work. was used by Elo-Hanna Seljamaa when she It did. A great deal. At the beginning, described how I actually fit in in her article for twenty years ago. the Venice project catalogue A Woman Takes Little Space. What happened then? Maybe I was beginning to feel trust in How did you develop into an artist? the Estonian society. Or not even ‘trust’, but I think I will keep developing indefinitely. I responsibility. An understanding of myself certainly do not feel as if I have fully developed. and my responsibility to society. I would not want to stress Estonia in this context. Has this generational definition deter- mined something in particular? Your connection with ‘Estonia’ is not impor- It is difficult for me to say. My generation tant to you? is usually described as nihilistic, a group who Of course it is, but it is now somehow more do not believe in anything, as we were used normal and calmer. Since I am living here, I am to hearing one thing at home and another here. Being away for a while and coming back, officially. Double morals, hypocrisy, double I can now look at things from a distance much standards, all lead to people believing noth- better. Translate them any which way.

DEALING WITH YOURSELF THROUGH OTHERS 3 Liina Siib A Room of One’s Own You have not thought of moving somewhere explained that, although the project A Woman 2011 Photography and video else? Takes Little Space deals with women’s topics, I installation There have been all sorts of thoughts. It do not regard it as directly feminist. However, Estonian pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, was very interesting to live in Estonia in the she did not want to show herself in that con- Palazzo Malipiero 1990s, but now the situation is getting a bit text. Quite understandable. weird; turning more inside than outside, a kind of provincialization is taking place. The You have never been too keen on feminist surrounding world is becoming increasingly art yourself, have you? conservative, self-sufficient, and this is bor- I am always keen on work that is inter- ing and tedious. Bad times for culture and esting, although all definitions are indeed especially bad times for contemporary art. We discriminating. I think feminists would prefer in Estonia are perhaps still less conventional politically active standpoints. In that respect, than elsewhere – at least as far as working is my work does not qualify. It instead allows concerned. It is much easier to work here than ambivalent understanding. somewhere else. Is this a conscious aim or has it just devel- In what sense? oped so? It is still possible here to have access to It is perhaps my nature not to hurl myself people and places. onto the barricades, but to stand by observing.

How do people react to your ideas? Why these women in particular? Differently. What I am actually doing is dealing with For example, when I want to photograph myself through these women. When, for women at their workplaces, they often ask: example, I take pictures of a woman with the “Why me? I am not young or pretty.” But this Russian-speaking background, I try to put is not the aim of my work. I take photographs myself in her shoes or ask myself what I am of people in their jobs and living situations. feeling and thinking? How am I behaving at Many are dissatisfied with how they look or the moment? I try to understand what the where they work. When I once wanted to take ‘endless horror’ means when you go to work a picture of a woman in her restricted working in the morning and carry on for 12 hours on place, she asked: “Is this a feminist project?” I your feet. I have never had to work like that. I

4 DEALING WITH YOURSELF THROUGH OTHERS will never understand them fully. Of course, in which a working woman has been placed. I sometimes work at my art for 24 hours run- The environment where she works is not ning, but mostly on my own and sitting. exactly extravagant, but the mise-en-scène cannot leave the viewer visually indifferent. What do you feel? Sometimes you have no choice but to photo- Total sympathy towards these people. graph them. The ordinary working woman is hardly ever shown in the media, except for How do you choose people? some scandal. I want to make such women If I see somebody who seems interesting more visible. and catches my eye for some reason, that is all I need. I then ask permission to take pictures. Have you thought about experimenting, e.g This does not mean that the photographs will exchanging places with your models? be good. As Alfred Hitchcock taught: what I have indeed. And soon I probably will. matters in the end is what is in the shot. Is the concept of ‘humiliation’ also signifi- Are there many failures? cant? I work uneconomically: I use film (because I would not call it humiliation, but meek- it produces better quality than a digital cam- ness. These women fascinate me because they era), two or three rolls of film for each person, do not hate their jobs. There is no passion; so on the average 72 shots, and then I choose they simply have no other choice, but they only one, and sometimes I do not choose any. do their work with dignity – so that they still respect themselves. They still have a sense How much do you stage your shots? of humour; they stay in touch and look after Recently I have been trying not to stage one another. anything at all. I want the person to continue working when I am there with my camera. Your photographs do not display a critical Forget about me. In other situations, life itself attitude. is the best stage manager. You just have to As one of my favourites, Virginia Woolf, wait. wrote in her essay A Room of One’s Own: when a woman starts writing something, she must not For some reason this makes me think of be angry, because anger often intrudes into Nan Goldin... writing. You really must have something to I have been thinking about her too. In tell people, and not just be angry. This is what 2002 I saw her big exhibition in Whitechapel I am trying to achieve, although I occasionally Gallery in London. My fellow students talked feel that anger gets the better of me. about it with great enthusiasm, but I did not Besides, artists cannot make overly large take to it then: it was a bit pathetic and exhi- generalisations with their works. Sociologists bitionistic. However, I think I am beginning often precisely describe some phenomenon, to understand her now. Her relationship with for instance the bad aspects of living in a new life and death. residential district. However, when you talk with people, it appears that this is not neces- You are interested in ordinary people, not sarily true at all. extravagance? That’s true. This may perhaps be an East- Is it pure chance that your ‘models’ are European topic. mainly Russian-speaking women? There are a few Estonians as well. I do not Why East-European? select my ‘actors’ according to their national- Because we still have in our blood the ity, but according to what they denote. My aim earlier rhetoric in which the ‘ordinary per- is to reach the point where we communicate son’ was constantly displayed and heroised as one human being with another. Whether for ideological reasons. It was necessary for someone is Russian and I am Estonian no some people, à la series such as Woman on longer really matters. I can photograph those a Combine, Woman with Cattle etc. I am inter- people who agree to be photographed. ested in the working woman, the conditions

DEALING WITH YOURSELF THROUGH OTHERS 5 Liina Siib Apartness 2008 Lambda C-type print 139 x 94 cm

Eat, Pray, Love … Anu Allas This year’s Estonian exhibition at the Venice All the works tackle the relationship Biennial, Liina Siib’s A Woman Takes Little between a woman and her space, based Space, occupies five small rooms (and the toi- on Julia Kristeva’s treatment of a woman’s let) in the 18th century Palazzo Malipiero. essential links with space, characterised by This is the place where all Estonian exhibi- repetition and eternity – as opposed to the tions have been displayed in Venice during linearity of (masculine) time and teleology – the last eight years. Unlike several earlier and of the woman herself as a border area of occasions, when the display tried to neutral- a symbolic order, which is simultaneously ise the space or transcend it, Siib’s exhibition inside and outside, or neither. On the one accepts the place, together with its somewhat hand, the construction of the display marks frustrating likeness to an apartment, and the usual domestic spatial structure (a bed- emphasises the fact that it indeed was once a room, living-room and bathroom) while, on living area. This is not necessarily because it the other hand, three works show women is the best possible display space, but because at their workplaces (or record them talking it was the one provided. In the same way, the about it). Comparing these two spheres, i.e women in Siib’s photos and videos seem to personal and working life, and the attitudes, adapt to their environments. They resist fight- general mood and behavioural patterns in ing the space and, with immense humility both environments, we are struck by their and pride, instal themselves just as the place similarity. Workrooms seem to be ‘domesti- requires, while still maintaining – perhaps cated’ (or the rooms have ‘domesticated’ the because of this submission and flexibility – a women), and life at home proceeds largely certain superiority that characterises those through (domestic) chores (or the life model who are predestined to lose. expressed in the structure of rooms and

6 EAT, PRAY, LOVE … EAT, PRAY, LOVE … 7 created by it determines a woman’s way of functioning). Irrespective of function, all these rooms appear alien to the women, or rather seem to belong to other people (homes are mainly built and designed with a focus on children and family, assuming the woman’s presence everywhere; the structure might contain ‘father’s study’, but hardly ever ‘moth- er’s room’). At the same time, they seem totally personal: adapting to an alien place is not formal and alienated, but instead means iden- tifying with a place that belongs to someone else. Submitting to space and not ruling it seems to make the role of these women more passive, but their relationship to space also becomes more dynamic and direct. The main work of the exhibition, the photographic series A Woman Takes Little Space (2007–2011), records women of different ages and with different levels of social status in their ous much deeper and more complicated, often unnoticeable and intertwined patterns of thought and behavioural practices that con- cern a woman’s ‘essence’ and roles (or, more widely, gender roles). A Woman Takes Little Space formulates the explicit part of the problem in a rather poster-like way (although the photographs do not code, but do occasionally decode one another, making the picture rather multi- layered). Other works, however, seem to take a step backwards or sideways, and deal with on which levels and in which relations these ‘natural’ role models take shape and how their real conflicts make themselves visible. The installation A Room of One’s Own (2011) shows photographs and a video of the domestic lives and chores of women living in new residential districts near Tallinn, and Russian-speaking women dancing among Liina Siib workplaces. The somewhat clumsy humour themselves at an open-air concert in a winter Unsocial Hours 2011 of the title and a strangely presented allega- landscape; the work Apartness (2008) consists Two-channel video tion reveal the uppermost and most topical of photographs of a middle-aged woman who 10’ level of the exhibition. The series was inspired has put on clothes she thinks a man might by a claim which appeared a few years ago in fancy, thus creating an image of a kind of articles in the Estonian press tackling gender hypertrophied woman. The video installa- equality that a woman needs less space (and a tion Averse Body (2007) presents interviews smaller salary) for her daily work than a man with prostitutes against the background of does. One major issue deals with mechanisms nocturnal views of Tallinn filmed from a car that allow such ideas – although in public window. The artist asks them what they think debates they are mostly suppressed in the of their bodies, what their clients think of interests of political correctness – to persist their bodies, what they would like to change quite unperturbed, as a result of a silent agree- about themselves, how much time they spend ment that includes all concerned parties. This on appearance etc. Besides works focusing most evident layer, social inequality, does not on the ‘private sphere’ and body, the video of course stand alone. It grows out of numer- Unsocial Hours (2011) introduces a model of

8 EAT, PRAY, LOVE … Liina Siib Averse Body 2007 Video installation

working and social life, and a cycle through a rather similar, calming and nondescript Liina Siib food, more precisely through cheap pastries, result if we asked them whether they were (1963), Estonian video and photography artist, produced in night bakeries, sold in kiosks satisfied with their lives (they would prob- whose works deal mostly at a railway station, and eaten in Lasnamäe ably say ‘on the whole, yes’). The same goes with different aspects of femininity, social space, cafes or a Pelgulinna hospital during the lunch for the protagonists in the principal work at memory and desire. breaks of doctors and nurses. Besides obser- the exhibition if we asked them whether they She graduated from the graphic art department of vations of space, the most intensive element were happy with their work (it could always the Estonian Academy of here is the dimension of time, its circulation be better, although they do not complain). Arts in 1989 and received her MA in photography in and ritualism (which can also be seen in the All these works (all these women, their roles 2003. She has had solo domestic chores of housewives), repetition and lives) thus seem to refer to a problem, but exhibitions in Estonia, and ‘never actually getting anywhere’. This the women are unable to express it directly; it Germany, Finland, Belgium, France, and participated in kind of circulation is naturally not only typi- appears rather complicated to formulate ques- numerous group exhibitions cal of ‘women’s jobs’ or a ‘woman’s life’ but, at tions that would lead to clear expression. It is in Eurasia and the US. least in the context of the current exhibition, not that these women are insufficiently self- Liina Siib’s project A both the main perceptions and meanings of aware, that they accept the ‘circumstances’, Woman Takes Up Little Space will represent Estonia at this cycle seem to be present in equal measure or give up any form of fighting, but perhaps the 54th International Art (maybe even inseparably). On the one hand, such conflicts of ‘deeper layers’ cannot actu- Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. The venue for the the repetition seems frustrating and mecha- ally be described according to ‘male’ logic, via Estonian exhibit in Venice in nised (a vicious circle) while, on the other, it specific questions and answers. Against this 2011 is the Palazzo Malipiero can be positively reproducing and stabilising background, the protagonists of the installa- (1st floor), San Marco 3079, which is the same venue (creating a circle of life), which indicates the tion A Room of One’s Own present a telling com- the Estonian exposition failure to ‘get on, succeed’, but also the fact parison: women living in a new residential was shown at in 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2009. that it might be unnecessary. district spreading out into a wasteland, who The exposition at the The exhibition does not display many have read Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-seller Eat, Estonian Pavilion is commissioned by the Center men, although they are present through their Pray, Love (a book about a woman who aban- for Contemporary Arts, voices: singing (or humming) in the bathroom dons her well-ordered life and goes out into Estonia (www.cca.ee). (His Song, 2011), in Unsocial Hours as a broad- the world to find herself and ‘everything’), as caster, and more indirectly in Averse Body, well as women dancing spontaneously, comi- Anu Allas which starts with Jerzy Grotowski’s claim cally, in an ‘embarrassing’, complex-free man- (1977), art historian, critic and curator. Her main that prostitutes feel aversion to, and a lack ner, among a sparse concert audience. If the research areas are visual of trust in, their bodies. The replies to the conflicts are ambivalent and always appear and performance art of the 2nd half of 20th artist’s questions could be from any kind of indirectly rather than directly, it is possible to century, Estonian art of women; they are sometimes quite confident, understand and deal with them, and perhaps the Soviet period, play and performance theories. sometimes hesitant, but on the whole do not also solve them, only in practice – often also seem to confirm the thesis of aversion at all. only ambivalently – in the course of living Chatting with housewives might perhaps yield your life.

