Photo reportage from the 9th Artishok Biennial SIESTA in Tallinn

April 11, 2025
Author Echo Gone Wrong

Published in Photo / Video from Estonia

Gary Markle, Life Raft. Sculpture, 6 m diameter. Knitted plastic yarn made from used bags, post-consumer plastic bottles, plastic bags. 2025. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

The Artishok Biennial is shaking off two years of hibernation and stretching its legs, this time under our guidance. This is a dynamic exhibition format that has, since 2008, brought together ten artists and ten writers to kindle both the art field and art writing. Each biennial is organised by new curators, for whom the process is like learning to walk again – step by step, leading up to a marathon. The event centres around ten new artworks, created for the biennial, and the texts written about these works, which offer a total of one hundred different perspectives of interpretation.

By giving Artishok’s format a friendly tussle, we’re playing with its established customs. Although fun and pulse-raising, Artishok’s usual ten-day opening marathon isn’t really justified as a vitaliser of the art scene, since it’s exhausting for the organisers, participants and audience alike. With the 9th Artishok Biennial, we took it upon ourselves to slow down an art event that’s based on the production of new works within a limited timeframe, all the while being aware of the contradictions this entails, and often also struggling with them. For this reason we are, for the first time, spreading the biennial’s openings over the span of two months, leaving a necessary breathing space or – as the biennial’s title implies – siesta between the bustle of openings. In organising Siesta, we’re taking our cue from actual life and the breeziness of the everyday, placing value on going it slow and, with no shame, making space for lingering and stretching.

As opposed to the internationalisation of the Artishok Biennial, we decided to collaborate with local creatives in our selection of the artists and writers for Siesta. As such, all the artists and writers invited to the exhibition are people actively based in or engaged with the local scene, and already familiar to many from the stage, newspaper spreads, galleries and perhaps even from the street. Siesta is not a themed exhibition, but instead offers artists the opportunity to finalise ideas that have been brewing away in desk drawers, and to experiment with presenting their work in public space. Nevertheless, a similar fluctuation inevitably emerges in the artists’ works – humorous approaches, DIY aesthetics, the reuse of materials and ideas, and an interest in capturing spatial in-betweenness stand out.

To accentuate the nomadic nature inscribed in the DNA of the Artishok Biennial, Siesta takes place in various locations in Tallinn, bringing life to spots that are undergoing transformation, have become caught up in liminality or where art isn’t usually exhibited. Together we will pass by the sea platform behind Linnahall and the nearby Võrgu Street, the former Dünamo shop and the Liivalaia Uuskasutuskeskus reuse centre, Tallinn University of Technology and the pedestrian street next to Männi Park, the old tunnel beneath A. Laikmaa Street, Keskturg market and the Old Town, and finally, in the shade of the evening, we will go on a street journey alongside an artist. Working with the local and the already existing has inspired us to celebrate the unpopular off-season and reflect on how to retain space for temporary gestures in our living environment, which is slowly transforming at the grinding pace of bureaucracy. We can only hope that the 9th Artishok Biennial Siesta will shift the thinking patterns and trajectories of daily life – and give a conspiratory wink to fellow travellers in our dreary, car-dominated capital. See you soon!

Brigit ja Margit, ◕‿↼)

20 February – 20 April 2025, Tallinn public spaces
Artists: Anu Juurak, Alana Proosa, Lieven Lahaye, Kaisa Ling, Reigo Nahksepp, stuudio kollektiiv, Ulvi Haagensen, Gary Markle, Artjom Astrov, Hanna Samoson
Writers: Eva and Mia, Janar Ala, Kolkaplika, Linda Kaljundi, Maria Esko, Merle Karro-Kalberg, Mia Maria Rohumaa, Oliver Issak, Sanna Kartau, Tõnis Kahu
Curators: Brigit Arop and Margit Säde

The 9th Artishok Biennial SIESTA is organised by:

Curators: Brigit Arop and Margit Säde
Assistant: Laura Kell
Technical support: Dream Team
Communication: Kulla Laas
Graphic design: Ran-Re Reimann
Web design: Fatima-Ezzahra El Khammas
Proofreading: Annika Toots, Margus Enno, Dan O’Connell
Translators: Mari Volens, Maris Karjatse, Martin Rünk, Tõnis Jürgens
Photographer: Joosep Kivimäe

Sponsors: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, City of Tallinn

Partners: Keskturg, Uuskasutuskeskus, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn Urban Environment and Public Works Department, Mustamäe District Administration, Eesti Pandipakend, KONE, Liviko, Põhjala Brewery, Valmiermuiža, Punch Club, Patarein.

Artjom Astrov, JUICE. Video and sound. 2022–ongoing. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

Artjom Astrov, JUICE. Video and sound. 2022–ongoing. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

Artjom Astrov, JUICE. Video and sound. 2022–ongoing. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

Artjom Astrov, JUICE. Video and sound. 2022–ongoing. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

Lieven Lahaye, […] kept in private. Making it public. Text, 10 min sound, publication Catalog issue 26. Offset print, gouache, cardboard, audio transducer. 2025. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

Lieven Lahaye, […] kept in private. Making it public. Text, 10 min sound, publication Catalog issue 26. Offset print, gouache, cardboard, audio transducer. 2025. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

Lieven Lahaye, […] kept in private. Making it public. Text, 10 min sound, publication Catalog issue 26. Offset print, gouache, cardboard, audio transducer. 2025. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

Lieven Lahaye, […] kept in private. Making it public. Text, 10 min sound, publication Catalog issue 26. Offset print, gouache, cardboard, audio transducer. 2025. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

Alana Proosa, Pivotal Points. Video excursion in public space. 2025. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

Alana Proosa, Pivotal Points. Video excursion in public space. 2025. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

Alana Proosa, Pivotal Points. Video excursion in public space. 2025. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

Anu Juurak, Lift. Experiment. Site specific installation. 2025. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

Anu Juurak, Lift. Experiment. Site specific installation. 2025. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

Gary Markle, Life Raft. Sculpture, 6 m diameter. Knitted plastic yarn made from used bags, post-consumer plastic bottles, plastic bags. 2025. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe

Gary Markle, Life Raft. Sculpture, 6 m diameter. Knitted plastic yarn made from used bags, post-consumer plastic bottles, plastic bags. 2025. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe