You are warmly invited to the opening of Wind Note, a duo exhibition by Sandra Ernits and Tõnis Jürgens, at the Tallinn City Gallery on Friday, 18 July at 6 PM. Featuring newly created installations alongside photographic and film works, the exhibition emerges from an ongoing dialogue between the two artists. Wind Note explores sensory perception and intuitive artistic creation, and is curated by Siim Preiman.
Both artists are technicians in the original Greek sense of the word: skilled practitioners deeply engaged in the materiality of their craft. Broadly speaking, Sandra Ernits could be described as a sculptor, and Tõnis Jürgens as a filmmaker. More precisely, Sandra’s practice gravitates toward the tactile and intuitive – materials present themselves or fall into her lap; paper tears, copper bends, plastic melts, and her hands gradually coax them into form. Tõnis’s approach is more contemplative and analytical, situated at the intersection of depiction and imagination. How does one convey a sense of time that hovers between documentation and image?
Together, Ernits and Jürgens have created a staged environment at the Tallinn City Gallery that gradually shifts – from the threshold to the farthest corner – into an increasingly abstract space. Familiar objects such as a tin roof, antennas, tomato plants, buckles, and fuses slowly give way to hybrid or distilled forms. Throughout the exhibition, questions of safety, strength, and clear communication linger in the air. The title Wind Note – the result of a three-way dialogue – can evoke sound, time, or direction, and this layered ambiguity permeates the entire show. Despite the artists’ pursuit of clarity, lightness, and balance, they work with impermanent materials and fluid meanings. Form resists containment, and time refuses to stay still.
“Figuratively speaking, this exhibition could be seen as a stairway to the sky or a greenhouse for dreams,” says curator Siim Preiman. “As visitors, we begin on the city street, step onto the rooftops, then move into the clouds, and finally look down from above. Up close, everything is simply space and electricity – but does it appear the same from higher up? If an antenna could grow freely, would it, like a tomato plant, twist and stretch endlessly toward the signal?”
The exhibition will be on view at the Tallinn City Gallery from 19 July to 28 September 2025.
Sandra Ernits is an installation artist and sculptor. In her work, she explores surrounding economic, political, and cultural structures, as well as psychological phenomena and processes, science fiction, and utopias. When creating her works, she places importance on the origin and composition of materials, often using leftovers or surplus to highlight the (creative) process itself as a tool for conceptualisation. Sandra Ernits studied installation and sculpture (BA) and contemporary art (MA) at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2024, she was awarded the Young Sculptor Prize.
Tõnis Jürgens is a Tallinn-based artist, writer, and cinema projectionist. He works mainly in the mediums of film and installation. His video works combine essayism, poetic fragmentation and the re-use of archive materials, and they are often expanded by scenographic spatial installations. He is interested in the connections between sleep and the im/measurability of everyday life. Tõnis Jürgens holds degrees in cultural theory from Tallinn University and new media from the Estonian Academy of Arts. Additionally, he has studied photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts, as well as architecture and design in Prague. He is currently a PhD candidate and guest lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