EAT, PRAY, LOVE … 9 Post-colonialism and Estonia Interview with Tiit Hennoste

A few years ago, you wrote an influen- particular characterise Estonian culture tial article entitled Post-colonialism and very well. They also push the dream of many Estonia. In that article, you point out sev- people regarding the “authentic” culture eral keywords related to post-colonial- of Estonians back into the 13th century, ism and you place them in the context of at best, to the time before overt colonial- Estonia, finding several points of contact: ism. Mimicry introduces certain insecurity hybridity of culture, creolization, mimicry in accordance with postcolonial theory: and many other concepts appropriately the coloniser is not capable of completely characterise Estonian culture in your analy- controlling the colonised. What in your sis. Our first question is very direct, even opinion are the reasons why there were banally commonplace: in your opinion, possibilities at all in the first place for the does contemporary Estonia (or, more nar- emergence of mimicry in Estonia – right rowly, Estonian culture) behave like a typical through to the present? Why were these postcolonial country (culture)? possibilities not cut off? There is no such thing as a typical post- And if authentic Estonian culture does colonial culture. The cultures of colonies not exist, then could not that specific hybrid- have been too different for a typical culture ity that emerged right here and only in this to emerge. Yet the question assumes that the space and at a certain time also be considered Soviet regime was a colonial regime. That, authentic? however, is ambiguous. I started thinking: is that nevertheless not the The basis of a colonial relationship is question of why copied culture is created in the the understanding that the colonised is by first place, why the path to that kind of culture nature inferior to the coloniser. And both is not cut off? Why was the authentic direction sides accept this understanding. This kind of not chosen? You see, the question of why the relationship has not existed between Russians path to mimicry was not cut off seems strange and Estonians. Yet a country, society or culture to me. It seems to involve the question of why that, academically speaking, has not been col- a people have not allowed itself to be controlled onised can interpret itself as having been colo- completely. Or what does it mean after all? nised and liberated from colonisation. And in A hybrid means forms of culture on the terms of this point, the answer is quite clear. boundary between colonial culture and a peo- It does behave like a postcolonial country. ple’s own culture. The result of mimicry is a Nationalism, a black-and-white world-view ‘blurred copy’ of the coloniser, which does not in which the former upper class (=Russians) mean an unwashed, but rather an unclear, is the enemy that has to be suppressed. The imprecise copy that is similar and at the same destruction of the symbols of the colonial time is not similar. Both mean something that era and the constant belittling of the former is on the boundary and is not pure. coloniser. The stigmatisation of dissenters Mimicry occurs in nature for the purpose of in their own society by former collaborators concealing oneself, to protect oneself, and at who have labelled themselves as liberals now. the same time the concealer inwardly remains Attempts to destroy that part of the memory himself. A human being, however, can easily that is associated with the colonisers and by change so that external mimicry becomes inner doing so, the constant prominence of that mimicry. Mimicry as nature, as essence. There memory. And so on, and so on. is nothing unusual in a person in an insane asy- lum who pretends to be insane eventually truly Two of the most important concepts of turning insane. Post-colonialism are hybridity and mimicry, Yet indirectly, the question of authentic and you emphasise that those concepts in Estonian culture is discernible behind that ques-

10 POST-COLONIALISM AND ESTONIA tion. What is authenticity? According to one meaning, it is simply originality as opposed to its copy, borrowing, plagiarism. Yet even in this, two varieties can be found. According to the ideology of modernity, the only thing that is important is the originality of the elementary particle of one or another culture, even though nobody knows what that particle is. According to the ideology of post-modernity, there are similar and dissimilar parts in every culture, but their combination could be original. Thus every hybrid and mimicry could be authentic. And conversely, in this respect, all colonial cultures are also hybrids and copies of some other culture. Thus we do not in principle differ from those cultures. At the same time, we clearly feel that we are nevertheless not quite equals among equals… Yet the uniqueness of a cultural or national experience is also interpreted as authenticity. This can be created consciously or sought after the fact. Estonians have, in my opinion, consistently presented as their unical experience But hybridity, the knowledge that every- Carl Timoleon von Neff. things, which are common to many people. And thing-already-exists-in-this-world, leads to a Estonian woman with a Child. 1850s. Oil on we have declared adaptation to be the nucleus longing for this kind of authenticity. And here canvas. 47.9 x 38.7 cm. of our ideology, which is held to have ensured I see our chance. Art Museum of Estonia Von Neff was a Baltic- the continuation of our existence. Maybe. But But this is not easy because culture also bor- German artist and art this cannot be proven. Because nations have rows from its own past. We can say that every collector. The picture depicts the typical colonial viewpoint also survived following different ways of think- culture is created in a contact zone between in the middle of the 19th ing. In short, we have desired originality and at its past and future. It mimics the culture of the century which saw Estonians as exotic and romantic the same time idealised adaptation. This is the past, but it is never a simple reproduction of old creatures. Teachers still ideology of someone who is always in pursuit but forms. The history of culture is a process that value the painting highly, never takes the lead. constantly produces non-identity with itself. pointing out the colourful clothes of the woman. Yet authenticity is also the ‘inner self’of a peo- Along with this, it also produces inauthentic- ple or culture, something that is us ourselves. ity. It is always the blurred copy of its own past. There are roles, masks, attributes that are learned Why was the way of thinking of moderni- and imposed around this essence. This kind of sation not confronted in Estonian culture? It authenticity cannot be created. It is. And it must has always been confronted. Philologists and be found within oneself. There is an altogether essayists August Annist, Oskar Loorits, Uku different path for searching for that authenticity Masing, Jaan Kaplinski, the creators of the Taara other than constant running. This path is intran- faith, the followers of Buddhism (which have sigence in the face of pressure exerted by external been influential in Estonian culture through power, ideology or money. At the same time, this the 20th century) etc. Yet the influence of a kind of authenticity does not have to be unique particular ideologist is qualitatively greater in at all. This kind of authenticity is not novelty; a small society than in a large society. And the rather, it is something that exists and has to be major ideologists and leaders of Estonian society found. And Modernism did not seek this kind of chose the ideology of modernisation, putting the authenticity. Its idea was ‘to make it new’. entire apparatus of power and intellectual spirit

POST-COLONIALISM AND ESTONIA 11 to work for this purpose. The differences were they see the uncultivated nature, lowness and only between the different models of modernisa- non-existence of their own culture compared to tion and/or colonial models. the colonising culture. They place themselves On the other hand, was there any other way in the abyss. Borrowing between equals is not a at all a century ago? I remind you that Estonian colonial relationship. nationality and culture were created at the high point of colonialism, when its values were not The emergence of “Estonians” and the subject to doubt. And it was created at the high “Estonian nationality” in the 19th century point of modernisation, when progress, the idea was surprising for many foreign researchers: of development and Europocentrism were cen- they did not see any logical path of develop- tral ideas, as was the consideration of European ment extending back into previous centuries culture and the European social model as being that would have indicated that those con- universal and the most advanced, without any cepts could emerge at some moment. Can it particular criticism. A different kind of devel- be said in the light of Post-colonialism that opmental path for Estonians at that time would these concepts did not actually emerge or, have required some sort of very original thinking. more precisely, that these concepts were not Estonian culture, society and nationality are the filled up by content? products of the era of modernisation. The nucleus Who is an Estonian? In the case of nation- of the idea of modernisation is development, origi- ality, a simple truth applies in its deeper core: nality and universality. This way of thinking has I feel that I am a member of nationality x, one basis for those who lag behind: we want to therefore I exist. And if there are many peo- catch up and become like others have already ple who feel that way, then that nationality become. You cannot catch up by thinking other- exists. Thus, becoming a nationality is not a wise. It was not possible to remain unaffected by question of logic at all. I think that the logic this way of thinking. Even more so, both Germany of the emergence of the Estonian national- and Russia were fascinated by the same kind of ity was very difficult to see in the light of ideology of catching up in the 19th-20th centu- those ways of thinking that prevailed and ries. The struggle between Russian Western sym- prevail in the world and which are defined pathisers and Slavophiles can be analyzed quite by scholars from large countries. There are a simply in post-colonialist and self-colonisation couple of simple, yet implicit, basic assump- terms. Germany constantly considered itself a tions. Only large people are capable of cre- country that lagged behind. Stalinism and Nazism ating something. Culture is a matter for the were large-scale modern projects for catching up upper classes, peasants do not have culture. and overtaking their competitors. According to these assumptions, a small But this ideology is not eternal. It was born people consisting of peasants cannot create and it died. Postmodernism came along and its culture in the same sense. essence was the idea of borrowing, circulation The Estonian nationality as a concept and assembly/ assemblage/ piecing together/ kok- definitely emerged. We use it every day. Are kupanemine?????. And along with it, the world these concepts filled with content? They came back again as a magical theatre that is definitely are, in light of Post-colonialism. guided by time, which eternally moves around The question is what we mean by content. in a circle, endless (partial) repetition, metamor- At this point, we arrive back at the question phoses, and the use of immemorial social models, of authenticity. beliefs and traditions. This also means precisely the idea of hybridity instead of originality. The concept of colonisation appears to Estonian society tried to catch up with imply something negative by default. Yet, Europe at all cost. The paradox is that those could colonisation – paradoxically – be a who were in the lead arrived at the same place, positive project instead for Estonians as where we had arrived at through our ideology of a small people? Would Estonian culture catching up as they were in the same place but in have been possible in the first place with- a new round. And now we are at the point where out the positive contribution of colonisers our hybridity fuses with the world’s hybridity. (for instance, Baltic German Estophiles) But the central point for me is that people or also negative contributions (different who consider themselves to be colonised start foreign powers under which the evolution looking up to the colonisers from below. And of identity was clearer and more intense)?

12 POST-COLONIALISM AND ESTONIA Kaljo Põllu. Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? 1978. Mezzotint, paper. 47.0 x 56.0 cm. Art Museum of Estonia Searching for ‘authenticity’ has characterised Estonian art from the early 20th century (Kristjan Raud and others). The 1970s saw a new wave of this searching. The most prominent representative of the wave was Kaljo Põllu, who had previously been active in pop art, op art, land art etc.

I do not have a reasonable answer to that A century and a half ago, spiritual or intel- question. We cannot play out history again. lectual presence was unthinkable without We can only draw some conclusions on the physical presence. But that changed in the basis of analogies. For instance, the Finns and 20th century with the telegraph, aeroplanes Latvians also had the same kind of helpers, and the Internet, which made physical pres- and that suggests that it would not have been ence secondary. And it also made the question possible. But that is only an analogy. of colonialism an intellectual problem first In my opinion, what is important is, rather, and foremost. Who is a coloniser in this kind the fact that the base of our nationality has of world? Isn’t almost the entire Internet cul- been strong opposition to Baltic Germans and ture one large act of spiritual colonisation and Russians. I believe that, without that opposi- self-colonisation? As far as I can tell, the heart tion, the national identity would be much of the matter lies in the fact that colonial cul- less intense. At the same time, however, such ture is based on something that existed before. an identity is a negative identity that relies, to Something that is completed. Something that a very great extent, on others. Psychologists is accepted as one’s own, and declared to be say that our picture of ourselves is strongly universal and valuable. And then it is taken based on Russians: we are what Russians are to the land of ’black people’. Nowadays, pro- not. And this in my opinion is a picture of cesses proceed everywhere in parallel. At least ourselves for which the way of thinking of according to this point of view, Estonia’s soci- colonised people forms the basis and in which ety is not a colonised country. there is too little strength. Is it possible to view the Russian Diaspora Is the occupation of physical space, coloni- here and the processes there in terms of sation, a preceding negative act that is abso- Post-colonialism? Or to view colonialism lutely necessary for a colonialist cultural in this way? relationship to emerge? Or is it possible If we interpret Soviet Estonia as a colonized to treat present-day Estonia not as Post- country and ourselves as people who have been colonialist but rather in terms of continu- liberated from colonialism, then we inevitably ing colonialism? have to view the Soviet Diaspora that remained

POST-COLONIALISM AND ESTONIA 13 here as a remnant outpost of colonialism. And more proper to speak of colonialism in par- then we can also view processes here in terms ticular, which is clearly a more ideological of Post-colonialism or anticolonialism at the concept than “cultural transfer”? same time not forgetting that we are in the role I also think that it was not classical colo- of Africans then. But as I said, I am not certain nialism. But I definitely do not think that the that this is so. At the same time, we can see that necessary attribute of colonialism is the higher a large proportion of Russians here interpret level of culture of the coloniser. Who meas- themselves as being analogous to white peo- ures whose cultural level and what gauges are ple who remained in Africa after the end of the used? Does India had a lower level of culture colonial relationship. than England? I am not at all certain that the cultural level of the typical Englishman who Olaf Mertelsmann has pointed out that the went to live in Africa was particularly high. We ESSR was not a case of classical colonialism automatically speak of the cultural level of the since here the level of the coloniser’s culture Russians who came here, not about the level was not higher. He prefers the expression of Russian culture or the cultural level of the “cultural transfer”, since “Post-colonialism” Russian aristocracy. And we all the time mix up sounds negative. Why, in your opinion, is it Russian and Soviet.

