applied art Archives – Tallinn Applied Art Triennial

The triennial invites visitors to tours of the exhibition led by participating Estonian artists.

In August, the triennial welcomes visitors to both Estonian and Russian language guided tours, which also feature artists, who introduce their creative processes and impulses. On Wednesday, 4 August at 18.00 the curator’s assistant Keiu Krikmann will introduce the exhibition together with the designer Linda Aasaru. On Saturday, 14 August at 13.00 jewellery artists Julia Maria Künnap, Eve Margus-Villems and Hanna-Maria Vanaküla will discuss their work. Russian-speaking audiences are welcome to a guided tour of the show on Saturday, 14 August at 15.00, conducted by Laura Marija Brunova and the artist and designer Sandra Kosorotova.

In addition to the main exhibition, the triennial also includes an extensive satellite programme. The Windows and the Vault of the A-gallery are currently showcasing jewellery exhibitions “From the Jauntiness of Absence” and “Edge” and at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design Marta Boan has recently opened her jewellery exhibition “To wear or not to wear”. The installation “In-Tangible”, inspired by the theme of the triennial is currently on view at the central square of the Noblessner quarter and in August Kai Kaljo, Darja Popolitova, Triin Kukk and Merlin Meremaa will be opening their new exhibitions.

Anu Almik

Videos of the exhibition “Translucency” open at the Kai Art Center are available for viewing, featuring participating artists discussing their works.

The videos that supplement the international main exhibition of the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial discuss the central concept of the show, translucency and reveal how artists have interpreted the idea.

The videos feature the curator of the exhibition, the Danish glass artists and art historian Stine Bidstrup, artists Linda Aasaru, Hanna-Maria Vanaküla, Erin Dickson, Ditte Hammerstrøm, Helen Lee, Jiyong Lee, Sissi Westerberg and Wang & Söderström. The individual short videos are available HERE, however, in the auditorium of the Kai Art Center, the clips are screened as a 21-minute film. The videos were created by Aigar Vals.

The main exhibition of the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial includes 21 international artists in a variety of media, such as site specific installations, glass, porcelain, 3D printed objects, jewellery, furniture etc. The exhibition at the Kai Art Center at Noblessner is open until 15 August, from Wednesday to Sunday, 12–19.

Anu Almik

The catalogue of the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial is now available HERE.

The catalogue is introduced by the curator of the exhibition Stine Bidstrup, discussing the central concept of the show, translucency, followed by an overview of all the participating artists as well as high quality photos of the artworks. Additionally, the publication features a detailed list of all the works included in the exhibition.

The catalogue concludes with two essays. In her essay “Moments of aliveness”, the architecture and art historian and curator Ingrid Ruudi contemplates the artworks presented at the exhibition and our encounters with material as possibilities to experience unique moments of aliveness.

„To encounter works, objects and materials that are ambivalent, unstable, fragile and temporary means noticing the ambivalence, multiplicity, impermanence and contingency of my own being in the world. But this is not a source of fear and insecurity but enables a heightenened awareness of being in the moment and contact with the other. Letting go of expectations of stability and permanence may lead to rediscovering enchantment and joy. Perceiving myself as flawed, partial and temporary paves way for encountering the human and non-human other from a less hierarchical, more equal basis.“ (from Ingrid Ruudi’s essay)

The essay by the architecture historian at the Royal Danish Academy, Martin Søberg titled “Saturated with light. On architecture and translucent materials“ looks at translucency in the history of architecture. The essay includes numerous photographs.

„The materials of architecture are put together, they carry and are carried, and furthermore become atmosphere-creating, enclosing membranes that allow adjustment and exchange. The phenomenon of translucency is then still about ambiguity, blurring and diffusion, but also about the potential for something new to emerge from the saturated light..“ (from Martin Søberg’s essay)

The catalogue is published both in Estonian and in English. The publication was edited by Keiu Krikmann and designed by Tuumik Stuudio.

The catalogue is sold at 25€, plus shipping costs. To place your order, please contact info@trtr.ee.

Anu Almik

“Translucency”, the main exhibition of the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial, open until 15 August at Kai Art Center, was photographed by Hedi Jaansoo. The exhibition welcomes visitors from Wednesday to Sunday, 12–19. On Wednesdays, Kai offers discounted admission; you can find more information and a map here.

Anu Almik

Tomorrow, on 29 May the international applied art exhibition “Translucency” opens at Kai Art Centre. The main exhibition of the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial is open throughout the summer and is accompanied by an extensive satellite programme with many of the exhibitions opening tonight.

The main exhibition is open until 15 August and focuses on the phenomenon of translucency. Depending on the context, translucency can reveal what is hidden or conceal what is seemingly visible.

