Margit Säde (1984) is an artworker in the broadest sense. Alternating between the roles of a curator, educator, producer and artist, her main interests include subjectivity, precarity, collectivity, language, human psyche and voice. In her work, Säde highlights the importance of self-initiated, collaborative and process-based artistic practice. Her projects are characterised by an ambivalent approach to space and time, humour and poetry.
As a freelance artist and artworker Säde has first-hand experience and knowledge about the shortcomings of immaterial precarious work, which drives her to find alternative contexts for artistic positions that do not follow the logic of the market. This sentiment is expressed in Mladen Stilinović’s piece “Artist at work” (1978), a display of rest. For Säde, however, this does not mean that artworks should not get made at all but instead, she works from the hypothesis that production is not a necessity if conditions do not allow for that. For example, this was Säde’s starting point for her curatorial project “DOings & kNOTs” (2016, Tallinn Art Hall), inspired by Hans Ulrich Obrist’s project “Do it” that had taken place in the same location 20 years earlier.
“Cloudbusters: intensity vs. intention”, curated by Säde (2018, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia) was centred on the image of a cloud, looking at it as a natural phenomenon as well as from the perspective of data processing. The curator’s focus was on clouds as iconographic attributes and abstract symbols, speaking to physical and social phenomena, digital databases and mental universes.
Säde’s recent curatorial project, NU Performance festival “Voice and something more” (2020, with Egija Inzule), brought together the polyphony of creative expressions and statements. The festival programme focused on opening the emotional, social and political potential of voice. Similarly to Säde’s other project, the festival was accompanied by a parallel programme, which included, for example, the radio show “Nupp”.
Margit Säde studied art history at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2007, BA) and fine arts at the Zurich University of the Arts (2017, MFA). From 2017 to 2020 she worked at the Estonian Academy of Arts as the head of the contemporary art Master’s curriculum and visiting associate professor. She is the artistic director of the publisher Rollo Press (Zurich) (2011–…). Säde has received the Annual Award of the visual and applied arts endowment of the Estonian Cultural Endowment (2019).
Margit Säde’s other exhibitions and projects include: “Score Symposia”, Minimum bouldering gym, Zurich (2018); “Hear Me With Your Eyes”, Castrum Peregrin, Amsterdam (2016); “A Selfless Self in the Nightless Night”, “Disembodied Voices & Imaginary Friends”, BAR project space, Barcelona and Corner College, Zurich (2014); “SOURCE AMNESIA”, Oslo10, Basel (2014); “While Walking on Secret Paths / While Walking on Salads”, Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn (2013); “And So On And So Forth”, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia and Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2012–2013); “If It’s Half Broke”, “Part Fix It – Stalkers, Players and Taxies, Phone Calls and Laments, Corridors and Witness Reports, Disappointment and Shame” , CAC, Vilnius (2011); “Doings or Not” (with Laura Kuusk), Ljubljana, Grenoble, Tallinn and Muhu island (2008–2010); The Art Centre for Dismissed Employees, Tallinn Post Office (2009).