14 POST-COLONIALISM AND ESTONIA Jaan Elken. Seagull. 1982. Oil, canvas. 135.0 x 150.3 cm. And what is important is that entire ide- social differences that shape the everyday Art Museum of Estonia. ology of measuring levels of culture is based life of modernity. These different discourses As is often the case, on the idea of the universality of culture and help us to think about how hierarchies have photorealism (or hyperrealism) was society. Yet colonialism interpreted European run their affairs within modernity. Could introduced into Estonian cultural values as being universal. this also apply to Estonia – can we find out art with no original context, so hybridity and mimicry Post-colonialism is a collection of theo- anything about our modernity through Post- had to be used in a new ries that explicitly speaks about ideology and colonialism? What can we find out? context for the loaned style. Photorealism was also a power relationships. The aim of cultural trans- Yes. In my opinion, it is precisely the post- tool for non-conformist fer, as far as I can tell, is to become free from colonialist approach that allows us to see our avant-garde, for doing things ‘differently’, although its ideologisation and the power relationships. entire modernising process in a new way. I political and critical potential It is 21st century comparative-historical posi- believe that there were some answers to this in opposing colonising power tivism that wants to hide its head in the sand in the previous answers in my interview. was limited by its aesthetic resistance and quite modest instead of facing ideology. In my opinion, this The coloniser does not feel that he is miss- social irony. The white ship is fundamentally dangerous. Ideology that is ing something. On the contrary, he represents we see in the painting has many meanings, as the concealed is something that always leads its the universal. Yet the idea is planted in the symbol of a ‘white ship’ users on a leash. And, on the other hand, the minds of colonised people that they are not was commonly used in the 1940s to describe the relationship between our people and strangers part of the universal, that they are missing vague hope that the British has always been important for Estonian cul- something. By this they are made uncertain or some other navy would come to Estonia and free ture, whether we like it or not. Transfer strives so that they will start perceiving themselves us. The white ship we see to obscure this relationship. as “the other”, as people in front of whom the in the picture was the ship prefix non- or not- belongs. The most impor- which made regular trips to Finland, although only a very Are colonialism and Post-colonialism merely tant impetus is when somebody perceives, limited number of Estonians national-cultural concepts, or can they be to his surprise, that this gap is so large that it were allowed to go there. applied to socio-economic class differences? leads to cultural trauma; and due to this impe- Can the working class be viewed as a colo- tus, he begins to colonise himself. nised class that adopts certain customs, hab- Modernisation has, at the same time, been its and lifestyles of the ruling class? extrication from colonialism for Estonian This is a theoretical question of the limits of society. This has been done, to a great extent, the concept. Colonialism is in any case a hier- through self-colonialisation, which has also archical relationship, a relationship of strata, a been the liberation of oneself from colonial- class relationship. Yet should all such relation- ism. It is an attempt to take one’s fate into one’s ships be referred to as colonial relationships? Do own hands. On the other hand, modernisation we refer to analogous phenomena domestically has also been colonialisation. Baltic Germans and abroad, so to speak, differently or similarly? and Russians brought railways, the telegraph, If it is too broad, the concept begins to dismantle and the technology that is the foundation for itself. modernity, into Estonia. The Soviet regime I have written about colonialism as the atti- built large factories. These were the attributes tude of empire towards the periphery, the prov- of colonialism and, at the same time, they were ince, marginality and barbarism. I have said that also the attributes of modernisation. Estonians there is a clear colonial relationship in medieval consider Soviet industry to be an attribute of and early Renaissance Europe between nobles colonialism, but the railways and industry and peasants as “the other”. Wild land extends of tsarist rule are considered attributes of around castles and that wild land has to be colo- modernisation. By the way, Estonians did not nised, and the castles must be defended against particularly want to go to work in factories. it. As far as I can tell, those two were interpreted The worker was, in some sense, a Russian for as different lands. But this relationship changed Estonians and, as such, part of the stratum of over time. And I would not consider present-day colonisers. From this point, we approach the relationships in the terminology of colonialism. relationship of class and the coloniser in an There is no longer a substantial difference here. absolutely new way.

Homi K. Bhabha says in an interview that the history of colonialism, as well as that of, Tiit Hennoste for example, slavery, gender oppression and (1953), language scientist, literary scholar, critic, class differences, does not deal only with media analyst. See also classes, people and regions, but also with Estonian Art no 2/2010.

POST-COLONIALISM AND ESTONIA 15 The National Representation Beauty Contest Karolina Łabowicz-Dymanus

National exhibitions are what museums cultural exchange became intense again. and galleries like. However, what we often The Art Museum of Estonia, held several get under the slogan ‘national exhibition’ is presentations of Polish art, while the work a simple ‘ticking off’. Usually, it is the art of of Estonian artists was shown in Poland in less known countries, regarded as provincial smaller national exhibitions or large inter- artistic-wise, that is shown, and sometimes national group shows. The most important of such exhibitions are the result of a courte- those were Personal Time. Art of Estonia, Latvia ous diplomatic exchange. They always carry and Lithuania 1945–1996 (Zachta Gallery, the danger of succumbing to the temptation Warsaw 1996) and Closing the distance: images of to show ‘the best of’, the body in contemporary art from Estonia (Łania which usually means Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk 2002). a hotchpotch of works The Art of Estonia has a characteristic that, while artistically time frame. The show’s first part, Adapting sound, have little Modernity, encompasses the first half of the in common besides 20th century, and the second part, Provocations their country of ori- and Confrontations, begins in 2000. Such a gin. The curators choice may stem from an unwillingness of The Art of Estonia, to show art created in the Estonian Soviet shown first at the Socialist Republic, a period that still needs to National Museum in be thoroughly researched by art historians, Szczecin and then in its history yet to be rewritten. Another reason Warsaw, try to avoid may be the fact that Estonian art of the 1990s such conventional has already been presented in Poland in sev- Marko Mäetamm thinking about presenting the art of their eral larger and smaller exhibitions, including, Little Dramas 2008-2010 own country abroad. What makes their situ- partly, the above-mentioned Personal Time. Installation ation easier is the fact that Estonian art is not The Art of Estonia can be treated as two completely unknown in Poland. separate shows that enter into an interest- The two countries have a long tradition of ing dialogue with each other. Modernism cultural contacts. In the 19th century, many and the present time and their two different Poles came to study at the University of Tartu approaches to art – adapting international (the city then being known as Dorpat). During trends to the national tradition versus using the inter-war period, several exhibitions the contemporary artistic language to ques- presenting the art of the two countries took tion reality – highlight the paradox of such place as part of a mutual exchange between provincial countries as Estonia and Poland, Tallinn and Warsaw, the two largest of those which succumb to cultural self-colonisation in the 1930s. First, the newly opened Tallinn while trying to maintain their distinct identi- Art Hall held an exhibition of the works of ties. Eha Komissarov writes in the exhibition some of Poland’s most outstanding artists of catalogue about the ‘postcolonial’ attitude the period, including the sculptors Xawery of young artists who reject the invasion of Dunikowski and Henryk Kuna, and the paint- Western ideas and values, trying to focus on ers Bolesław Cybis, Antoni Michalak and themselves instead. However, it needs to be Jan Gotard. Then, in 1939, President Ignacy remembered that the artists she mentions Mocicki opened an exhibition of Estonian art do participate in the international art market at Warsaw’s Art Propaganda Institute, featur- after all, which means that, willingly or not, ing works by Kristjan Raud, Eerik Haamer, they have to play by its rules. They also use a Eduard Wiiralt, Ants Laikmaa and Andrus system of signs and meanings developed in Johani, among others. Unfortunately, avant- and by Western art. garde art was not featured in either of the Adapting Modernity has been arranged as shows. In recent years, the Polish-Estonian a separate presentation enclosed in a kind of

16 THE NATIONAL REPRESENTATION BEAUTY CONTEST frame. When entering and leaving the exhibition, the viewer is led through small rooms where archival photographs from Estonia are displayed. At the entrance are photographs from 1913-1915, showing very poor rural areas not yet reached by modernity. The selection provides the exhibition with an interesting context, presenting Estonia as a poor and backward country. Then the viewer is confronted with the work of artists living in such a reality and yet familiar with the most modern trends in art. Several photographs in a similar vein are presented in a small room at the end of the exhibition. Beside them hang photo- affirm their civilisational distinctness, which graphs from the 1920s and 1930s, showing manifests itself as a rebellion against imperial preparations for a party, a racing car, a popular cultures. Adorno discussed the attitude in the singer performing, oil tanks, and the beach in context of his negative dialectics. Examples Pärnu, with elegant sunbathers posing for the can be found in the works of Kristina Norman, camera in the company of two young black Mark Raidpere and Marge Monko, and in the men: the symbols of modernity, basically, project The Gas Pipe. Komissarov’s words on defined those days through the rhythm of artists’ postcolonial attitude and her stressing, machines and jazz music. The exhibition’s in both the exhibition and the catalogue, of structure, the choice of the works and the Estonian art’s authority-questioning role fit title all make the viewer aware of Estonians’ in the broader experience of Estonia’s regain- determination to absorb the most important ing her independence, achieving a status quo European trends, if only in the sphere of aes- with the Russian minority, joining the EU and thetics. Although avant-garde trends were the euro-zone and, more recently, struggling adapted on a rather superficial level by artists, with the effects of the global financial crisis. the result was still a kind of dialogue between All of which has also brought about changes modernity and tradition. in the status of groups previously discrim- In Provocations and Confrontations, a typi- inated against, such as women and homo- cally postmodern shift takes place towards sexuals. In this context, we find an interest- pluralism and issues not dealt with before, ing juxtaposition here of two manifestos of such as feminism, nationalism, homosexual- female independence, Monko’s work, where ity and opposition to the Western monocul- women factory workers discuss feminism, ture. As Edward W. Said writes in Culture and and the performance by Jõgeva, who tattoos Imperialism, postcolonial nations desperately a space for lovers’ names on her left breast, and between them, its meaning enhanced as a result, Mäetamm’s Little Dramas, where intimate household tragedies gain an extra sense of dramatic tension. This is because the experience of the vic- tims of domestic violence, just like that of prisoners, presented by Toomik, is very seldom dealt with in

THE NATIONAL REPRESENTATION BEAUTY CONTEST 17 the art discourse. Such persons do not speak While the combination of black, white and Kaido Ole The Band up for themselves either, which only increases blue is doubtless very attractive visually, it 2003-2005 their social exclusion. needlessly dazzles the audience with national Oil and acrylic on canvas But do the featured works really provoke? symbolism, which in Poland evokes rather 145 x 145 cm Exhibition view The sex- and violence-filled language of the pejorative associations with the far right and contemporary media means that the viewer ultra-conservatism. In the smallish space can hardly be shocked or thrown off balance of Provocations and Confrontations, the viewer any more. It also needs to be noted that provo- is exposed to a cacophony of overlapping cation is not something confined to contem- multimedia pieces and to a crowd, which, porary art. Though hardly identifiable as such paradoxically, benefits the paintings of Kaido today, it was also present in older art, includ- Ole. In the cube specially constructed for ing that presented in Adapting Modernity. Karin him, the viewer finds an opportunity for a Luts’s 1930s paintings of emancipated women breather and, quite unexpectedly, silence or Konrad Mägi’s Portrait of a Lady (certainly no and harmony. self-respecting lady would have allowed herself to be portrayed in a state of undress) may The exhibition The Art of Estonia – Adapting have been perceived by contemporary viewers Modernity / Provocations as far more provocative than contemporary and Confrontations shows historical and contemporary works are for us. Estonian art from the end What may appear provocative to the of 19th century until the present day. The exhibition Polish viewer is the use of national colours was organized by the in the design of the exhibition space, particu- Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn. Works come from larly evident in the Adapting Modernity part. the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia and from the Tartu Art Museum. The exhibition is curated by Tiina Abel, Eha Komissarov, Katarzyna Nowakowska-Sito and Izabela Mościcka. The exhibition was exhibited Karolina in 2011 in the National Łabowicz- Museum in Warsaw and in 2010—2011 National Dymanus Museum in Szczecin. is art critic and historian.