“As the theme suggests, the exhibition includes works that play with the optic phenomenon but also those that look at translucency in the context of social behaviour, politics and relationships,” says Merle Kasonen, the chairwoman of the triennial. “Applied artists often focus on specific materials but they also work conceptually. In this exhibition, the conceptual approach is perhaps even more significant than functional qualities.”

Curator Stine Bidstrup. Photo: Hedi Jaansoo

The exhibition “Translucency” is curated by the Danish glass artist and art historian Stine Bidstrup. The 21 artists selected by Bidstrup are presenting new and recent works. The selected works are characterised by playfulness, willingness to experiment and a strong conceptual approach,” says the curator Stin Bidstrup. “The works look at presence and absence, the private and the public, individuality and collectiveness, time and temporality, politics and language, material decay and structural defects.”

Alongside the main exhibition the triennial also has an extensive satellite programme that includes jewellery and glass art, site specific installations and events involving various fields of art. For example, today Tanel Veenre opens his solo exhibition “Organ” at Temnikova & Kasela gallery and Kadri Mälk, Julia Maria Künnap and Kai Koppel present their exhibition “Holy Vessel” at Laboratooriumi street 33. A-gallery invites visitors to Ilona Treiman’s solo show “Fire” in their vault space.

At Okapi gallery, Rait Prääts and Gleb Divov bring together glass art and augmented reality and at the Manufactory Quarter design and applied art students from the Estonian Academy of Arts open a group show titled “Phantasmagoria”, showcasing jewellery, metalwork, ceramics and glass.

The exhibition “Translucency” at Kai Art Center (Peetri 12, Noblessner Quarter) is open from 29 May to 15 August, Wednesday to Sunday, from 12–19.

This Saturday, on 29 May at 13.00 the curator will be giving a tour of the show (in English). Previous registration is required. Register here. An Estonian-language guided tour with the curator’s assistant Keiu Krikmann will take place next Saturday, on 5 June at 13.00.

Participating artists: Linda Aasaru (Estonia), Andrew Bearnot (USA), Erin Dickson (UK), Ditte Hammerstrøm (Denmark), Heidi Bach Hentze (Denmark), Sandra Kosorotova (Estonia), Eeva Käsper (Estonia), Julia Maria Künnap (Estonia), Helen Lee (USA), Jiyong Lee (USA), Eve Margus-Villems (Estonia), Reinoud Oudshoorn (Netherlands), Julija Pociute (Lithuania), Helena Tuudelepp (Estonia), Sandra Vaka (Norway), Hanna-Maria Vanaküla (Estonia), Sissi Westerberg (Sweden), Karlyn Sutherland (UK), Grethe Sørensen (Denmark) and Wang & Söderström (Sweden/Denmark).

Tallinn Applied Art Triennial is organised by NGO Tallinn Applied Art Triennial Society.

Anu Almik

The 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial opening at the end of May has selected events for its satellite programme. Among more than 20 exhibitions, the selection includes jewellery and glass art, site specific installations and events involving various fields of art. In the spirit of the times, the programme also features many window exhibitions and a flexible approach to programming.

“I am thrilled that despite uncertain circumstances, we are able to present a substantial satellite programme and artists have found clever ways to showcase their works,” said Merle Kasonen, the chairwoman of the Triennial Society. “Interpreting the world through your art is part of being an artist and it is equally important to share your creations with an audience. I believe and hope that art audiences, too, are hungry for culture.”

The theme of the 2021 triennial is “translucency” and many satellite exhibitions have been inspired by that. For example, the installation “In-Tangible” by Federica Cogliandro and Tauris Reose will be set up in the Noblessner area at the end of May, and Master’s students from jewellery, blacksmithing, glass and ceramics departments of the Estonian Academy of Art will present their work at the group exhibition “Phantasmagoria” at Sitsi Factory in Tallinn.

Solo shows include projects by jewellery artists Darja Popolitova (Hobusepea gallery), Kristiina Laurits (Hop gallery), Jaan Pärn (Meistrite Hoov gallery), and Marta Boan (at the Estonian Applied Art and Design Museum’s gallery space). An exciting and dignified combination of installations, objects and jewellery by Kadri Mälk, Julia Maria Künnap and Kai Koppel will be presented at the Laboratooriumi street chapel. Jewellery artists Triin Kukk and Merlin Meremaa showcase their work in a garage on Luha Street. A-gallery shows fresh work from 18 local and international artists in their windows as well as in the Vault.

