The first residency camp is starting at Maajaam technology and art farm, during which works will be prepared for the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 international exhibition of open-air art. This time at the creative camp we have works that move the landscape, inflate the forest and make the trees creak.
This week at Maajaam we begin with the first three-week residency camp in preparation for the exhibition with the participation of 2 artists and 3 artist duos. The artists were selected through an international open call, from which a 6-member committee selected 5 outstanding projects.
„We received a total of 278 proposals from all over the world during the first open call of the Wild Bits exhibition program. In addition to the high professional level and the large number of participants, most of the ideas also had a good connection to the general theme of the exhibition, which focuses on the points of contact between people, technology and nature,” says Timo Toots, the organizer at Maajaam.
Artists participating in the first Wild Bits creative camp are Julijonas Urbonas (LT), Mohar Kalra (US), heidundgriess (Alexandra Grieß and Jorel Heid) (DE), Yu-Ching Chiang and Ying-Ting Shen (TW), Aly Ogasian and Claudia O’Steen (US).
Art enthusiasts can visit Maajaam and experience the Estonian special characteristics it offers on Open Farm Day, on 23 – 24 July, when visitors get to see technology intertwine with modern art in the middle of the dome landscape of Southern Estonia. You can also see the works of the participating artists in the area surrounding the farm and hear their creators introduce their working process.
Wild Bits is an international open-air exhibition of technological art taking place in the summer of 2024 near Otepää at the Maajaam farm and in the natural landscape around it. The exhibition is organized by the artists operating of the technology and art farm Maajaam Timo Toots and Mari-Liis Rebane, the artist Taavi Suisalu and the organizers of the urban festival UIT Kadri Lind and Marie Kliiman. Wild Bits is part of the main program of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024.
In September the first works of Wild Bits will also be exhibited as a satellite event in Kaunas, Lithuania, as part of the side program of the Magenta landscape design festival.
The Wild Bits residency and exhibition program is co-financed by the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Folk Culture Centre, and Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany. The 2022 satellite exhibition at the landscape design festival Magenta in Kaunas is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture and the European Capital of Culture Kaunas 2022.
The second of the three Wild Bits open calls seeking works for the 2024 main exhibition will be announced in September of 2022.
Maajaam
The small art center called Maajaam (Earth Station in Estonian) is situated in Otepää nature reserve in South of Estonia in an old farm. The buildings previously used for agriculture have been converted to host a high-tech art studio and residency house for artists. Maajaam is extending an invitation to contemplate, question and explore the aspects of a technological society, its influence on our behavior, perception and thinking as well as on our surrounding environments. One of the focuses of Maajaam is the organization of residencies, during which the artworks will be produced. Maajaam is run by artists Timo Toots and Mari-Liis Rebane.
