The 19th season of the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM) will feature three main programme exhibitions, framed by two off-season projects by young artists. The main programme is launched by a joint project of seven curators, Rooms in Rhymes, while summer brings the international group exhibition always is everywhere curated by Margit Säde, and the season ends with Jass Kaselaan’s solo exhibition. Although EKKM’s seasons do not have a thematic focus, the 2025 exhibitions could be summarized by keywords such as poetics, repetition, transformation, collectivity and collaboration.
From 4 April, the exhibitions of the collaborative project Rooms in Rhymes by seven curators will start to open (followed by openings on 11, 17 and 25 April, as well as 2 and 9 May, total duration 5 April – 1 June). Each week a new exhibition by one of the curators replaces another on one of the museum floors, thus forming a rhythmical and fluctuating whole of displays throughout the museum building. The exhibition spaces designed by different curators are not necessarily expected to rhyme with each other, but it is perhaps in between the lines that something starts to resonate, creating space for potential f(r)iction. The exhibition experiments with curating as a form of poetic, performative and collective practice. In addition, the weekly openings are accompanied by a rich programme of events where the visitors are welcome to return again and again. Invited by EKKM’s in-house curator Evelyn Raudsepp, the extended group of curators is formed by EKKM’s team members usually carrying out different roles at the museum, and creatives who have previously worked with EKKM: Anita Kodanik, Brigit Arop, Johannes Luik, Laura De Jaeger, Laura Linsi and Marten Esko. The exhibition will feature more than 20 artists, both local and international, including authors from the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.
The extended EKKM collective in 2025. From top left: Martin Kirsiste, Mark Alexander Ummelas, Evelyn Raudsepp, Heimar Veske, Agnes Isabelle Veevo, Jake Shepherd. Sitting: Johannes Luik, Kadi Kesküla, Anita Kodanik, Brigit Arop. Missing on the picture: Laura De Jaeger, Juuli Teder and Katariina Kesküla. Photo by: Alana Proosa
The second project of the season, the international group exhibition always is everywhere (14 June – 17 August) is curated by Margit Säde. Drawing inspiration from the environments and umwelts of diverse living organisms, the exhibition tries to look beyond the distinctions between species and to acknowledge the present moment from a more diverse perspective than that of the human eye. always is everywhere is a poetic outlook on repetition and transformation that creates various scenarios of growth and decay, ignorance and empathy, as well as of already bygone times. The exhibition includes artists from Estonia, the Netherlands, North Macedonia and beyond: Maud van den Beuken, Uku Sepsivart, Zorica Zafirovska, Angela Maasalu, Helena Keskküla, Nele Kurvits, Vaim Sarv, Yvette Bathgate and Jake Shepherd.
The main programme of EKKM will culminate with Jass Kaselaan’s solo exhibition (6 September – 2 November). The sculptor’s practice can be characterised by large-scale sculptural, sound-based and spatial installations, as well as detailed drawings. In 2014, Jass Kaselaan won the Köler Prize main award at EKKM, and this is his first time to return to the museum since that.
However, the EKKM’s building will slowly start to awaken from its hibernation mode even before the launch of the main programme, as from 28 February to 9 March the museum will host the Young Sculptor Award Exhibition of the Estonian Academy of Arts. The works of sixteen young artists will be brought to view throughout the three floors of the museum, with the winner being announced at the opening of the exhibition on 28 February.
The exhibition always is everywhere has grown out of EKKM’s participation in the 3-year European Union project We don’t want to be stars (but parts of constellations) (2023–2026). Pictured are the artists in residence at EKKM as part of the project. From left to right: Uku Sepsivart, Maud van den Beuken, Zorica Zafirovska
The final chord of the season will also be given by young artists, as from 14 November to 14 December, EKKM will hand the museum over to the Young Contemporary Art Association (ENKKL). The collective, who has been compared to the Young Estonia group from the beginning of the 20th century, promises to dismantle the museum walls together with its institutional constraints, to heal wounds and to fill the seasonally depressed hearts with light and warmth.
Drawings: ENKKL, collage: Elo Vahtrik.
In 2025, the EKKM will continue to host parties, music events, public and educational programmes which in addition to the traditional multilingual exhibition tours, seek to resonate with wider contemporary cultural issues. This season, the showcase gallery on the museum façade will be revived by a programme of micro-exhibitions curated by Laura De Jaeger. EKKM will continue running the community garden, and keep up its active involvement in designing the public urban space, engagement in international collaborations and the local art scene.
The graphic designer for EKKM’s 2025 season is Agnes Isabelle Veevo.