Rait Prääts and Gleb Divov bring together glass art and augmented reality at Okapi gallery. Kai Kaljo shows her fused glass objects and jewellery at the applied art and design gallery Kunstiaken. In parallel with the triennial Estonian Applied Art and Design Museum welcomes visitors to two glass art shows by Tiina Sarapu and Ivo Lill.

The satellite programme also includes Riste Laasberg’s tapestry exhibition at St. Jacob’s Church in Viimsi, window exhibitions of Katariina Guild’s studios, and an exhibition by ceramics and glass art students of the Estonian Academy of Arts at Salme Cultural Centre.

The main exhibition of the 8th Tallinna Applied Art Triennial “Translucency” opens on 29 May at Kai Art Center and remains open to visitors until 15 August. The main exhibition of the Triennial is curated by Danish glass artist and art historian Stine Bidstrup, who selected works from 22 international artists to interpret the theme. While the main exhibition includes international artists, the satellite programme highlights local art and gives an overview of Estonian contemporary craft.

The events of the satellite programme take place in May and during summer months, a more detailed schedule will be announced as soon as the governmental Covid restrictions allow for that.

Anu Almik

The graphic design for the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial was created by Marje and Martin Eelma from the design studio Tuumik Stuudio. Their design blurs the boundaries between materials and environments and features fragments of exhibited artworks.

What were some of your first associations with the theme of the triennial, translucency?
Layers, steam, water. Diving into other materials. Or perhaps even parallel worlds that haunt you after reading a book or watching a film, worlds that are inside or layered on top of one another or as a grid. In order to evoke translucency you need more than one environment and these environments need to come into contact with one another, yet still remain separate. When they blend, translucency is lost.

What did you start the design process with?
The exhibition concept of the curator Stine Bidstrup and our initial conversations with the exhibition designer Kärt Maran led us to think about water as material and a surface of reflection. These ideas became the basis for the design. We also thought about the location of the exhibition, Kai Art Center just by the sea, and this, too, contributed to the further development of these ideas. Water is transparent matter, completely different from air. In places where water and air meet, light makes possible situations, where water is both transparent and reflects back into our world. Water can be quite dynamic, which results in dynamic images. Water or other liquids can also have a hue to them yet still be transparent to great depths.

The design also uses photos of artworks we will see at the exhibition.
We included artworks in the conversations about the design early in the process and that remained an important element, so we had to make these layers complement one another. On the one hand, a fluid and reflective surface layer that was expressed as a fluid and steamy typeface and beneath that, selected works or details of artworks. To conclude, the design was created in collaboration with the triennial’s team – we were discussing several directions that were more or less focused on the same theme but using various graphic elements. Finally, the design that expressed a common understanding of the theme the clearest was chosen. Reflections of water are not so clearly visible anymore, however, the steamy translucent typeface still evokes undulating water.

Could you talk about how you chose the four photos featured in the design?
First, we looked if the photos fit with our chosen typeface, the steamy and fluid typography had to be visible against the background. Not all photos supported that. In the end, we chose photos that worked best with the typeface.

The graphic design of the triennial features the following artworks: Wang & Söderström “Flatscreen“, Sandra Vaka “Jugs (bitter lemon)“, Eeva Käsper “Enclosed Secret” and Grethe Sørensen “Lillebælt III“.

Anu Almik

Tallinn Applied Art Triennial extends the deadline for application to satellite programme until next week. The Triennial welcomes project submissions that relate to its theme, translucency or introduce the field of applied art in other ways until Thursday, 14 January. We kindly ask that you include the date, location and a short description of the event and send it to info@trtr.ee.

The main exhibition of the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial “Translucency” opens at Kai Art Center on 28 May 2021 and will remain open to visitors until 15 August 2021. The satellite programme welcomes exhibitions, performances, installations and other events taking place in Tallinn between May and August this year. The Triennial introduces the satellite programme in its communications, however, (co)funding for projects is not available.

The main exhibition of the Triennial is curated by Danish glass artist and art historian Stine Bidstrup, who selected works from 24 international artists to interpret the theme. The exhibition includes various fields of applied art and focuses on the critical potential of translucency in contemporary craft. The Triennial’s main exhibition features the following artists from Estonia: Linda
Aasaru, Eeva Käsper, Sandra Kosorotova, Julia Maria Künnap, Eve Margus-Villems, Helena Tuudelepp and Hanna-Maria Vanaküla.

The satellite programme of the previous Tallinn Applied Art Triennial in 2017 featured 26 exhibitions, performances, open studios and installation in various locations in Tallinn. The main exhibition of the Triennial was visited by around 5000 people during its three-month opening period and including its satellite programme, the total number of visitors to the Triennial was estimated at 30 000.