18 THE NATIONAL REPRESENTATION BEAUTY CONTEST THE CAC, VILNIUS Virginija Januskeviciute

When I think back, the exhibition felt quite In the very centre of the room usually similar to the Contemporary Art Centre’s referred to as the North Hall, there was a usual buzz. Several overlapping sound- telephone, a classic model from the Soviet tracks, uncovered equipment, black let- times in blue plastic. Devoid of a dial, it was tering, a few pale rectangles of unpainted clearly meant only for incoming calls, if any. wood, moderate traces of handicrafts and Once in a while, the telephone would ring. a few splashes of colour on a slightly worn Arranged along the walls around it there was modernist backdrop, finished in white wall a group of other exhibits: very convenient if paint and a light shade of epoxy for the floor. answering the call did not feel right. A flat A list of artists, a booklet and an opening. screen ceaselessly poured out an adoles- A former Exhibition Palace with a couple cent voice and visuals that invoked some of routes for visitors showing a few distinct online virtual world, such as Second Life, or takes on the world: two exhibitions on view graveyard-slot overnight TV. On its right, at a time. there was a dark doorway that you could slip

Exhibition views

IF IT’S PART BROKE, HALF FIX IT AT THE CAC, VILNIUS 19 Flo Kasearu. Best Before is Over. 2010. Short film

Johnson & Johnson. Layers of Commodity. Video Carina Gunnars and Anna Kindgren. The Coordinator. 2011. Video through to watch a cartoon mini-drama on a The themes of abandonment and dis- projection screen; it featured paper characters tancing prevailed in most artworks, by way that were trapped in a permanent lazy hour of of irony, the dissolution of common beliefs, a grocery shop and thus failed to make a living. a focus on boredom or uselessness, the alien- Apart from the soundtracks, the exhibits did ated market economy (Johnson & Johnson, not intrude on each other, so the visitors too among others) and estranged art techniques could easily share the room without interfer- (as in the works of Krõõt Juurak and Mårten ing. Someone with his/her back to you exam- Spångberg) and surveillance, a technology ined a small constellation of (photo)graphic of seeing through walls. To be more precise images and texts that echoed the rap rhymes regarding their attempts: the document files in from the opening night, and that person was the installation Corridor by Taaniel Raudsepp seemingly hesitant to lean down and pick up and Sigrid Viir were filled with reports from one of the posters off the floor. Someone was different authorities stating reasons for not actually stealing a book from the stack behind being able to provide the footage from their Dénes Farkas and Neeme Külm. Vytautas Didysis – the corner. You might as well answer the security cameras, most often citing their Witold the Great. 2011. phone. Anu Vahtra’s letter that was printed absence. The works often touched on the topic Installation inside of the cover of the exhibition booklet – of the ultimate escape: utopia. a note of the artist’s declining an invitation to Utopia was referred to explic- participate – spelled out what the whole exhi- itly or latently on various lev- bition seemed to be fuelled with: some deep els; even if the visitor was never doubts regarding the necessity of all this. In informed of the exhibition’s her introductory text, the curator, Margit Säde working title, Grey New Paradise, Lehni, described the exhibition’s primary aim it was written all over the urban as “looking into different ways of and reasons Brazil in Carina Gunnars’ and for disappointments and shame,” followed Anna Kindgren’s Coordinator, by an equally eager scrutiny of “speculation the myth of a mighty homeland and chance,” and compared her exhibition- in Denes Farkas’ and Neeme making method to a dice game (nowhere does Külm’s Vytautas Didysis – Witold it say that it needs to correspond with the visi- the Great, the narrative of Anna tors’ methods of unmaking the exhibition). Škodenko’s series of paintings, Without clearing the passages between those and in the half-mentioned idea sets of ideas, she chose to tie the whole project of a socially engaged exhibi- to the concept of something remaining in (or tion in general. One way to try being paused at) an unpopular state of ‘func- following the narrative of the tioning half-way’. exhibition was by following its

20 IF IT’S PART BROKE, HALF FIX IT AT THE CAC, VILNIUS ilvi Takala. Players. 2010. Video

Anu Pennanen. A Monument for the Invisible. 2003. Video installation

characters, as if the exhibition had been put together like a Greek myth. At first glance, the most prominent roles seemed to be played by females. That is, assuming that couples and androids are genderless: the faces multi- plied in the works of Anna Škodenko and Pilvi Takala don’t count. (The gender of actual artists has very little to do with this.) One was the blind protagonist of Anu Pennanen’s film A Monument for the Invisible. Watching a film that translates the experience of a blind person can part of the show. The chart of different hats, Triin Tamm. Stack of Books as Well as Book of be… unnerving. Blind fencing, an episode of including Rene Magritte’s signature one, Stacks. 2011. Artists’ Book which is shown in the film, can only be fair printed in Triin Tamm’s A Book of Stacks and if both fencers are equally deprived of sight; dedicated to The Man Who Mistook His Wife however, the exhibition’s insistence on ‘half- for a Hat, could perhaps best illustrate such ness’ and speculation, and especially the video a half-way detour from the gender-informed projector’s beam suggested a game involv- reading of the exhibition suggested above. ing privileges. Another was a coordinator of The Stalkers of the exhibition were re-occur- housing projects for the homeless in Brazil ring, quirky, often stylish, narcissistic gestures, (in Coordinator), who had worked towards pro- emerging with a pinch of history and a twist, viding other families with what she had just like the above-mentioned A Book of Stacks by achieved on her own. A third was a ballerina Triin Tamm, displayed as part of her installa- spinning around a cardboard model of an tion A Stack of Books, the oversized exhibition automobile in Johnson & Johnson’s Layers of labels, the hobbyist taxi driver Rytis Saladžius Commodity, a personification of machine-like (a professional actor’s first appearance in grace. And finally, most disturbing of them all contemporary art) or the text-performance in her persistence, there was a wicked clown by Darius Mikšys, Where is Your Piece (Dude)?. in the darkest end of an alley – a woman who Mikšys was present at the exhibition opening cried ceaselessly (Weeping and Moaning by Epp and, in private conversations, introduced his Kubu). But the exhibition seemed to suggest piece as a ritualised answer to one of the most that, contrary to the prevailing logic of suc- common questions at such events. In fact, his cess, following one line would not lead any- intention was to reconsider a list of participat- where, and turning half-way through might ing artists as a medium with a potential for prove to be more productive – in some para- autonomy, as one could learn from the exhi- doxical way, reminiscent of Andrej Tarkovski’s bition booklet, although the actual artists’ list Stalker, a movie that could very well have been of the exhibition remained fairly true to the

IF IT’S PART BROKE, HALF FIX IT AT THE CAC, VILNIUS 21 customary format. Or yet another peculiar Timo Toots. Helpdesk. appearance: the bagels served at the exhi- 2010. Installation bition opening by a group of writers who had never intended to work at a stove, but ended up settling for that job in search of a light-hearted way to deal with the legacy of Vilnius’ Jewish community. At best, the exhibition seemed to suggest that stopping half-way to somewhere might let you emerge in a place you never expected to be. It might well be seen as a commentary on the managerial rhetoric of the funding schemes for projects, including this exhibition: the over-defined notions of goals, continuity, audience and others. And as an exercise in exhibition making, and unmaking, it begged to be compared with walking through a maze in an open field: a luxurious amusement in a field so prone to dead-ends as is the field of art (a statuette of Vytautas the Great in a container filled with water from the Black Sea – really?).

If It’s Part Broke, Half Fix It at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, 28 January until 13 March 2011. Curated by Margit Säde Lehni.

Virginija Januskeviciute (1979), is a curator at the Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, and one of the founding editors of The Baltic Notebooks of Anthony Blunt (www.blunt.cc).

22 IF IT’S PART BROKE, HALF FIX IT AT THE CAC, VILNIUS Soviet Midnight Paintings by Raul Rajangu Early 1980s

White Night. Ambulance 1981 Mixed media 61 x 73 cm

DDR 1981 Mixed media 81 x 86 cm Tribune, 1982, Mixed media, 123 x 204 cm N. Burdenko Monument and Moskvich 401, 1982, Mixed media, 126 x 160 cm Monument 1982 Mixed media 85 x 56 cm Moscow. Red Square 1981 Mixed media 82 x 103 cm

Raul Rajangu (b 1960) is Estonian video and installation artist and a painter. Those paintings are from his series Soviet Midnight (created in 1981 and 1982). The series was exhibited for the first time in 2004. In the spring of 1980, Rajangu had finished secondary school and was practicing various ecstatic techniques (incl. fasting) to alter his state of consciousness. This was followed by an extremely intense creative period in 1981-82, which resulted in a large number of drawings made in heightened spiritual state. In addition to personal experience, he used as subject matter old family photographs and fragments of parading photo albums of the 1950s and 1960s, which he found in the attic of the Viljandi Culture Centre (he worked as a cleaner). Further inspiration was provided by children’s drawings displayed in the Culture Centre and the deliberately amateurish images, borrowed from these drawings, found a way into his subsequent paintings. If the first period of being in heightened spiritual state helped to find the ideas, the experiences in the second period, 1981-82, provided technique and form. Firstly, a contrast between simple images from children’s drawings and detailed, truly three-dimensional illusionist objects. Secondly, casein underpainting with its specific matte tone that calls to mind the coloured crayons of the Soviet period, and a collage technique seemingly originating from a school handicraft class. In the subsequent series of paintings, Rajangu used the specific green hue of the Soviet table paper as the background tone. As a result, in the series of paintings that could be seen in 2004 in the Draakon Gallery, vigorous expressiveness and images from children’s drawings cancel each other out. The paintings show the festivities and paragons of the Soviet society of the time - tribunes full of ageing fathers of the nation, Stalin on a pedestal, New Year’s tree no. 1 on the Red Square, and foreign cars as objects of ultimate desire.

Reet Mark

New Year’s Night 1982 Mixed media 128 x 130 cm Salto and The Garden of Eden Triin Ojari

If someone named a young Estonian architec- Let us start with the latter: architectural tural office who represented all the dash and competitions. Open competitions have verve, abundant forms and carefree spatial been among the most constant strategies in games usually associated with young success- Estonian architectural policy. Quite logically, ful architecture, a firm that ruled here and they have constituted a chance for younger now, this would probably be Salto. Various architects, since the 1990s, to ‘get a foot in the competition victories and cultural awards door ’. Most of the companies today whose keep coming, and the architecture created staff is under 40 started on the basis of a win- by Salto is photogenic and liked by all. The ning entry at a competition. In the newly local press, which normally ignores architects, independent country, where the construc- calls them ‘the golden Salto’,1 and a picture of tion boom was gathering force thanks to bor- a success story born in the boom period is rowed money and there was an acute short- complete. age of necessary rooms and houses, young The office was established eight years ago architects would have found work anyway. by three contemporaries, Ralf Lõoke, Maarja They could easily have started their careers Kask and Karli Luik,‘at the right time and without competitions – as was and is true in place’. Firstly, this is valid regarding their many East-European countries. The real win- generational timing: when they graduated ners at competitions are the public sector and from the Academy of Arts between 2004 and the state – this is a way to establish the best 2006, the myth of ‘youth’ and the reception solution for a number of objects run by local of new architecture in Estonian society had governments or the state, e.g museums, sports already occurred. Secondly, their method was buildings and schoolhouses. What matters is to bet entirely on competitions and thus col- the symbolic capital of these buildings, the lect a respectable number of public objects, message that the physical image of the public of which a large number were actually com- sector does not have to be dismal and grey, pleted thanks to the building boom. but can offer the best possible versions. The

Sõmeru Community Centre 2010 (completed)

Sõmeru Community Centre combines parish administration, library and a club with a hall. The new centre has to enhance a sense of identity in the quite scattered, mostly Soviet-time settlement. The community centre is single-storeyed, undulating roofline is a result of varying heights of the rooms. Its distinct character stems from using colourful straw- like wooden bars attached to the black-and-white concrete facade. The same aesthetics continues in the interior, only this time the slats are hanging freely from the ceiling.

