With a population of less than half a million and 44 art museums, Tallinn, Estonia’s capital, obviously takes its art and culture very seriously. In fact, the total population of the country is only 1. 3 million and is well distributed: the population density is 28 inhabitants per square kilometer. This would help Estonia not be relatively affected by Covid-19. Both a cultural pleasure and a haven of peace, this northern European country on the Baltic Sea is in fact a very exciting tourist destination.
For lovers of fresh art, Tallinn’s must-see settings are the Kai Art Center in the Noblessner district, the former shipbuilding district, the Tallinn Art Hall in the Old Town and KUMU in charming Kadroig Park. , is the very special House Museum of Flo Kasearu, a personal museum of fresh artists in your home.
Opened in September 2019, kai art center, in a former secret underwater warehouse in Noblessner, celebrates its first anniversary this month. The bustling domain of the harbour has a hot boardwalk, cafes, restaurants and a cinema that looks like the world’s cinema. Karin Laansoo, Kai’s artistic director, says the purpose is to publicize fresh Estonian art both at home and abroad. In addition to offering an exhibition domain in the galleries of Kai, foreign artist in residence The systems are also organized.
Kai presents up to five exhibitions a year, but of course this year that hasn’t happened. The recently concluded exhibition starred Estonian rising star Kris Lemsalu (representing Estonia at the last Venice Biennale) and her collaborator (and now husband) Brooklyn-based musician Kyp Malone (of the TV on the radio and Rain teams. Machine). Love Song Sing Along (Once again with feeling!) Highlighted new and previously unexposed paintings, as well as a large-scale installation that was exhibited earlier in the year at Berlin’s KW Institute for Contemporary Art. For this exhibition, the avant-garde artist duo, who took their last names, used the myth of the world premiere to create a joyous story populated by a swan, a rabbit and a jaguar. The figures appear in colorful canvas paintings hanging from the ceiling, in a video created entirely on an iPhone through Kyp, and in intricate sculptures through Kris. In the artists’ words, “It is a painting that is taken from the staff in genuine time and then abstracted through myth, some borrowed, others improvised. A cosmogony of our courtship.
Outside, on a floating pier, is Marianne Jugi’s intriguing Contour Interaural I (in Noblessner Marina, unlike downtown Kai, until September 27). Visitors are invited inside the design and pay attention to the sound piece Water Itself through composer Olo Krigul. .
Then, in Kai, which will open on September 19 (until November 8, 2020), there is a multimedia project, Leviathan: the Paljassaare Chapter, featuring paintings by London artist Shezad Dawood, with Kort Ojavee, Joonas Plaan, Peep Lassmann, ecologicStudioArray Robert Treufeldt, Kai Konnis-Beres, Sten Lassmann, Lennart Lennuk, Graham Fitkin, Triin Loosaar, Annika Kaldoja, Katarina Kruus, AnnShezad Dawood’s Leviathan explores the links between , migration and intellectual health, as well as paintings through Estonian scientists and ornithologists, historians, musicians and artists who face the ecological, political and ancient context of the Paljassaare peninsula contrary to the Kai Art Center. The exhibition will also offer the world premiere of The Terrarium (2020), a true virtual delight taken by the viewer three hundred years into the future, where 90% of the planet’s surface has been covered by water.
Tallinn Art Hall, a state-funded fresh art establishment established in 1934, with 3 galleries in Tallinn’s central square: Tallinn Art Hall (an Art Deco indexed building), City Gallery and Art Hall Gallery. The fully publicly funded organization is a shining example of how a country values and promotes the arts. The gallery is directed through Paul Aguraiuja, whose past career as a film maker will in fact lead to desirable exhibits. His television series Pank (Bank), a large fortune at home and sold to an American network, was founded on genuine occasions about the rise and fall of a new bank, the newly liberated Estonia in the 1990s. The dynamic new director of the Tallinn Art Hall needs to showcase Estonian artists facing urgent social problems such as women’s and minorities’ rights and taking part in foreign art establishments.
