Photo: Tiina Sarapu

30.01.–11.04.2021
The Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Staircase Gallery

The artist featured in the exhibition series “Room” this year is Tiina Sarapu. The series was launched in 2018 with the aim of giving contemporary artists and designers the opportunity to engage with the museum’s collections – material objects that have shaped our routine environment in one way or another. In the course of the project, artists have the opportunity to explore the museum’s collection and the peculiarities of museum work, and to formalise their creative impulses as an exhibition in the museum’s gallery, installed in one of the rooms of a 19th-century residential building.

Tiina Sarapu: “I was really happy with the museum’s invitation. The proposed format and possibilities for approaching the subject extended my previous projects a great deal. I am interested in space, in the environment, I am interested in there being free space. Watching light move around the room brings me pleasure. I become enraptured by glass when I happen to observe the unexpected and yet perfectly consistent landscapes glass and light can create inside a space.

I saw a lot of links with my previous work in questions regarding the storage, packaging, shipment and selection of items for museum displays, so I initially tried to drop these invisible threads and just started researching. So, at first I wasn’t looking for anything. Maybe just myself. I wanted to know what I could find.

Exploring museum collections can be compared to surfing in your own subconscious. Combing through a huge amount of visual material, I began to observe my feelings and thoughts more closely, discovering the patterns they form. Again and again, I found myself pausing at works encompassing a nostalgic warmth, a kind of nearness and familiarity. I also found works that aroused anxiety or gloom, as well as indifference or boredom.

I was very interested in how the artefacts were catalogued and physically stored or packaged. But what is even more interesting and consequential is how the collection is formed. The excitement, complexity and responsibility of collecting became clearer to me more than ever before.”

The environment created by Tiina Sarapu in the museum gallery harbours a nearly perfect workroom with a view, but also a delicately designed airy space where her favourite artefacts from the museum collection are combined with selected objects from elsewhere, forming a lively dialogue with the artist’s original work. Half open grey glass vitrines and boxes filter some of the works, while the curves, engravings and grey veiled quality offer new perspectives and food for thought. This “room of secrets” is light and contains plenty of time and space, which Tiina Sarapu wants to offer with her work.

foto: Tiina Kõrtsin

An exhibition of glass & light objects with spatial sound and moving lighting design

Light travels slowly on the Disc and is slightly heavy, with a tendency to pile up against high mountain ranges. Research wizards have speculated that there is another, much speedier type of light which allows the slower light to
be seen, but since this moves too fast to see they have been unable to find a use for it.
When light encounters a strong magical field it loses all sense of urgency. It slows right down. And on the
Discworld the magic was embarrassingly strong, which meant that the soft yellow light of dawn flowed over the sleeping landscape like the caress of a gentle lover or, as some would have it, like golden syrup.
Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
/Terry Pratchett/

The Rapla County Centre for Contemporary Art finalises its 10th anniversary programme with an international exhibition of glass & light objects titled Slow Light. A “living” display where luminous objects move in the dark space, casting shadows, reflections and surreal images. Others stay still, with only a pulsating inner luminescence revealing their hidden facets. Light and sound connect the pieces into a unified, abstract spectacle, where every work plays a role.
The exhibition offers an exciting gamut of ideas and techniques. Participating artists – celebrated internationally and locally – each have developed a unique vision and handwriting.
The year 2020, with its unexpected developments, has made us contemplate our environment and humanity from new angles. The works, most of which were created specially for the occasion, display both humour and wistfulness, but also deeper perceptions and reflections.

Participants:
Sofi Aršas, Piret Ellamaa, Merle Kannus, Erki Kannus, Kati Kerstna, Kai Kiudsoo-Värv , Eve Koha, Kai Koppel, Marilin Kristjuhan, Kairi Orgusaar, Aleksandra Pavlenkova, Rait Prääts, Birgit Pählapuu, Kateriin Rikken, Maret Sarapu, Eili Soon , Aivar Tõnso, Kristiina Uslar (Estonia), Torsten Rötzsch, Simone Fezer (Germany), Marta Gibiete (Latvia).