SALTO AND THE GARDEN OF EDEN 23 Exhibition Grounds of the town architect in Tartu, the second largest choose work, always participate in a project, Estonian Road Museum town in Estonia, is Tiit Sild, who graduated keep the office and staff fairly small, accept 2010 from the Academy of Arts a few years before only projects with interesting programmes The concept of the the Salto people. He decided that all signifi- and social functions, usually commissioned exhibition grounds is based on a road – while passing cant objects in the town centre had to succeed by the public sector. “For us, the boom indeed by, one’s route will be at competitions; so far, Salto has built three offered us many exciting and inspiring pro- surrounded by different excellent structures in Tartu: a private resi- jects, there was a lot of work, and we seemed landscapes. All space necessary for the museum is 3 dence in Aleksandri Street (2007), an addition to be full of electricity all the time.” The rapid scooped into the hilly South- to a central school building (2009) and the increase in building activities and influx of Estonian landscape, leaving rest of the environment as sports complex of the Estonian University money also meant that, besides cardboard natural as possible: natural of Life Sciences (2009). The overall result for boxes in fields and massive commercial archi- and artificial landscape is clearly separated, yet the Salto architects is amazing: 38 awards in tecture, the choices at the other end of the treated equally. A hollow 46 competitions! The visible tip of the ice- architectural scale increased as well. Salto has ranging from 10 cm to 4 m deep forms more than berg, i.e. the already completed objects, con- its own niche there. 13 000 square meters stitute seven buildings. In addition to the Salto won their first awards at competi- of open-air exhibition above-mentioned, there have also been such tions in 2003–2004, thus certainly arriving space which is barely visible from the remote winning entries as the Sõmeru Centre and in the architecture arena at the right time. surrounding areas. the surrounding area of the Estonian Road The ground had been prepared in more than

Museum (both competitions took place in one sense; after all, Estonian clients and the Gas Pipe (at the Venice 2004). Another winning entry was the Gas more progressive-minded part of society were Biennial of Architecture) 2008 Pipe, which represented Estonia at the Venice already used to the youthful image of architec- Biennial of Architecture and attracted a ture, modern aesthetics and bold solutions. By Along one of the main pedestrian avenues in great deal of international acclaim in 2008. that time, the Estonian republic and its built Giardini park, in between Participating in competitions is a habit with environment had been shaped for over 10 the pavilions of Russia and the Salto architects, or in their own words: “If years, and several architectural offices were Germany, a 60m section of real scale elevated gas pipe we did not take part in a competition, it would successfully operating with staff who had was erected. The project is feel as if we had played truant from school.”2 graduated from the Academy in the 1990s. inspired by a controversial enterprise of Nord Stream, a The building boom and winning entries Although they are all of the same generation, Gazprom initiative to build a at competitions shaped the playing field for there are still perceptibly different trends and direct gas pipe from Russia to Germany. The initial Salto, as well as for several other younger styles among the young architects. In contem- project of Nord Stream to architectural offices in Estonia. This situa- porary younger Estonian architecture, much build the pipeline into the tion certainly causes envy among their West- has been said about the ‘spatial change’, the Baltic Sea has been widely contested from ecological as European contemporaries: to be themselves, transfer of focus from individual objects to well as geopolitical positions.

24 SALTO AND THE GARDEN OF EDEN buildings, educational establishments, not to mention the main activity of the private sector: a senseless building mania in the fields around larger towns. Although Salto also participated in a few planning competitions, even the most promising of them – the design of the Skoone bastion area in Tallinn (2005) – is now lying dormant. Salto have always been keen on spatially uniting an architectural object and the surrounding environment, their forms are recognisably ‘flowing’, ‘flexible’ and ‘folded ’, and they move masses and encourage people to use their houses, to make an event of their relationship with the house. Salto’s buildings have been characterised by the architectural historian Carl-Dag Lige as follows: “Dynamic spatial treatment, plasticity balancing on the boundary of icon-making, and an attempt to activate the user by (artificial) landscape.” Lige regards them as bearers of ‘thin aesthetics’, with pragmatic, occasionally even jolly handwriting, who resemble the superhero a wider scale and to the urban environment; of young Danish architecture, Bjarke Ingles two architecture lecturers at the Academy, (BIG).5 “We cannot help here,” quoting the Veljo Kaasik and Andres Alver, are regarded architect Rem Koolhaas, who greatly influ- as the engineers of this change. Opinions, enced contemporary European young archi- however, vary: some claim that these lecturers tecture, and who as early as the early 1990s, simply instil in their students the architect- when the Salto people were still in school, artist position of the lecturers’ own genera- established optimism as an essential position, and neglect urban issues and technical tion for an architect: “Architecture cannot be 1 Tanel Veenre. Kuldne aspects of building. Observing the increas- created in any other way; the architect simply Salto: Ralf Lõoke, Maarja Kask ja Karli Luik. – Eesti ingly commercialised urban environment, must suppose that his work is useful for the Päevaleht, 24.04.2010, http:// others conclude that the radical change in world, has a positive effect. I do not consider www.epl.ee/artikkel/575587 2 Triin Ojari. Interview: urban construction has remained a mere theo- myself to be too great an optimist, but I try to Salto. – New European Architecture. A10 Yearbook retical architectural discussion, and that the produce certain situations and conditions in 2010–2011. Amsterdam, SUN most successful modern architecture only my projects which almost artificially enforce Architecture, 2010, pp 35-37. 3 Ibid consists of formally excellent individual some optimism. /---/ My work is knowingly 4 See e.g: Role of the designs, houses. What are missing are the non-utopian; it consciously tries to operate Architect and the Quality of Urban Space. Roundtable environmental thinking, general planning within the existing circumstances without suf- discussion. – Boom/Room. New Estonian Architecture. Ed. culture and the wish of public authorities to fering, without non-agreement and without by Pille Epner. Tallinn, Eesti actually protect the public interest in urban all other types of narcissism that our architects Arhitektide Liit, 2009, pp 65-73. 4 6 environments. In that sense, Salto represents have.” It is particularly this pragmatism in 5 Carl-Dag Lige. Salto AB Experiential Architecture people of a pragmatic age. At the turn of the analysing architectural conditions, typical of and the Sõmeru Community millennia, several clearly utopian urban the post-Koolhaas generation who grew up Centre. – MAJA, 2011, no 1. 6 Rem Koolhaas. planning competitions were organised by with MTV and Photoshop, an eagerness to Conversations with Students. the Union of Estonian Architects. There was mix a building’s functions and display rec- Ed. By Stanford Kwinter. Princeton Architectural talk of designing the seaside area and the typi- ognisable modernism in their aesthetics that Press, Rice School of cal flâneur-like charm of Tallinn’s wastelands. is also a key to Salto’s works. It is the concept, Architecture, 1996, p 65. However, from that time onwards, both archi- the spatial idea, which interests them, whereas tectural competitions and urban development material and form merely support the idea, Triin Ojari (1974), architectural have clearly focused on houses. As mentioned whether a wish to transform a school-yard historian, editor in chief before, the loan-race arrived, as did the period into a collective amphitheatre, or install a of magazine MAJA. Mostly writes about modern of European Union grants, and immediately snaking yellow gas pipe in the Venice Biennial architecture and urban vigorous activities started: sports and cultural Park, which resembles the Garden of Eden. design.

SALTO AND THE GARDEN OF EDEN 25 Business & Retail Complex in Tallinn Harbor Invited competition in 2007 (1st prize)

Baltic Film and Media School To be completed in 2012

26 SALTO AND THE GARDEN OF EDEN Historical Barge Society Building Invited competition in 2009 (1st prize)

NO99 Straw Theatre 2011

Renovation and Extension of Latvian National Museum of Art Competition in 2010 (2nd prize)

G4S Office Building Invited competition in 2011 (1st prize)

Sports Hall of the Estonian University of Life Sciences 2009

SALTO AND THE GARDEN OF EDEN 27 Interview with Karli Luik from SALTO

Eero Epner (EE): You set up your architec- because it is so intensely used, and various tural office in 2004 when various other new functions can be unexpectedly mixed, which companies had already started: Kosmos could also provide a spatial logic with fascinat- and Kavakava in 2002, and KOKO Architects ing nuances and exciting aspects. Estonian a few years earlier. It seems to me that you art, including architecture, constantly looked all have more or less similar ideas about back into the past until the early 1990s, and architecture and space, and have intro- tried to interpret it. duced a new compact concept into Estonian architecture. If you agree with this, can you What is your relationship with the history of tell me what kind of conceptual principles Estonian architecture? Has it been an inspi- the new architects mostly rely on? If you do ration or does it create a kind of context to not agree, then tell me why you don’t. be reckoned with? Karli Luik (KL): Well, there are certainly We are inevitably part of Estonian culture similarities, but also differences. The allegedly and relate to it, at least unconsciously. The totally new concept is, of course, an exaggera- source of inspiration emerging for each object tion; it is difficult to make such major gener- is individual, and earlier Estonian architecture alisations, especially if you are involved your- has occasionally certainly had an impact. We self. Maybe we can talk about a shift from an are great fans of Valve Pormeister. This should object-focused approach to an approach that be pretty obvious from looking at the Straw values and creates architecture as an envi- Theatre, although the form of the building ronment. However, this is not really a novel was derived from the landscape and the exist- idea or tendency, just the establishing of new ing staircase, which produced a formally simi- emphases. lar architectural treatment.

Is it an accident that you are mainly archi- How important for you is what might be tects of public buildings (schools, muse- called ‘your own handwriting’? ums, a county hall, sports buildings, a It is not that important, and I actually try library, a theatre etc)? You have designed to avoid it. Our works are quite different, business and office buildings as well, but although there are many similarities as well. the emphasis is not there. And secondly, Maybe the common factor lies in value crite- what does it actually mean to design a pub- ria and thought schemes that are visualised lic building artistically and ideologically? indirectly. I rather fear that if something called Does it give you more liberty? And, to be handwriting becomes too obvious the archi- honest, is it somehow a bigger success for tectural emphasis has been misplaced. the architect if his building is in public use? It is hardly accidental; after all, public You have designed both in town and in buildings are the ones for which competi- the countryside. What has been the most tions are organised. The business and office demanding environment? Why? buildings that have reached us have largely On the whole, we rather like complicated arrived via invited competitions. So, it is sim- and demanding environments. If the environ- ply the inevitable result of the logic and pro- ment is dense, and there are many aspects to file of how our office operates. I am against consider, it is in fact easier to create architec- such a classification of our work, where you ture. It is much more difficult for us to come could say that certain types of work are more up with a pretty building in an empty field, important than others. Our attitude towards which would be quite a challenge for us. any work is rather similar and we try to find the intriguing aspects of the specific func- It has often been noted how well your build- tion or location we start with in creating the ings fit into the surroundings: they could building or the environment. A public build- really be nowhere else. The transitions and ing is more intriguing in many ways, mainly borders are vague, and it is not clear where

28 INTERVIEW WITH KARLI LUIK FROM SALTO the building starts and where the landscape ends. Is this something you vigorously pur- sue? We have not written a manifesto or compiled a list of things that good architecture must observe. Every time we start, we start from scratch; if we only have the location and the recommended typology, then the landscape and the existing environment are the primary foundations we rely on. On the Every building involves interfering with the Models of Salto buildings Exhibition in 2011 whole, I think it is rather unfair to force archi- original, with whatever is already there, and Exhibition view tecture, landscape architecture and interior thus a conflict to a certain extent inevitably Models made by Pelle-Sten Viiburg architecture, into the framework of different emerges. The question is how to interfere, what and Maarja Kask projects. to relate to, what to emphasise, and you have no choice but to pay more attention to some In his essay Conflict in Modern Culture, aspects than others. The idea of how to do this Georg Simmel wrote a long time ago that can at best be clear-cut and sharp. Architecture no form can possibly express the constant should have a healing effect on a split environ- flow of modern life. It seems to me that your ment that has suffered numerous conflicting buildings, although they are supposed to interferences. Architecture should be a kind of last for a very long time, somehow play with prescription, although occasionally you need the topic of architecture’s temporality and extensive surgical interference, but I would not timelessness. They do not appear to be pre- call this totality. tentious or forceful, the kind that would demand attention, but rather the other way Whose work inspires you? round, and they often seem temporary or Work that is able to surprise. momentary buildings. Is this poetic wan- dering associated with your own ideas at Are you eager to expand as an office, par- all? ticipate more in competitions abroad and I agree that it is quite silly to try and other such things? express an abstract idea with a form, and We do not have the ambition to expand: that this is generally destined to fail anyway. we are bigger or smaller according to the Besides, there is a danger of producing a situation, and we clearly perceive that if we weird stylish excess. Architecture should be became really big, our office would have to a good friend with whom we flow along, and start working on quite a different basis, and not a means to express something, not some- would resemble a factory rather than a creative thing that stands outside life, and is static and group of people. We are not keen on this, at comatose. Our works occasionally operate as least not at the moment. Participating in com- shortcuts, a new surprising space, or an inter- petitions abroad is certainly on the agenda and twining additional layer, amplification of the we would like to produce interesting work in existing. The basic truth lies in the location other parts of the world as well. and logic of the building, and not in elaborate details and dashing form. How would you describe the state you are in at present? Are you totally confident, or You always rely on the peculiarities of land- tired, or waiting for some radical change, or scape, and have designed buildings that would you prefer to maintain and confirm reach into a river, or sit on a peninsula and what you have already found? join two shores, or are made of straw. Would A bit tired, more self-confident than ever SA LTO is architectural bureau you call this ‘adapting a building to nature’ before, and looking forward to new chal- situated in Tallinn. See more or is it instead a kind of totality? lenges. www.salto.ee