Tallinn Art Hall commissions paintings from Estonian and foreign artists and organizes up to seventeen exhibitions each year in Estonia and abroad. The existing exhibition Olev Subbi: Landscapes of the End of Time presents the paintings of the legendary Estonian painter Olev Subbi, along with several foreign artists invited to learn about the paintings of the prominent Estonian artist. Painting, sculpture, video and photography, with themes of ecofeminism, eco-nationalism, queer theory, ancient revisionism and Afrofuturism offer a new attractive attitude about Subbi’s most classic paintings. The must-see of this exhibition is the video of the seascape “Buzz”, a very good installation of video on 3 screens through icelandic artist Mara Dalberg. This desirable exhibition was curated by the feminist curator of Barcelona, Angels Miralda.
Continuing its ambitious overseas program, Tallinn Art Hall will host Modern Love, an exhibition at the Neue Kunst Museum in Freiburg, Germany, curated by Katerina Gregos (October 3 to March 7, 2021). And next year, Flo Kasearu’s great solo exhibition. It will be the opening in mid-January 2021, faithful to domestic violence. The Tallinn Art Hall is also busy with the artist he commissioned for the Venice Biennale in 2022.
The Kumu Art Museum, located in the beautiful park of the Kadroig Palace (former summer of the Russian tsars in the eighteenth century, now also an art museum), exhibits Estonian art of the eighteenth century. The vast and consistent collection includes the first classics of Estonian art from the 18th century to 1945. Kumu also presents 8 to ten year-consistent primary transitority exhibitions, whether on ancient and fresh art from Estonia and abroad. Estonian art in the early twentieth century, avant-garde artists of the Soviet era, sound art and fashion are among the themes of exhibitions here.
Fotografiska, a photography gallery, shop and place to eat in Telliskivi’s fashion artistic domain, is the sister organization of the brilliant Fotografiska museums in Stockholm and New York. Currently (until October 25) is Gold, a photo exhibition taken by Sebastito Salgado. Serra Pelada gold mine in Brazil in 1986. At the time, Serra Pelada was the largest open pit gold deposit in the world. Located in the jungle, the mine attracted 52,000 gold seekers, many of whom endured inhumane operating conditions, poignantly documented through Salgado. At first glance, the viewer will assume that the images are from a 19th-century mine, such as the condition of the miners and the location.
House Museum Flo Kasearu, in a typical wooden space built in 1908, is one of the most exclusive museums in the world. Created in 2013 in the space, attic, basement and courtyard of a living artist, Flo Kasearu, the museum is an ongoing art transfer express to the site. The museum is full of desirable artworks, documents and photographs depicting the history of space and even a library (in the bathroom).
The artist’s space belonged to his great-grandmother, who lost space after World War II when Estonia became part of the Soviet Union and all personal property was seized throughout the state. The space did not go back to Flo’s family circle until many years later. Estonia became independent in 1991. Today, Flo and his circle of relatives live in parts of space, while other components create spaces, from filmmakers to visual artists. Outside, in the giant wild garden, there’s more to do with conversion facilities. The attention center of the Tallinn Contemporary Art Tour is the reserve of value to observe the interior of this exclusive museum.
I’ve been writing about travel, gastronomy, fashion and culture for publications for ten years. I co-founded PayneShurvell, a fresh art gallery.
I have been writing about travel, food, fashion and culture for over ten years for various publications. I co-founded PayneShurvell, a new art gallery in London that is now an art consultancy in London and Suffolk. My wife’s photographer, Paul Allen, provides me with photographs for my reports that come with a musical or artistic occasion, and our travels have led us to little-known music and art festivals in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. I am co-author of the Citysketch e-book series included in London, Paris and New York, published through Race Point and I am the writer of Fantastic Forgeries: Paint Like Van Gogh. Follow our Twitter adventures on @jshurvell and Instagram on @joshurvell and @andfotography.