triennial 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 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

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.

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 next Tallinn Applied Art Triennial will be curated by Stine Bidstrup, a Danish glass artist and art historian, whose curatorial concept focuses on the phenomenon of translucency both in contemporary craft and in a broader social context. The 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial opens at Kai Art Center on 28 May 2021.

The main exhibition of the triennial titled “Translucency” is built around Stine Bidstrup’s curatorial concept and features around twenty artists. A quarter of the participating artists will be selected among Estonian artists during curatorial visits to Estonia in summer 2020.

Merle Kasonen, the chairwoman of the triennial, highlighted the curatorial concept’s resonance in various fields of applied art as well as its broader implications in the contemporary world. “As Stine pointed out, depending on the context, translucency can reveal what is hidden or conceal what is seemingly visible,” added Merle Kasonen.

For example, the curator expanded on how wide use and promotion of glass (and transparency) indicates power and economic surplus, but when transparency is proclaimed as a sign of openness in architecture or politics or elsewhere, it is more often than not a sign of opacity, of not being able to see what is really going on. Looking in and looking out do not take place on equal grounds – transparency on the surface can, in fact, hide hermetic power structures and hierarchies. However, opacity, too, can be of value and at times, truly necessary,” explains Stine Bidstrup, whose curatorial concept centres what is in-between the two extremities – translucency.

Stine Bidstrup is a Danish glass artist, educator and art historian whose work and research explores optical phenomena, and interprets and brings ideas about utopian, architectural visions to life through glass sculptures, installation and video. Her curiosity revolves around the power of perception and power of context and point of view in constructing our understanding through vision and how the human eye and mind are always engaged in myriad determinations and negotiations.

Bidstrup holds art degrees from The Rhode Island School of Design and The Royal Danish Academy of Art School of Design and a degree in art history from The University of Copenhagen. She has taught in Denmark and internationally. She maintains a studio in Copenhagen, goes to Småland Sweden to blow glass, and is represented by Heller Gallery in New York and FUMI Gallery in London.

The 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial opens at Kai Art Center in Port Noblessner on 28 May 2021 and will remain open to visitors until 15 August 2021.

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 7th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial is coming to end, the main exhibition at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design is open until 23 July. The last exhibition of the satellite programme, “The perfect landscape. Earth, wood, fire, water”, by ceramic artist Karin Kalman is open until the beginning of August.

Karin Kalman. The perfect landscape. Photo: Tiit Rammul

The exhibition, displaying wood firing, opens on Monday, 17 July at HOP Gallery (Hobusepea 2). The artist will exhibit a collage of works burnt in different firing kilns. The emphasis is on the interplay of unglazed surfaces, the work of fire, the use of different clays together and, for contrast’ sake, interposing these with white delicate porcelain pieces. The second part of the exhibition is made up of a series of wheel-thrown porcelain cups, fired over several years in different wood or gas kilns, displaying the widely divergent results one can get while using the same glazes.

The exhibition “The perfect landscape. Earth, wood, fire, water” will be open until 1 August.

The main exhibition of the triennial “Ajavahe. Time Difference” is open to visitors until 23 July, Wed–Sun, 11–18. This Saturday, 15 July at 12.00 everyone is welcome to take part in the last guided tour, led by inventor and textile artist Kadi Pajupuu. The tour is in Estonian and about an hour long. Entry with museum ticket, which also grants access to the new permanent exhibition on the second floor of the museum.

Anu Almik

In May the satellite programme of 7th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial features five new exhibitions.

Sofia Hallik: Born-Digitals vol.2
12.05-02.06.2017, Draakon gallery (Pikk 18)
Mon-Fri 11-18, Sat 11-17

Sofia Hallik is a jewellery artist who is interested in the way суberspace and digital technology influence jewellery.

“Born-Digitals vol.2” was initially planned as a sequel of the first exhibition “Born-Digitals”, that was on show earlier this year. However, works from the first exhibition went missing, and thus the author decided to portray the essence of the lost works via their digital phantoms, namely through videos, photos, comments, screenshots that still remain in the cyberspace. Even though we may never see the pieces in their physical form, their digital imprint allows us to virtualize the material form of the jewellery.

Sandra Kossorotova: Precarious State of Mind
15.-30.05.2017, Hop gallery (Hobusepea 2)
Thu-Tue 11-18

Sandra Kossorotova is a designer and artist who’s artistic practice focuses on the relationship between socio-political powers and the human bodies.

In her solo show Precarious State of Mind the artist explores mental health as socio-political and ideological issues, rather than personal and biological problems. The show features new digitally printed textiles by Sandra Kossorotova. The fabrics were produced during her graduate placement at the Centre for Advanced Textiles at the Glasgow School of Arts.

Estonian Academy of Arts’ glass art department students: Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. Vol 2
16.-20.05.2017, Estonian Academy of Arts’ foyer gallery (Estonia pst 7)
Mon-Sun 10-20

The second year students of the Estonian Academy of Arts’ Glass Art Department present their works, approaching the essence of the human soul in various ways – they look into desires and obsessions, reflecting back at us again and again.

Participating artists: Elvira Beljajeva, Marie Järva, Eva-Maria Mirzojeva and Gerti-Carmen Tein.

Estonian Academy of Arts’ ceramics department students: TIME Keepers
19.-31.05.2017, Jahuladu (Rotermanni 8)
Mon-Sun 10-20

What is time? Does time exist? Does it really flow? How differently do we perceive time? Is physical time objective? Time has great social importance and value. Do we perceive it as a limited resource? The second year ceramics students of Estonian Academy of Arts interpret the meaning of time.

Participating artists: Cathy Saarm, Merilin Tartes, Mariliis Kapp, Mart Vaarpuu, Joosep Pihl.

Estonian Academy of Arts’ jewellery and blacksmithing students: Observa(c)tion
19.05-04.06.2017, Russian Theatre (Vabaduse väljak 5)
Tue-Sun 14-18

The second year students of the Estonian Academy of Arts’ Jewellery and Blacksmithing Department present a multi sensory inquiry into people’s behaviour patterns and daily rituals. Is this a hidden or public observation, are we observing ourselves or others – these questions will be answered at the exhibition. The works are made of materials like iron, glass, silk, ashes, brass, precious wood, porcelain, precious stones.

Participating artists: Anastassia Nikitina, Claudia Lepik, Liisbeth Kirss, Liina Lelov, Kätlin Kokk, Veronika Ovsyannikova, Sigrid Kuusk, Ljubov Kedrina, Marilin Laas (glass artist), Kaia Ansip, Liisbet Linntamm.

Anu Almik

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News

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

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

Announcing artist selection for the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial

Announcing curator and theme for the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial

Last week to go

New exhibitions in May

Catalogue "Ajavahe. Time Difference"

Catalogue "Translucency"