INTERVIEW WITH KARLI LUIK FROM SALTO 29 CONTEM ENCOMP Interview with Maria Lind

The Tamayo Take at the Museo Tamayo, Mexico Eero Epner (EE): In your essay Selected City 2012, with works by Nodes in a Network of Thoughts on Curating Matias Faldbakken, Claire you define the task of the curator not just Barclay, Doug Ashford “choose randomly from the readymade dishes on offer”, because “recipes must be reformulated for every occasion”. At the same time one notices that in the field of art institutions more and more retrospective exhibitions and exhibitions based on star-artists and their fetish-art works are held in order to gain more audience. Do you yourself feel in your work this contra- diction, and what seems more reasonable for you: to ‘fight’ against this tendency, or to use or at least to move toward some alterna- tive art institution system? Maria Lind (ML): My impulse is to try and be sensitive to the needs of art and artists, and to develop formats for how to make art go public according to that, in relation to the where and when of the project. One example of that is how we at the Kunstverein München did a retrospective with Christine Borland which lasted for one year during 2002–2003 because we only ever showed one work at a time. Another example is the retrospective we did there with Rirkrit Tiravanija in 2004, in the form of a one-week long workshop preceeded by a weekend meeting. This retrospective was made as a collaboration between the artist, a number of his former students and curators, critics and fellow artists who have followed his work. The Munich retrospective acted as the spring board for his more discussed, at least in the media, subsequent retrospective exhibitions at ARC in Paris, Museum Boijmans van

30 CONTEMPORARY ART ENCOMPASSES ALL THE REST ONTEMPORARY ART MPASSES ALL THE REST

Beuningen in Rotterdam and the Serpentine a private collection, with or without access by Gallery in London. In both cases the format the general public? I believe that it is necessary was closely developed in relation to the logic to be highly context-sensitive in every situ- and the sensibility of the art itself. I am think- ation, regardless of funding structure, scale ing a lot about the ‘forking’ which is going of the institution, geographical location etc. on in the world of contemporary art today. This being said, a characteristic of the early Of course there have always been different 21st century is the blending of private and tendencies, groups and cliques but rarely public with commercial galleries supporting before have we seen such a division between their artists’ projects in public institutions, what we could call the mainstream and the sponsorship deals etc, but also a separation sidestreams. Or rather the major and minor between the two. Private collectors set up strands. The minors are the ones which are their own institutions to a much higher degree less visible in media terms and certainly less than before and most of the time this means funded, whereas the majors occupy plenty that they stop supporting public institutions of media space and attract money of differ- with donations of work and money, which ent kinds, both public and private. However, they did historically. At the end of the day the the minors tend to be the site where new public institutions then have to deal with a ideas are developed, where content is being double minus: budget cuts from the authori- provided to speak ‘neoliberalish’. It seems to ties plus the withdrawal of private support. be that we are facing a serious issue with the As with any other kind of private property it majors becoming more and more empty and is up to the owners what they do, they are not spectacular, promoting the easily-consumed accountable to anyone else. It should also and consensus-friendly. At the same time the be remembered that there are private col- minors are involved with extremely impor- lectors who set up foundations to support tant and interesting activities which are fairly certain kinds of art, in a less ‘selfish’ and/or closed. So the majors become more and more business-minded way. Like the Patricia Phelps empty and the minors preach to the already de Cisneros Foundation, with headquarters converted. How long can this go on before in New York, which focuses on art from Latin we have a serious crisis where both ‘dry out’ America and which does not have museum or and stagnate? None can really survive without any other physical place other than offices and some aspetcs which the other harbors. storage. Instead it gives grants to artists, critics and curators from that region, it purchases How would you describe the task of an art work for the collection which circulates in institution, that is owned by state or muni- the form of exhibitions, it buys work which cipiality? How does it differ from the tasks is then being donated to public collections, private art gallery has? What does ‘public it publishes books on related topics etc. It is space’ mean in today’s art field? essentially a support structure rather than an This is an essential but difficult question. endeavor which aims at boosting and promot- It depends on each case, and we should be ing the collection and its owners. Something careful in distinguishing what we mean by pri- similar goes for ‘public space’, i.e it depends. It vate art gallery. Is it a commercial gallery? Or would require a separate essay to flesh it out.

CONTEMPORARY ART ENCOMPASSES ALL THE REST 31 of contemporary art. This is not the case anymore, for various reasons. One You have spoken about resistance on very many and differ- reason is that the arenas of ent levels. When talking about Philippe Parreno for exam- written and published criti- ple, You mention that “the demonstration that was once an cism have both shrunk and illegal form of collective protest has more recently become changed. Another is the rise an ‘institution’, and one that is typically strictly regulated”. of curating as a form of con- And when talking to Apolonija Šušterši, you mention that her scious and common form art has “certain similarities with the way Michael de Certeau of articulation in the field describes the potential of the everyday to undermine the of art. The forming of the sensibility of the dominant culture”. How important for agenda today is typically you when working with artists is the notion ‘resistance’? And happening within curating. what kind of resistance? But whereas art criticism This is a great observation that you are making. Resistance has lost some of its impe- yes, but more than anything challenging status quo is important tus, writing on art, or per- to me. To twist and turn the given preconceptions and condi- haps better writing along tions. I am as a human being committed to not automatically side art, has also become accept things which are handed down to us, the desires which more interesting. Because it are imposed on us, whether it is social norms, political sys- appears to be more diverse, tems or understandings of art. And art is a fantastic form in this forming hybrid kinds of regard. In art everything can be different, as it were. Everything texts which become public Can Be Different was also the title of an exhibition which I curated online, within exhibition for the Independent Curators International in the US in 2001, contexts etc. So to my mind with works by for example Apolonija, Pierre Huyghe, Annika art criticism is weaker and Eriksson and Superflex. Liam Gillick did the publication. less interesting today but writing in relation to art The title of your book is Selected Maria Lind Writing. I myself is not only productive but find the notion ‘writing’ in the context of today’s art field also exciting. And influ- very noteworthy, and I have the feeling that ‘writing on art’ ential. I am thinking of does not mean the same thing as it did 20–30 years ago. What everything from the e-flux is your opinion, what role does ‘writing on art’ as such play journal and blogs like i in today’s art field, and what kind of function does it have? heart photograph to artists First of all art criticism has lost some of the influence it had who write fiction as part in 20 years ago or more. Then it definitely shaped the agenda of their art, for example

32 CONTEMPORARY ART ENCOMPASSES ALL THE REST The Tamayo Take at the Museo Tamayo, Mexico City 2012, with works by Mai-Thu Perret, Doug Ashford, Claire Barclay, Goldin+Senneby

The Tamayo Take at the Museo Tamayo, Mexico City 2012, with works by Gunilla Klingberg, Aade Guyton, Emily Roysdon, Liam Gillick, Goldin+Senneby and the most powerful platform for speak- Works from the project Abstract Possible in Mexico ing about contemporary art is... Facebook. City. See more www. The web site, which is being used elsewhere abstractpossible.org for finding dates and mates, is in Estonia a democratic tool for contemporary art criticism.) Well. What I want to ask is: is there a way out also for art criticism? To add to what I mentioned before: as the media landscape has gone through some very palpable structural changes over the last two decades, with big cuts of money and space at newspapers and magazines, so has art criticism. Particularly in newspapers. The phenomenon of the ‘discursive turn’ in art, Matias Faldbakken, and artists who write in other words the desire to discuss and in alongside their other work, like Hito Steyerl other ways exchange in and around art, has and Marion von Osten. In my case writing is taken on some of the functions of art criticism crucial, even obsessive. I write all the time. used to have to debate. I take this to be part It is a way of articulating and producing of a larger development in culture towards ideas. It is my mental metabolism. But it was direct engagement rather than influence not until we started to work on Selected Maria through representation. You can see this in Lind Writing that I realized how much I have the increase in popular street protests from written since the late 1980s. For the first Seattle 1999 to North Africa, the Middle East time ever it struck me that to some degree and Spain this spring, as well as in demands I am a writer. Instead of selecting my own for various forms of self-governance. text, or asking one other person I was able, thanks to the great support of Caroline When somebody interviews a today’s art Schneider at Sternberg Press, to invite five curator, he/she rarely asks about art, and people who were sent a big pile of texts, prefers speaking about different art insti- most of what I have written in English since tutions. The same has happened here. So I the mid 90s. They then made individual would like to ask also about art, one plane Maria Lind selections and wrote a brief introduction (1966), a curator and critic. and simple question: does art still has the to their selections. In this way I was hoping She has recently been power to save the world? that my own work would be subjected to a appointed artistic director Contemporary art remains, for me, the of IASPIS in Stockholm. process of scrutiny and selection which I Between 2001 and 2004 she most exciting and fruitful form of under- myself as a curator perform in relation to was director of the München standing that I know, on par with philosophy, Kunstverein. Previous to that other people’s work. I am delighted with she was curator at Moderna science, religion, politics etc. The difference the result. Museet in Stockholm (from between contemporary art and the rest, how- 1997–2001) and in 1998 was co-curator of Manifesta 2 ever, is that it engages with and encompasses I might be mistaken, but I have the feel- Europe’s nomadic biennale all the rest. It is a huge sponge which can be ing that you often speak about the critical of contemporary art. Her squeezed and reshaped and new things will book Selected Maria Lind power the art has, but seldomly about the Writing brings together come out of it. Contemporary art helps us power art criticism has. In Estonia many twenty-two essays of hers. ask new questions, formulate different ideas, The collection of essays claim that art criticism has become a tool, spanning from 1997 to 2010 propose unknown visions and unheard ways that it has totally institutionalised and is forms a tapestry of Lind’s of acting. It shapes the necessary stories and own interweaving interests: therefore not legitimate. (One intresting essays on individual imaginaries, collective and individual, of our fact, that has happened, is that several art artists, monographic and time. Which is crucial for the existence of any group exhibitions, funding critics ignore daily newspapers and even structures, new contexts society. To ask from it to save the world seems cultural weeklies, they don’t write there, and spatial paradigms. to be an impossible, and even unfair, demand.

CONTEMPORARY ART ENCOMPASSES ALL THE REST 33 Notes on Paul Kuimet Pille Epner

Paul Kuimet is one of the new names in see life. Kuimet is right in thinking that hav- Estonian photography. His work has stood ing no people in his pictures emphasises the out in recent years for its critical and sensi- traces of their activities in the environment. tive treatment of topical themes. The young Paul Kuimet’s first personal exhibition, In photographer recently received his BA from Vicinity, took place at the Hobusepea Gallery the Photography Department of the Estonian in Tallinn in 2010. It consisted of a series of Academy of Arts. In addition to the Academy, photographs and two videos, and tackled the he has studied in London and Helsinki, and topics of (sub)urbanism and social space from also studied film and video at the Baltic Film his personal viewpoint. He recorded the area and Media School for one year. He has partici- where he grew up near Tallinn, showing how pated in at least eight group exhibitions and it gradually mutated into yet another prairie one personal exhibition at the Hobusepea on the outskirts. It is a melancholic illustra- Gallery in 2010. Kuimet’s latest exhibition can tion of the process which Estonian society be seen, outside Estonia, in Austria. Kuimet, experienced in the boom years of the early still a student, is naturally greatly influenced 21st century. Fresh plaster, new cars and a by the Academy. The peculiarity of the perfect tiny patch of lawn, with hay, thistles, Academy of Arts’ Photography Department, brushwood, and heaps of building rubbish compared with other local institutions with on the other side of the garden fence. Man’s similar aims, is that it tries to prepare artists presence is only evident in the bluish glow of a to feel at ease in the entire field of interna- television (although the ear recalls the distant tional contemporary art. 1 The emphasis is on purr of a lawn-mower and the dull creaking of a camera-based approach, but includes other a trampoline). A rising standard of living and aspects. The broad approach naturally poses favourable bank loans fulfilled the dream of the threat of becoming too vague. However, a many Estonians of escaping high-rise or slum chance to enter the art world early on certainly areas and settling in small houses just outside encourages students to actively seek their own the town amidst nature. An extremely liberal themes and handwriting. Exciting artists thus planning policy resulted in huge numbers of catch the public eye and get their first solo real estate villages spilling unchecked beyond exhibitions even before they graduate. This the city borders. Unfortunately, these houses has certainly been true of Paul Kuimet. Photos cannot offer any of the values the new inhabit- of houses, architectural details and landscapes ants were looking for: privacy, security, origi- on the outskirts of a city – the man-made nality or beautiful nature. Alienation from urban environment seems to be the theme people’s more extensive living space – the Paul Kuimet records. However, despite his neighbourhood – is further intensified by cool documentary manner of depiction, he is the Soviet legacy, i.e new inhabitants coming by no means a traditional architectural pho- from urban apartment blocks identify only tographer. His approach is based on research, with their immediate living space, and ignore i.e the lens is pointed towards the physical everything beyond it. Work and social com- environment, but his keen eye sees beyond munication occur in town and entertainment it. We see the space for living, but we do not centres, so there is no motivation to create any

