This winter’s open call winners Eva Mustonen (EST) and Elīna Vītola (LV) opened a duo exhibition “Let’s Find A Way: Off-Season” in Kanal gallery on the 29th of October.
“Let’s Find A Way” is a collaborative project by Eva Mustonen and Elīna Vītola which began with a caravan trip that the artists took together on the roads of South-Latvia. The goal of the trip was to find a way out of an emotional and financial dead end, in which the artists had gotten into.
The low profitability of art and uncertain prospects had eroded their fortitude over time and both felt that making art on the side of families and making money, had reached total absurdity. The precarious lifestyle and low expectations for real estate fed more frustration than inspiration. These bitter thoughts and outlooks sent the artists on a romanticized search for freedom – an old and tired caravan symbolizing their confusing life.
It’s off-season and the caravan is stuck hiding from the cold weather in the garden. Nonetheless, the artists are bringing all of the equipment from the trip to Kanal gallery, to officially unveil this project. Would I really create more art if I had more time? Is an institution-free life even possible? The visitors are welcomed by fragments of conversations and pep talks, naive call-to-actions and cookie art, which even when immersed in everyday routines, are trying to create art. The ingredients are there…
– “Yes, we’re so going to die on this hill”
– “We have all the ingredients but no art”
– “Fish rots from the head”
– “Let’s go and ask the Swedish government for the oven!”
– “Rivers are nice, lakes are nice, too”
– “Let’s feed the landscape with rotten lemons and flour!”
– “From here you can see a lot of people who have gardens”
– “Abstract painting doesn’t speak to me”
¬– “One year of caravan (hopes)”
– “I saw where it dropped, but I’m not going to get it”
– “Look up real estate in Valga”
– “Off-season (regrets)”
– “Let’s find a way!”
– “We have all the ingredients but no art”
– “Fish rots from the head”
– “Let’s go and ask the Swedish government for the oven!”
– “Rivers are nice, lakes are nice, too”
– “Let’s feed the landscape with rotten lemons and flour!”
– “From here you can see a lot of people who have gardens”
– “Abstract painting doesn’t speak to me”
¬– “One year of caravan (hopes)”
– “I saw where it dropped, but I’m not going to get it”
– “Look up real estate in Valga”
– “Off-season (regrets)”
– “Let’s find a way!”
The exhibition will be open until the 14th of January.
Eva Mustonen (1986) has studied textile in Tartu, textile and semiotics in Güteborg and graduated Estonian Academy of Arts with a masters in sculpture and installation. In 2014 Mustonen received the Young Textile Artist of the Year Award, in 2017 the Eduard Wiiralt scholarship and in 2021 she was selected to take part in the WIELS residency programme. Her works are characterised by material-sensitivity, DIY-aesthetics and humor, the craftsmanship or lack thereof often plays an important role.
Elīna Vītola (1986) has studied painting (BA, MA) in Art Academy of Latvia and in 2018 she received the The Nordic & Baltic Young Artist Award. Vītola approaches colours and painting in a conceptual way, asking humorous questions about the matter, technique and material.
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Graphic designer: Henri Kutsar.
Supporters: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Võru City, Tikkurila.
Thanks: Mari Škerin, Jaan Škerin, Siim Asmer, Madis Meister, Indrek Kits, Kristel Onno, Janika Solmann, Eleriin Seim.
Photography: Mari-Leen Kiipli
