In 2023, the main focus of the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) was international collaborations, such as the Sequences XI art biennial in Iceland, publishing the art magazine A Shade Colder, operating the Borderland Poetics network, providing programmes for international curators visiting Estonia and connecting them to local artists and institutions.
International projects
In 2023, the main event for the CCA was the Sequences XI art biennial Can’t See in Reykjavik in October and November. The biennial brought visitors to the capital of Iceland during the darkest time of the year and offered an invigorating and multifaceted art programme that included performances, tours and talks. The preliminary event of the biennial took place in September in Helsinki in collaboration with the art residency HIAP.
In addition to the Icelandic media, the biennial was publicised in the Estonian media (Aktuaalne kaamera, OP, Postimees, Eesti Ekspress, Müürileht) and internationally (Artnet News, Artsy, Wallpaper, The Art Newspaper, Artnews, Frieze, Echo Gone Wrong, Guardian etc). “What makes Sequences distinctive is the bold dialogues set up across generations, between new commissions and works from museum collections. It might seem counterintuitive for a festival looking to push boundaries to incorporate museum loans and deceased or “outsider” artists, but it’s a thrilling aspect of the program and testament to the curators’ thorough research,” wrote Elizabeth Fullerton at Artnet News. The biennial included over 50 artists or collectives, 14 of them have a connection to Estonia (Aaloe-Ader-Flo-Künnap-Soosalu, Dénes Farkas, Edith Karlson, Elo-Reet Järv, John Grzinich, Kadri Liis Rääk, Kärt Ojavee, Katja Novitskova, Naima Neidre, Uku Sepsivart, Vaim Sarv, Maria Metsalu, Johhan Rosenberg and Netti Nüganen with their teams) and also others from the near region: Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. The opening of the festival was attended by the Estonian minister of culture Heidy Purga.
Sequences XI was among the many collaborative projects in the Nordic and Baltic region that the CCA has worked on over the years. These collaborations also include the three-year network Borderland Poetics, initiated by the CCA. As part of the network’s activities, the art residency Rupert organised trips to Vilnius and Kaunas in spring for Icelandic and Estonian art professionals. Via an international internship programme, two people had the opportunity to work with art institutions as interns – Mikk Lahesalu as part of the organising team of Sequences biennial and Keidi Jaakson at Rupert, Vilnius for two months.
Since 2022, the CCA publishes the English language art magazine A Shade Colder. In 2023, A Shade Colder published three issues: Shifting Timelines (April), Flesh in Tension (July) and The Shapes of Language (November). The magazine was presented in Vilnius, Tallinn and Berlin. This year, contributors included artists and writers from Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Germany, Finland and Iceland. In September, the editors of A Shade Colder took part in Miss Read Art Book Fair in Berlin and in conjunction with the event, a collection of writings by artists titled Reversed Chronicles was published. Together with the Vilnius-based art magazines Echo Gone Wrong and Artnews.lt, the editors of A Shade Colder, Kaarin Kivirähk and Keiu Krikmann initiated the network of Baltic and Nordic art magazines.
In 2023, the CCA’s team put together programmes and gave recommendations regarding Estonian art for over 50 international curators, artists and writers. In collaboration with the Estonian Academy of Art, we invited Cecilia Alemani, the chief curator of the 59th Venice Biennale to give a public lecture and as part of her research trip, visit art institutions and artist studios in Tallinn and Tartu. Cecilia Alemani is curating Anu Põder’s solo exhibition, opening on 3 January 2024 in Museum Susch in Switzerland.
This year, artists Laivi Suurväli and Hedi Jaansoo were selected for the WIELS residency, in 2024, Ruudu Ulas will have the opportunity. In March, Tanja Muravskaja, the former WIELS resident exhibited Tanja’s Gardens at the WIELS project space – a display of works from five different series, providing a personal and sensitive comment on the events of the world in recent years.
The CCA continued preparations for the Estonian pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale together with artist Edith Karlson: a space for the exhibition was selected, the team was finalised and the production of artworks began. The Estonian pavilion will be opened in April 2024.
Projects in Estonia
In 2023, the CCA’s video archive went through a significant technical upgrade in terms of accessibility and safety – we began a collaboration with the Film Archive of the National Archives of Estonia, which ensures best storage conditions for the video archive and better visibility through their database Meediateek. New entries were added to the Biographical Lexicon of Estonian Art and Architecture, accessible via websites of the CCA and the Estonian Society of Art Historians and Curators. In total, 60 queries from Estonia and elsewhere were made with artists, curators and art students making up the majority of the users of the archive. From this year, the list of publications archive is also available on the CCA’s website.
Together with the Association of Estonian Art Institutions and the Estonian Artists’ Association, the CCA held a vision day for the art field, which included speakers like the Estonian minister of culture Heidi Purga, the head of the culture department of the Estonian Public Broadcasting Erle Loonurm, the deputy mayor of Tallinn Kaarel Oja and many other representatives of art institutions. As a member of the Association of Estonian Art Institutions, the CCA has actively participated in discussions about media visibility and introduced art in a variety of Estonian media houses. The CCA published art exhibitions statistics for 2020 and 2021, available in three languages. Statistical overview provides an important cultural political dimension to understanding the local art field, providing data for analysing changes and developments occurring in the Estonian art field.
The year also marked the end of Maria Arusoo‘s curatorial residency at the Kumu Art Museum, concluding with exhibitions Through the Black Gorge of Your Eyes and When the body says yes+ by melanie bonajo. Together with the Estonian Academy of Arts, the CCA provided several courses for students – for example, to develop their skills in articulating their artistic position or in collaborating with memory institutions.