34 NOTES ON PAUL KUIMET Untitled 2 From the series In Vicinity 2008- Pigment prints 70x70 & 87.5x70 cm

Untitled 3 In Vicinity From the series In Vicinity Exhibition view 2008- Hobusepea Gallery Pigment prints March 2010 70x70 & 87.5x70 cm

Untitled 15 (Cigarette) From the series In Vicinity 2008- Pigment prints 70x70 & 87.5x70 cm

NOTES ON PAUL KUIMET 35 Relative Luminosity public space in the vicinity of their homes. An the manner of depiction is more ascetic and 2010 Pigment prints on panels easy parallel emerges with the massive build- the content more concentrated. Relative Various sizes ing activities on the outskirts of American Luminosity is a space-empirical installation Installation cities in the 1970s and the dismal results of which plays with the viewer’s sense of sight. this process, reflected by landscape and urban Most memorable from In Vicinity are perhaps photographers.2 The ‘new-topographic move- the shots taken in early evening: the sky is ment’ 3 united the fields of photography and still light, the clouds are dramatic, and the art, a cool documentary style and a social- space between the houses is already vanish- psychological message, and elevated the banal ing into shadows. In vain, you try to see into and mundane to an aesthetically acceptable rooms, behind the facades, where the inhabit- state. The Estonian photographer Paul Kuimet ants have withdrawn into their lives, passions follows the same tradition: his critical social- and personalities. In Relative Luminosity, the political commentary on the destruction of viewer enters almost total darkness. When his childhood places has been captured in an the eyes slowly adjust, dark and light details aesthetic, occasionally even picturesque form, gradually emerge, which together form one which sharply emphasises the dysfunctional view of a fragmented house on the outskirts. essence of the recorded environment and the The artist’s aim was to produce a direct expe- ghostly, almost irrational atmosphere. In sev- rience which would make viewers aware of eral subsequent projects, Paul Kuimet devel- their unconscious wish to peep into lit win- oped the topics begun in In Vicinity, although dows, to participate in other people’s lives.

36 NOTES ON PAUL KUIMET This wish is more intense in anonymous new and outer form of expression urban districts, where neighbours do not of ‘home’, but from a strangely know one another and where the fragmented shifted perspective, producing photographic image clearly belongs. Who in viewers certain perceptual knows what kind of world will be revealed in disorders and a feeling that they that mute introvert box of a house? In 2010 are seeing something that is usu- Paul Kuimet displayed two projects in Linz, ally hidden from the eye. This Austria, within the framework of the EU pro- phenomenon, in fact, constitutes ject Urban Installations. Both tackle the relation- the main charm of Paul Kuimet’s ship between personal and public space in the photographs. They show the urban context. The place-specific installation surrounding world, the mun- Untitled (246x343), in the vicinity of the Lentos dane everyday environment, Art Museum, uses the entrance building of from a slightly different angle, the underground car park as a light box. The in a new light, and thus patterns photographic transparent, a window covered may emerge which would other- with Venetian blinds, is lit by lights inside the wise remain concealed behind building, thus producing a new, partially illu- the veil of familiarity. Becoming aware of one’s Relative Luminosity 2010 sory architectural element. This work relies surroundings, however, is a huge step towards Pigment prints on panels on instincts similar to those of a photographic improving it. Various sizes project in the darkroom: seeing the lit win- Installation dow, the human brain projects an imaginary 1 The work and aims of today’s Photography Department are directed by Marco Laimre, an room behind it, which only exists in the mind. artist-professor with anarchist views. The lit window exudes mystery and an urge 2 Associations with the phenomenon are also referred to in immediately emerges to peep in and solve Liina Siib’s article about Kuimet’s personal exhibition: Liina the mystery – to adapt the imaginary room Siib, In Vicinity, or this is what we bought, Kunst.ee 2010/1–2 to the real one. The exhibition Not Necessarily 3 New-topographic photography got its name from the Paul Kuimet So was compiled by Kuimet together with 1975 exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man- (1984), is a visual artist working Altered Landscape (curator William Jenkins) in New York, with photography and installation. another Estonian photographer, Laura Toots. which is regarded as one of the most influential exhibitions See also www.paulkuimet.com. The central concept is unheimlich, a German of photography in the last quarter of the 20th century. word meaning ‘uncanny’, ‘eerie’, literally ‘non-homey’. The home videos of Toots’s and Pille Epner, Kuimet’s photo-wallpaper depict the inner art critic, currently working at the Union of Estonian Architects.

Untitled (246x343) 2010 Transparency mounted behind glass 246x343 cm Installation in public space, Linz, Austria

NOTES ON PAUL KUIMET 37 Project Unison. Jammer Project Unison. Jammer/Segaja is compiled from a live-session narrowcasted Trainpulse Dec 18, 2002 on 105,8 Mhz in Tallinn with a low- power mono FM transmitter. Jammer looked into the The album Trainpulse possibilities of experimenting with the broadcasting presents the acoustic medium and technology in an open musical session. improvisation recorded Everyone was invited to participate with a favourite acoustical in the former railway instrument or a sound device. The concept of this project passenger pavillion of the explored the idea of jamming with/against all other perfor- Baltic Station on June 16, mers and the other commercial broadcast stations in Tallinn. 2000 in Tallinn, Estonia. The project documentation was also exhibited in Tallinn art galleries.

38 WHAT IS ESTONIAN SOUND ART? WHAT IS ESTONIAN SOUND ART? Maria Juur

In spring 2010, I chose sound art and, more temporary/avant-garde music that holds a specifically, Estonian sound art as the topic privileged place in Estonian culture, being of my Bachelor’s thesis at the Institute of Art funded by the state and respected by the peo- History of the Estonian Academy of Arts. ple. Contemporary art, often described in the Immediately, I had to ask myself how to define public as a waste of the taxpayer’s money, is this very loose set of practices and whether it seen as a pastime for a small circle of practi- made any sense to try to talk about them in the tioners. Alan Licht draws on Stubbs’s polemic Project Unison. Circles of Grass local art world context. My research revealed and suggests that, as music and film are usu- Circles of Grass was recorded just how under-theorised sound art is – in ally tied to commercial interests, ‘sound in Tallinn and Vormsi island, Estonia in 2003. Estonia and in general. The aim of my thesis art’ becomes the ‘saviour’ umbrella-term. At April 28, an improvised was to introduce this phenomenon and focus Encompassing complex, interdisciplinary session was held at the former rubber factory on Estonian artists whose work can be seen pieces of art/music, sound art creates a place ‘Polümeer’. Piano strings as being positioned between art and exper- under the sun for them. The problem with were used to wire the imental music. Instead of clearly defining sound art is that it is not very gallery-friendly; ventilation tubes, thereby resulting in ‘tubochords’ - what sound art is, I gave an overview of what in larger exhibitions, works of art centred instruments to be played it could be – the use of sound in a piece of art around/including sound start to interfere with a bow, fingers or various other objects. is crucial (in a sound installation, for exam- with each other and uncommunicative noise The floor of the room was ple), but there are genres of sound art that emerges. Sound art, like video art, is ‘tempo- covered with turf, with a sward of 100 square do not have much to do with our common ral’ in nature and, when dealing with sound metres consisting of more understanding of a ‘work of art’ – these genres art qua experimental music, the best format that 2 tons of sod. At June 28, an improvisation are radio art, acoustic ecology, soundscape for ‘exhibiting’ it is actually a concert and took place in open nature research, different forms of experimental not a gallery space. This raises the issue of where the sources of sound music etc. The term ‘sound art’ was coined in collective listening or collective consump- included natural objects, the sounds made by participants the States in the early 1980s; in Estonia, young tion art – the kind of collectivity that rarely moving around and the artists (e.g Kiwa and Andres Lõo) began to use forms in a gallery environment and, we could natural sonic background. it around the millennium, and it still remains say, ties sound art with art’s ‘sacred origins’. a rather new-sounding term not often found Sound installation, ‘kinetic sculpture’, is the in reviews or writings on art. The difference most traditional form of sound art and my between sound art and experimental music genealogy of Estonian sound art begins with is vague: in his book Fear of Music, the critic the 1970s kinetic sculpture pioneer Kaarel David Stubbs asks why the Tate Modern has Kurismaa (b 1939). In the 1990s, it was the become so popular while avant-garde music composer Rauno Remme (1969–2002) whose will never appeal to the masses. Reading this, work, often described as new media art, can I realised that in Estonia the situation is actu- also be seen as sound art: Remme used com- ally the opposite: it is instead classical con- puters to create chance-based composition

Raul Keller (on the right) and Heikki Tikas (on the left)

WHAT IS ESTONIAN SOUND ART? 39 Project Unison. Jammer CD cover

Project Unison. Trainpulse

techniques. Highly original at the time, he received little recognition for his work. As mentioned above, Kiwa (b 1975) and Andres Lõo (b 1978) were the first to consciously position themselves as working in the field of ‘sound art’. Both Kiwa and Lõo are well-known recording and performing artists; Kiwa’s interdisciplinary work is centred around the notions of noise, silence and error/glitch, while Lõo is mainly interested in exploring the question of the artist’s ego through sound (e.g Meeting with the I and Mimic Partiture). Both Kiwa and Lõo seem to be obsessed with pop culture and music video aesthetics: this fascination is echoed in their work as a whole, but finds its best expression in the event series Metabor (2001–2004), curated by them and their friends. The idea behind Metabor was to create a temporary event as a total work of art, to bring together pop and avant-garde, sound, vision and architecture (the location was different every time). Of course, it is an open question whether the inten- tions of the organisers could ever be fully realised: for the people who attended it might have been just another party night and, especially in retrospect, it was hard for them to see Metabor as original (which it was, at least in the local context), as the promise of a ‘synaesthetic experience’ is a common PR promise found in party flyers today. After Metabor, there was the Audio Gallery event series. With a lesser focus on the party-element, it can be seen as a more mature attempt to get people to exclu- sively concentrate on sound. And learning to listen is actually harder than we think. Whereas Kiwa and Lõo have received a decent amount of attention from the media, the work of one of their peers, Raul Keller’s (b 1973) Project Unison (2000–2007), remains one of the most under- rated sound art projects in Estonia. The aim of Project Unison was to bring together people from different backgrounds, those trained in music and those

40 WHAT IS ESTONIAN SOUND ART? without any skills, and improvise with found objects in different industrial and natural environments. The improvisation sessions can be seen as private per- formances in which the participants became both the authors and the audience. CDs with the material were later released for wider distribution. On CDs, the performative aspect is eliminated, and the music becomes merely acoustic and thus indecipherable, i.e pure sound. Keller is also one of the few practitioners of radio art in Estonia (e.g his and Katrin Essenson’s LokaalRaadio [Local Radio]). Interestingly enough, there are hardly any Estonian female artists working with sound, and this supports the cliché of sound art being a niche item for geeky male artists with an inclination for technology. In talking about the ‘sociology’ of Estonian sound art, it is important to mention John Grzinich (b 1970), an American sound artist residing in Põlva County, Estonia. Grzinich’s international connec- tions and enthusiasm have made the Mooste Artist Centre (run by him and his wife) one of the hot-beds of musical experimentation in the country. Sound is elusive and artists working with sound are often seen as merely exploring its formal qualities. This is not necessarily true: we can say that the social dimension of sound, or the nature and meaning of sounds that surround us, is becoming material for both artistic and scholarly research everywhere in the world, including Estonia. Writing about all this in 2010, I was excited to discover that in 2011 an important step will be taken towards the popularisation of sound art: the Tallinn – European Capital of Culture 2011 programme contains various projects and events focused on sound, and I am convinced that the more interesting developments in Estonian sound art are yet to come.

Maria Juur (1988), an artist, musician and critic. Currently, she is a Masters student at the Goldsmiths College, the University of London.

1 M. Juur, The Definition and Specifics of Sound Art. Different Approaches to Sound in Contemporary Estonian Art (supervisor: Katrin Kivimaa). Bachelor’s thesis. Estonian Academy of Arts, Institute of Art History. Tallinn: 2010.

2 D. Stubbs, Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko but Don’t get Stockhausen. Winchester; Washington: O Books, 2009, p 9.

