Explosions, photograph by Mari Keski-Korsu

Hijacking the Ptarmigan practice over the first quarter of 2013 is Illegal Aesthetics, an ongoing laboratory executed within the Migrating Art Academies framework www.migaa.eu, purse-snatching for interrogation the very scope of art’s social domain. How far can critique be constrained by…

All Memories Are Political

I wrote about Saskia Järve first time in 2009 and also made an interview with her. Back then I described her as follows: „There is notable sense of presence in her works, and a certain glimpse to the world, always recognizable,…

The myths of Andres Tali

Andres Tali’s (1956) exhibition “My heart burns forever (sketches on St. Rita)” affects from the first glimpse or even before – through the gallery’s display window. While most audience go to Tumblr, Youtube or similar pages for multimedia stimulation, it…

Annual Exhibition of Tartu Artists

The annual exhibition of Tartu artists, functioning on the basis of an open call, is an old format not so common in the contemporary context. Traditionally the works selected by the jury formed the exhibition. This structure of free submission…

The Museum Exhibits Itself: Archeology and the Future of Estonian Art Scenes

„Archeology and the Future of Estonian Art Scenes” (19.10.12 – 30.12.12) in KUMU is an exhibition assembled by four Estonian curators—Eha Komissarov, Kati Ilves, Rael Artel, and Hillka Hiiop—with the aim of giving an overview of contemporary Estonian art. To…

Resilience of art: XIV International Festival for New Media Culture Art+Communication

Roughly saying: a clock working on dirty water, thinking of p2p future perspectives in social structures, listening to beetles penis vibrations in a concert and looking at MacGilly costume as an aid to become anonymous. Sounds like this could be…

National Character of Lithuanian Art

neringa-cerniauskaite-and-ugnius-gelguda_interruption-2_pot-kassel

Ten years have passed since I read Lev Manovich’s texts and since I was thinking that trying to differentiate cultures within the globalized and networked world is quite tricky. While Manovich continues defining Western and Eastern features[1] I came up with a…

Surviving in Downshifting Mode

This September have pitched the consistency of cultural events in Riga. As every year, the culture forum White Nights offers a diverse and intensive program, which actually cannot be seen in a one night. However, assuming that each of us has our…

Mindaugas Gapševičius: On official knowledge of contemporary art and trauma

Abandoned Mystery is an interdisciplinary project on exploring the constitution of the phenomena of abandoned military sites in the Baltic Sea area. In cooperation with partners the team is organizing field-trips towards abandoned places in Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Finland. http://abandonedmystery.info “What…

Rebirth of the obsolete. “Memory Loss” by Uku Pira

When visiting the graduation show of Tartu Art College, one of the works stood out from the others. It was Uku Pira’s (1985) audio-video installation „Memory Loss“, which was about nostalgic recycling of obsolete technology. Installed in a dark room…