Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the Peer-to-Peer Programme 2021 participating artists: Elo Liiv, Holger Loodus, Maria Metsalu, Laura Põld, Taavi Suisalu, Margit Säde, Diana Tamane and Kristina Õllek.
Artists were selected at an open call which received 42 applications. Great interest and feedback we collected demonstrate the need for this kind of programme, which is why CCA aims to continue with the project in the future, so that more artists would gain the possibility to participate in international dialogue, get feedback for their works and network with professionals over Europe.
The open call received many strong applications. When selecting the participants, the diversity of gender identities, different age groups, regional and ethnic backgrounds, as well as working with different mediums were also considered.
Elo Liiv (1971, lives and works in Triigi village) is sculpture and installation artist and art educator who works both with traditional sculptures as well as site-specific video, sound and light art. Liiv has been working with public space to create a shift in people’s minds, compose artworks with light and different visual material. She has organized light festivals and her exhibition “Useful (AB)use” was exhibited in Noorus gallery, Tartu, last year.
Holger Loodus (1970, Tallinn) is an artist mainly working with painting and installation. Loodus’ earlier work can be characterised as magical realism, whereas his later work can be better understood through notions of sci-fi or alternative histories. His exhibition “Reimagining Those Old Slopes” was open in Kogo gallery, Tartu, until the closure of exhibition spaces this year.
Maria Metsalu (1990, Athens) is a performance artist who uses her body to explore contemporary issues, and often employs sexually loaded means of expression. Her work looks at the possibilities for self-mythologisation in the age of the internet, and the role of humans in the contemporary world from a wider perspective. Metsalu has performed at Manifesta 11 (2016), Kunstraum London (2017), Kanuti Gildi SAAL (2018) and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (2018).
Laura Põld (1984, Vienna) is an artist, whose works have emerged from incorporating textile, wood, found objects, ceramics and video. In her ouvre, she has been involved with creating a sense of place, combining the specific qualities of exhibition space and materially sensitive and narrative elements. In Autumn 2020 her exhibition “Shedding Skin” (together with Piret Karro) was exhibited in Vaal gallery, Tallinn.
Taavi Suisalu (1982, Tallinn) is an artist, who works in the sphere of media art. The form of Suisalu’s works comes from altering the practical use-value of technologies, finding applications for devices which is different from their primary purpose. He is interested in sociocultural phenomenon and the changes technology brings in the behaviour, perception and thinking of people. In 2020, his video work were exhibited in Touch Me festival at Nikola Tesla Technical Museum in Zagreb, Croatia and in European Media Art Platform group show Quarantine in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Margit Säde (1984, Zürich) is 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. In 2020, she curated NU Performance festival in Tallinn with Egija Inzule.
Diana Tamane (1986, Tartu) is a Latvian-born artist, often using her family members and herself as the leading characters in her art. The personal dimension in the stories about Eastern European life allows for generalisations about how identity in the region has been shaped during the transitional period. Tamane mainly works with photo and video, while also being interested in the medium of photography, its meanings and conventions. In February 2021, she showed her latest video work “Andris” in Pallas gallery, Tartu at the group show “As she sees it”.
Kristina Õllek (1989, Tallinn) is a visual artist working in the field of photography, video and installation. Within her recent projects she’s been more interested in the notion of new technologies and geological matter, the connectivity of the spatial and ecological circumstances, as well the components and resources that enable such technologies to create today’s environment. Her installation „Filter Feeders, Double Binds & Other Silicones“ was part of the exhibition “Our Seas Are What We Make of Them”, curated by Angeliki Tzortzakaki at Laurel Project Space, Amsterdam which was open until April 11, 2021.
The Peer-to-Peer Programme is a joint initiative connecting artists and art workers across Europe for professional discussions and network building. The programme acts as a response to the needs declared by artists to dialogue with art professionals across disciplines and regions. These individuals are carefully matched by each organisation, who will offer a shortlist specifically tailored with each artist in mind. The artist will determine the final match-up for each of their meetings.
The programme is co-organised by the: Danish Art Foundation, Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art, Flanders Arts Institute, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, IASPIS – The Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual and Applied Art, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Mondriaan Fund, Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), and Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. Each organisation will host eight artists for the programme, 72 artists in total.
The participation of Estonian artists is funded by Nordic Culture Point.