Tallinn Applied Art Triennial is an international art event established in 1997, organised by NGO Tallinn Applied Art Triennial Society. The Triennial contributes to the development of fields of applied art and contemporary craft.

Anu Almik

The 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial, taking place next year invites artists to participate in its satellite programme. The Triennial welcomes projects that relate to its theme or introduce the field of applied art in a broader sense. Submissions are open until 7 January 2021.

Merle Kasonen, the Chairwoman of the Triennial says that the satellite programme welcomes exhibitions, performances, installations and other events taking place in Tallinn between May and August 2021. “The satellite programme of the Triennial allows focusing more attention on the field of applied art as a whole,” explains Merle Kasonen. “This provides the audience with a panoramic view of the field of contemporary craft – what themes artists working in various media are exploring and what the most exciting new directions are. The coherent programme gives the audience a better overview, while the events amplify one another and allow for a diverse experience.”

The main exhibition of the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial titled “Translucency” opens at Kai Art Center on 28 May 2021 and welcomes visitors until 15 August 2021. The duration of the satellite programme is May–August 2021.

The main exhibition of the Triennial is curated by Danish glass artist and art historian Stine Bidstrup, who selected works from 24 international artists to interpret the theme. The exhibition includes various fields of applied art and focuses on the critical potential of translucency in contemporary craft. The Triennial’s main exhibition features the following artists from Estonia: Linda Aasaru, Eeva Käsper, Sandra Kosorotova, Julia Maria Künnap, Eve Margus-Villems, Helena Tuudelepp and Hanna-Maria Vanaküla.

Please submit project proposals for the satellite programme of the Tallinn Applied Art Triennial before 7 January 2021 to info@trtr.ee. We kindly ask that you include the date, location and a short description of the event. Based on submissions, the Triennial compiles the satellite programme in early 2021. The Triennial introduces the satellite programme in its communications, however, (co)funding for projects is not available.

Anu Almik

The curator Stine Bidstrup has selected artists for the main exhibition of the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial. 24 artists from the Nordic countries, the USA, the UK, the Netherlands, Estonia and Lithuania will be addressing the phenomenon of translucency, the main theme of the 8th Triennial. The selection includes seven Estonian artists.

Danish glass artist, art historian and educator Stine Bidstrup says the selected artists and designers represent some of the best practitioners within their fields with work characterized by strong conceptual exploration, playfulness and willingness to experiment. “The Triennial will showcase new and recent works that are created and exist across intersections between fine art, craft and design making these distinctions less important,” added the curator Stine Bidstrup.

“The curatorial theme of translucency is exemplified in a myriad ways through the work of the artists; translucency as a phenomenon, as an intermediate space inhabiting the space between the polar opposites of transparency and opacity, translucency in the use of language, in politics, creating ambiguity and complexity,” described Bidstrup her approach.

The exhibition will feature various fields, techniques and materials: glass, ceramics, clay, textile, garments, photography, sculpture, installation, jewellery, weaving, video, furniture, 3D-printing and digital design.

The Triennial’s main exhibition features the following artists from Estonia: Linda Aasaru, Eeva Käsper, Sandra Kosorotova, Julia Maria Künnap, Eve Margus-Villems, Helena Tuudelepp and Hanna-Maria Vanaküla.

Other participating artists include (in alphabetical order): Andrew Bearnot (USA), Phoebe Cummings (UK), Erin Dickson (UK), Ditte Hammerstrøm (Denmark), Heidi Bach Hentze (Denmark), Helen Lee (USA), Jiyong Lee (USA), Shari Mendelson (USA), Reinoud Oudshoorn (Netherlands), Julija Pociute (Lithuania), Anne Vibeke Mou (Denmark/UK), Sandra Vaka (Norway), Sissi Westerberg (Sweden), Karlyn Sutherland (UK), Grethe Sørensen (Denmark) and Wang & Söderström (Sweden/Denmark).

The main exhibition of the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial “Translucency” opens at Kai Art Center in Port Noblessner in Tallinn (Estonia) on 28 May 2021 and welcomes visitors until 15 August 2021.

Anu Almik

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The triennial welcomes visitors to meet participating artists

Videos of the exhibition “Translucency” are now available

The catalogue of the exhibition now available

Gallery: “Translucency“ at Kai Art Center

Applied art takes hold of Tallinn

Tallinn Applied Art Triennial announces participants of satellite programme

Graphic design of the Tallinn Applied Art Triennial: boundaries, layers, separations

Satellite programme open to applications until 14 January

Tallinn Applied Art Triennial welcomes projects into its satellite programme

Announcing artist selection for the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial

Catalogue "Ajavahe. Time Difference"

Catalogue "Translucency"