3 A. Licht, Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 2007, p. 14.

Covers of different CDs by Project Unison and pictures from the project “Jammer”

WHAT IS ESTONIAN SOUND ART? 41 As for music…. Andres Lõo (excerpt from one of his letters)

... As for music,

I consider my album Skeletons on Rock

(Laton, 2009) to be a quintessential work of music.

Special attention should be paid to the texts on the

album’s poster. The album has quite a few layers

and thus is especially a treat for the art crowd.

For me it also means extensive research on rhythms.

The album is also a comment on the perversity

called ‘sound experimentation’, which produced

a style known as ‘experimental’, amongst others.

What’s left today of the late 1990s and early 2000s

heyday of experiments is the rather generalising

term ‘noise’, which does not say that much...

42 WHAT IS ESTONIAN SOUND ART? Interview with Raul Keller

Eero Epner (EE): Raul Keller, you have been improvisation, where the existing material Raul Keller active in the Estonian music scene for years is not included. The emphasis in contempo- (1973), a sound, and it seems that one topic that keeps crop- rary music is on the author, and performers video, performance ping up for you is the mutual reflection of personify it. Even in ‘experimental’ electronic and installation (urban) space and sounds. Are you inspired music the focus is still on the author. I am artist. See also by seeking a different experience of space more interested in collective work and acti- raulkeller.mkdk.org. and sound, or is it something else entirely? vating the creativity of the public. In reality, Raul Keller (RK): I have mostly worked in as I mentioned above, such ideal situations place-specific situations and this requires a occur only rarely, but fortunately they do careful consideration of how to use the mate- occur sometimes and it is occasionally pos- rial at my disposal. Before the work process sible even to document them. gets going, I establish what is already there Radio created artistically can be inter- and how it relates to my experience of space. preted in several ideological contexts. It can Only after that do I start thinking about what be a means to spread ‘experimental sounds’, should be added or augmented. With sound, but it can also be a political statement and a we can talk about both the temporal and spa- particular opposition to commercial radio tial dimensions, and their linguistic and social stations; it can be an engineering-technical character. Sound is usually a rejected and not journey of discovery etc. consciously perceived background in an environment, focusing via various signs, such as What kind of ideas are essential at Local a police siren or music. If we bring the back- Radio – locally working art radio? (See also ground to the fore, actually listen to it, human lokaalraadio.ee) perception typically starts to create linguis- I can only give my own opinion. For me, all tic structures and sign systems, and tries to the contexts you have mentioned have been establish repetitions, recognisable sounds etc. in focus at some point or another, and they We could call it personal composing in real do not exclude one another. I would again time, approaching what we know as musical like to mention the possibility of collective practice. I have always been fascinated by the experience, and the visual character of radio phenomenological border where the phe- as an environment. We see everything more nomena change, as does our thinking about clearly if we compare the production of com- it. All these processes can be made to operate mercial channels (FM) and short wave (AM). in place-specific practice, improvisation etc. In one case, the choices made by the heads I prefer the principle in which I do not create of the radio stations can lead to a short cir- a new composition, but produce precondi- cuit with the marketed image of performers tions for activating cognisant listeners, who and trademarks and, in the second case, we are able to form an experience themselves. are cast into a dim world of blending signals. These, of course, are maxims which require Radio can also be a means of moving around a cognisant public. in space, which fills the sounds with images.

At what point does experimental music What else would you like to do that you become music proper? Does the difference haven’t yet done? matter to you at all? I am thinking about re-issuing some In certain practices, the border does not existing recordings and documentations, e.g exist and I have no desire to draw it; it is a Projekt Unison’s Trainpulse, which are difficult question of aesthetic preferences, spatial to track down now, but perhaps deserve to be specifics and listening habits. For me, the rediscovered. As for future plans – there are transition point is the place-specific group enough challenges.

INTERVIEW WITH RAUL KELLER 43 exhibitions

Kumu Art Museum Adamson-Eric Museum Weizenbergi 34 / Valge 1, Tallinn Lühike jalg 3, Tallinn www.ekm.ee/eng/kumu.php www.ekm.ee/eng/adamson.php Open: May–Sept Tue–Sun 11 am–6 pm, Wed 11 am–8 pm; Open: Wed–Sun 11 am–6 pm Oct–April Wed–Sun 11 am–6 pm, Wed 11 am–8 pm Permanent exhibition until 25 Sep gateways. Art and Networked Culture Works by Adamson-Eric. Adamson-Eric (1902–1968) is one of until 18 Sep Pavel Filonov and the Russianthe mostAvant-Garde outstanding Estonian artists of the 20th century. The until 30 Oct Double Portrait . Flemish Symbolists James Ensor museum’s permanent exhibition consists of a display of Adamson- and Jules de Bruycker Eric’s works (painting, ceramics, porcelain painting, leather art, metal forms, jewellery, decorative tiles, textile, and furniture). until 23 Oct Urmas Ploomipuu’s White House (see also Estonian Art 2/2010) until 13 November Forever Feminine. The Work of Johannes Greenberg 9 Sep-Jan 2012 Tadeusz Kantor. Member of the Polish Avant-Garde and Ferdi Sannamees and Theatre Reformer 19 Nov-March 2012 Shackles of Beauty 7 Oct-2012 Beyond. International Curator Exhibition of Tallinn Photo Month 2011 14 Oct-Jan 2012 Ene-Liis Semper 26 Oct-March 2012 The Theatrical World in Estonian Graphic Arts in Contemporary Museum of Art, Estonia the 1970s and 1980s Põhja pst 35, Tallinn 11 Nov-2012 Vinum et panis. The Motifs of Wine and Bread in ekkm-came.blogspot.com/ 16th to 20th Century Art Open Tue-Sun 1 pm-7 pm

Check the web-site Kadriorg Art Museum Kadriorg Palace, Weizenbergi 37, Tallinn Mikkel Museum, Weizenbergi 28, Tallinn www.ekm.ee/eng/kadriorg.php Niguliste Museum Open: May–Sept Tue–Sun 10 am–5 pm Niguliste 3, Tallinn Oct–April Wed–Sun 10 am–5 pm www.ekm.ee/eng/niguliste.php Open: Wed–Sun 10 am–5 pm Permanent exhibitions: Permanent exhibitions: Kadriorg Palace: Paintings from the 16th–18th century. Dutch, Ecclesiastical Art from the 14th–20th centuries The Silver Chamber German, Italian and Russian masters. Western European and Russian applied art and sculpture from the 18th–20th centuries. until 29 May 2011 Villem Raam as a Photographer until 2 Oct Estonian Icons Painting 22 Oct-March 2012 Tracing Bosch & Bruegel. Four Paintings Magnified

Mikkel Museum: Collection of Johannes Mikkel: the Art of Western Tallinn Art Hall Europe, Russia, and China from 16th–20th centuries Vabaduse Sq 8, Tallinn www.kunstihoone.ee until 4 Sep Russian Icons. Gunnar Savisaar’s Collection Open: Wed–Sun 12 am–6 pm 16 Sep-2012 Portraiture in Fine Art. Based on Estonian Private Collections until 2 Oct Continuum_the Perception Zone 8 Oct-20 Nov Baltic photography 30 Nov-8 Jan Sophie Calle Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design 14 Jan-19 Feb EST_Prologue Lai 17, Tallinn www.etdm.ee Open: Wed–Sun 11 am–6 pm Tallinn Art Hall Gallery Permanent exhibition: Patterns of Time 3 Vabaduse Sq 6, Tallinn Survey of Estonian applied art and www.kunstihoone.ee the development of design Open: Wed–Sun 12 am–6 pm until 18 Sep Imbi Ploomipuu. Ceramics & Graphic Art. 1 Sep-18 Sep Border Town. Estonian-Portuguese exhibition 17 Sep-23 Oct Estonian Designers’ Union. Innovation in Estonian of adornments design. 23 Sep-16 Oct Boriss Mihhailov 24 Sep-6 Nov Form in Porcellain 21 Oct-13 Nov Yael Bartana 10 Nov-15 Jan Ring – Jewelry Forever. Hnoss Gallery. Sweden 16 Nov-2 Dec Valli Lember-Bogatkina 11 Nov-26 Feb Classics. Leather artist Elo Järv 4 Dec-18 Dec Jüri Arrak 21 Dec-8 Jan Paul Kuimet (see also pp 36-41) 12 Jan-5 Feb Katrin Pere

44 EXHIBITIONS The dates may change. Please consult the homepages of respective galleries/museums for updated information

Tallinn City Gallery Draakon Gallery Harju 13, Tallinn Pikk 18, Tallinn www.kunstihoone.ee www.eaa.ee/draakon/eindex.htm Open: Wed–Sun 12 am–6 pm Open: Mon–Fri 10 am–6 pm, Sat 10 am–5 pm until 25 Sep Border Town. Estonian-Portuguese exhibition of 5 Sep-17 Sep Fideelia-Signe Roots adornments 19 Sep-1 Oct sex and food. Eveli Varik 29 Sep-23 Oct Mare Tralla & Coolturistes (Lithuania) 3 Oct-15 Oct I am so. Epp Kubu & Maria Aua 27 Oct-4 Dec Puerperium. Minna Havukainen (Finland) 17 Oct-29 Oct Estonian Art Academy. Architecture 8 Dec-31 Dec Tuuli Muukka (Finland) 31 Oct-12 Nov digital natives. Anna Tuvike & Andri Allas 5 Jan-29 Jan Madis Luik 14 Nov-26 Nov modern piracy. Marko Nautras 28 Nov-10 Dec i am neesia. Valev Sein Hobusepea Gallery 12 Dec-31 Dec reflections. Marju Vaher Hobusepea 2, Tallinn www.eaa.ee/hobusepea/english/ Open: Wed–Mon 10 am–6 pm Tartu Art Museum until 5 Sep sylt without ulrike. Liina Siib Raekoja Sq 18, Tartu 7 Sep-19 Sep scene. Mart Vainre www.tartmus.ee 21 Sep-3 Oct deconstructing x. Kati Ilves & Maido Juss Open: Wed–Sun 11 am–6 pm 5 Oct-17 Oct Iti Kasser until 4 Sep Tartu Art School 60 19 Oct-31 Oct Margot Kask 16 Sep-13 Nov Festival of Contemporary Art 2 Nov-14 Nov Kai Kaljo & Luke Davies (AU) 18 Nov-29 Jan Jüri Arrak. Coal drawings 16 Nov-28 Nov Artishok produces: Raul Kalvo 30 Nov-12 Dec perpetuum mobile. Jass Kaselaan 14 Dec-2 Jan Urmas Pedanik Tartu Art House Vaal Gallery Vanemuise 26, Tallinn Tartu mnt 80d, Tallinn www.kunstimaja.ee www.vaal.ee Open: Wed–Mon 21 am–6 pm Open: Tue–Fri 12 am–6 pm, Sat 12 am–4 pm until 11 Sep Painters’ Association September Marje Taska 15 Sep-16 Oct Art Ist Kuku Nu Ut (see also Estonian Art 2/2010) October Jaan Toomik 20 Oct-20 Nov Andrus Kasemaa November Jaak Visnap 24 Nov-18 Dec Mare Tralla December Tiit Pääsuke since 22 Dec Artists from Tartu

HOP Gallery in small hall Hobusepea 2, Tallinn 15 Sep-16 Oct Art Ist Kuku Nu Ut (see also Estonian Art 2/2010) www.eaa.ee/hop 20 Oct-27 Nov Mall Nukke Open: Thu–Tue 10 am–6 pm 30 Nov-18 Dec Urmas Viik 2 Sep-20 Sep Kaji Nanako (Japan) since 22 Dec Artists from Tartu 23 Sep-11 Oct Photo Jewelry 14 Oct-1 Nov Krista Leesi 4 Nov-22 Nov August Tamm Diary. Urmas Viik Pärnu City Gallery 25 Nov-13 Dec Still Life. Mare Kelpman Uus 4, Pärnu linnagalerii.parnu.ee 16 Dec-3 Jan White White. Helle Videvik Open: Tue-Fri 11 am-5 pm Sat 11 am-2 pm HOP Gallery Hobusepea 2, Tallinn until 10 Sep Lola Liivat www.agalerii.ee 14 Sep-8 Oct ASLAK group (Finland) Open: Mon-Fri 10 am-6 pm, Sat 11 am-4 pm 12 Oct-5 Nov Mila Balti & Meeland Sepp 9 Nov-3 Dec Annual exhibition until 12 Sep Jun Konishi, Michihiro Sato, Shunichiro Nakashima 7 Dec-31 Dec Kaili-Angela Konno, Kateriin Rikken, Leho Rubis 16 Sep-10 Oct Ester Faiman 14 Oct-7 Nov Aija Kivi 11 Nov-5 Dec Ülle Kõuts 9 Dec-3 Jan Merle Kasonen

EXHIBITIONS 45