Curator: Kairi Orgusaar.
Exhibition, lighting and graphic design: Kati Kerstna.
Sound composition: Aivar Tõnso.

Opening Nov. 20.at18.00
The Rapla County Centre for Contemporary Art, Tallinna mnt. 3b, Rapla.
Open Nov. 21– Dec. 13, Tue-Sun 15.00 – 18.00.
Closed on Mondays.

Sponsored by:
Cultural Endowment of Estonia, CEE Rapla County expert group, Rapla Parish, Rapla County Municipalities’ Development Foundation.

Õhtulehe galerii

September 2018 will see the Michelangelo Foundation’s unprecedented celebration of European craftsmanship showcased across the range of beautiful and surprising spaces that comprise the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, an international cultural centre which lays claim to most of the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice.

Homo Faber will adorn the Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s many varied spaces, including a number of historically and architecturally significant buildings, and will fill its galleries, libraries, cloisters and even its swimming pool with exquisite pieces, innovative installations and artisans creating work on site in full view. Taking up nearly 4,000 square metres, this exhibition will be the largest ever held at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini and will offer the public the opportunity to explore a range of spaces not generally open to them.

Created by a hand-picked team of world-class designers, curators and architects, Homo Faber aims to put the finest artisans of Europe on centre stage while providing a unique and memorable experience for visitors. The Homo Faber team, which includes names such as Michele de Lucchi, Stefano Boeri, India Mahdavi, Judith Clark, Jean Blanchaert and Stefano Micelli, has come together to imbue the exhibit with untold imagination and energy. Also collaborating with the Michelangelo Foundation on this undertaking are partner organizations that share its vision including: the Fondation Bettencourt Schueller, the Triennale Design Museum, and the Cologni Foundation for the Métiers d’Art.

A huge range of materials and disciplines will be represented, from jewellery to bespoke bicycles, from skills on the brink of being lost to some of the most sought after icons associated with European style.

Homo Faber is fuelled by an ardent belief in the power and value of real human engagement. As such, the exhibition is intended as an immersive experience – visitors will be able to speak to artisans, virtually enter the ateliers of the masters, observe conservators at work and truly immerse themselves in the world of fine craftsmanship, a world that relies on connection: connecting the hand, head and heart to create authentic works of lasting value.

on photo: Simone Fezer “Perception”

One´s point of view depends on a number of variables – upbringing, environment, opinions, prejudices, goals and needs, and so on. Our viewing angle shapesour judgement, decision-making, behaviour patterns and their consequences. Yet sometimes, looking at things from a different angle can open a door to another, perhaps more spacious, world.

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The exhibition allows us a glimpse of wildly differing viewpoints, on topics ranging from nostalgic past moments, intimate memories, yearnings for freedom, concerns for the fate of Earth and the artist’s own carbon footprint, through close-up studies of skin, musings on the concept of perfection, wanderings in the twilight zone, to frontal attacks against aesthetics.
One may find works both monumental and miniature, representative and abstract, sculptural and painterly, metaphorical and direct, cheery and dark, quiet and loud. There’s even a study on glass by the late Master Evald Okas. In short, there’s lots to see, all summer long.

participating: Sofi Aršas, Piret Ellamaa, Erki Kannus, Merle Kannus, Kati Kerstna, Eve Koha, Kai Koppel, Ivo Lill, Evald Okas, Kairi Orgusaar, Rait Prääts, Kateriin Rikken, Eili Soon (EE); Marta Gibiete, Anda Munkevica (LV); Simone Fezer, Cornelius Réer, Torsten Rötzsch (DE)

curator: Kati Kerstna
translation: Merle Kannus

exhibition is part of the art programme “One Hundred Artscapes” dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia
sponsored by: Center for Contemporary Arts Estonia, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, City of Haapsalu, Evald Okas Museum

on photo: Simone Fezer “Perception”