Category: Photography

New cultural week has began! There will be punk and Pallas, another life and jewellery art, Liisi Koikson and a fashion show, hiking in Lahemaa, an Estonian language course and other exciting things. Enjoy!
Photo exhibition „Self-invented People. The Face of Soviet-era Punk in Estonia”
15 Nov 2017 – 18 Feb 2018
Juhan Kuus Documentary Photography Center
The exhibition focuses on individual and group portraits of punks through photos of Arno Saar, Urmas Lange and Väino Meresmaa to give the audience a chance to be faced with the rebels and free spirits of that time.
Harry Tensing’s jewellery exhibition „Another Life”
19 Jan – 19 Feb
A-Gallery
Water and plants are inseparable from each other. Without water, a tree will become wood. At the current exhibition, the artist has presented maple, apple and pear tree wood from his home garden – all the trees that have been cut down during his lifetime and the taste of their fruit are still in his mind. While modeling the wood he has attempted to reanimate them in the form of jewellery.
Estonian language courses at the Estonian Institute
22 Jan – 23 Jan
Estonian Institute
The Estonian Institute will start the new Estonian language course for beginners, starting on 23 January in our premises in Suur-Karja 14 (Tallinn Old Town). Classes will take place on Tuesdays at 6-7.30 p.m. (14 weeks).
TAFF Club
25 Jan
House of the Brotherhood of Blackheads
TAFF Club is initiated by the Tallinn Philharmonic in 2012. The main style of the club is mainstream jazz, additionally, there are special events of different styles. On the 25th of January the performer is Liisi Koikson.
Exhibition „Art Society Pallas 100. Birth and Rebirth”
26 Jan – 3 June
Adamson-Eric Museum
The name of Pallas sounds very familiar in the Estonian cultural history, but there is a shortage of deeper knowledge about it. Yet, in the development of our spiritual and emotional culture, this society that was born with the Republic of Estonia, has played a primary role.
Fashion show „ENNE” at the Estonian National Museum
27 Jan
Estonian National Museum
Fashion show „ENNE” presents the modern collections of Sirli Pohlak and Kertu Kivisik inspired by ethnographic heritage. The event will start with a screening by MoeKunstiKino, the first fashion film festival in Tartu, and, to end, the attendees will be able to experience a conceptual fashion video in virtual reality.
Ekström March 2018
27 Jan
Kolga Manor
Ekström march is an event to popularize active outdoor habits and introduce war history to whole families, which takes place in the untouched landscapes of the biggest and oldest Estonian national park – Lahemaa. There will be three hiking trails: 7 km, 17 km, and 30 km.

Tallinn Photomonth started  on Friday evening  with the opening of the main exhibition  at the Tallinn Art Hall and lucky for us, we got to ask a few questions from the organizers Kadri Laas(left in the photo) and Laura Toots(right in the photo) before  everything  went into action.

When it comes to this year’s programme, it is notable that many of the represented artists don’t necessarily express themselves through photography on a day-to-day basis. Why make these choices?
Ever since it was first held in 2011, Tallinn Photomonth– despite it’s name—has been about taking a look at contemporary art as a whole. Still, we’ve stuck with the name Photomonth since the modern world is overflowing with photos; it’s aware of its’ photogenicity, so it uses these photos as a fundamental way of communication. The 2017 programme includes painting- and photo exhibitions, installations, residencies, book presentations, studio visits and film screenings in both cultural institutions and open space.
How was the Photomonth programme put together? How were the artists and their works chosen? Which themes were developed?
We started working on the programme with the opening exhibition in Tallinn Art Hall. In the summer of 2016, we organized an international curator contest. As a result, we picked Anthea Buys (a South African curator and writer) to be the curator of our group exhibition. What made Buys’ exhibiton project stand out was the fictional approach- the characters are real, historical people, who Buys has written into different fictional situations.
We made a conscious choice of not giving the participants a central topic to work with, giving every artist and curator their respective creative freedom. Regardless, it seems that Photomonth’s opening exhibition „Visuaalkurnatus“ („Image Drain“) has also inspired the rest of the programme, covering many significant breaking points in the past, present and future. Key words like the passing of time, dreaming about the future, emigration and occupation have established a pronounced direction for the entire programme.
The selection process has generally been multifaceted. We’ve included a lot of our old favourites that step away from the exhibition format (f.e the film screenings in Sõprus cinema, artists’ residencies in EKKM and Narva’s art residency), as well as a lot of rooms that exhibitions are not commonly held in. The key issue was the so-called „matchmaking“- finding an appropriate room for an exhibition, attuning a certain artist to a certain room and getting curators to create projects centered around specific places.
This year there have been over 20 exhibitions in addition to the hectic public programme.
Photomonth is divided into categories (exhibitions, fair, events), how does this division work?
There are no divisions in the context of the medium- there are exhibitions, residencies, book presentations and other events taking place. The main programme includes exhibitions in Tallinn Art Hall, Photomuseum, Estonian Contemporary Art Museum, Kanuti Guild Hall, ARS project room, Telliskivi Creative City, Puänt bookstore, Freedom Square and KUMU. Furthermore, Sõprus cinema is showing artists’ short films and people are visiting artists’ studios all over the city.
In addition to the main programme, a gallery programme is being held in parallell with Photomonth. The programme features Estonian artists’ solo exhibitions in the following galleries: Temnikova & Kasela
gallery, Hobusepea gallery, Art Hall gallery, Tallinn City Gallery, Mihhail gallery, Vaal gallery, Draakoni gallery.
This year, Tallinn Photomonth extends to Narva with two exhibitions and a foreign artists’ residency held in Narva Art Gallery and Narva Art Residency.
In September, Estonian Photographic Art Fair will take place for the eight time in Telliskivi Creative City.
What are Photomonth’s goals, does it aim to introduce (Estonian) photography to a wider audience or is it targeted at the people aready acquainted with the art field?
It is important for Tallinn Photomonth to be diverse and intertwined, especially in engaging different audience groups. The lectures, the guide excursions, the conversations with the artists, the movie nights and the book presentations are all aimed at not only art professionals, but the general public and that is also reflected in the topics we’ve chosen for our events. Moreover, the plays held in Tallinn and Narva act as a platform for our educational program, which we offer free in Estonian and Russian. The aim of the educational program is to improve visual reading skill, raise interest towards contemporary art, improve the ability to analyze art phenomenons and offer inspiration for creative activity.
I would also like to bring up Professional Week (held during the last week of September), which includes a programme on the topic of professional perspective open to all those interested.
Photo by Helen Melesk. Interview translated by Emili Maiste.

Estonian Architecture museum  had a photography competition  last year and now the verdicts are  in.  The best photos are shown at the Estonian architecture museum and  here is a little gallery of yesterday´s exhibition opening.
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