EKKM travelling exhibition “KOHATU” (Valga)

Press Release: EKKM Concludes Its Touring Exhibition, Final Stop This Spring: Valga

EKKM ON WHEELS

travelling exhibition

“KOHATU”

Exhibition opening on THURSDAY, 5 March at 6:00 pm

Exhibition open 6 March – 5 April

Valga Cultural Centre Gallery

Kesk St 1

Open 7:30 am–7:30 pm

artists: Kristiina Hansen, Flo Kasearu, Eve Kask, Paul Kuimet, Marco Laimre, Tanel Rander, Tõnis Saadoja, Silja Saarepuu & Villu Plink, John Smith

curators: Marten Esko & Anders Härm

education programme: Anu Lüsi (Kumu Education Centre)

graphic design: Mikk Heinsoo

technical team: Neeme Külm, Johannes Säre, Kadri Villand

The Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia continues its tour across Estonia with the travelling exhibition “Kohatu”. The final stop of this spring’s tour is Valga.

“Kohatu” is the first travelling exhibition in EKKM’s history, the museum’s deliberate “deterritorialisation project”, an attempt to become out of place. It is an experiment in which the institution seeks to transform itself, for the winter period, into a trajectory marked by a series of points, drawing an imaginary curved line across Estonia.

The exhibition’s title work, Paul Kuimet’s “Kohatu”, is a rather peculiar photograph that encapsulates many of the ideas from which both the exhibition and the project as a whole originate. The exhibition revolves around the notions of place (and the perception of place) and placelessness. We have brought together works by artists who engage, or have engaged, precisely with these questions in their artistic practice. They reflect on and interpret places, placelessness, and the loss of place in both spatial and psychological terms. At every venue where EKKM stops as part of its process of becoming “out of place”, we also attempt to generate something locally or to reflect something back to the place itself. We would also like to add a number of keywords associated with the exhibition that we hope to examine critically together with our audience: rural margins and periphery, provincialism and conservatism, openness to the new and isolation from the outside world.

In cooperation with the Kumu Education Centre, we have also prepared an education programme entitled “KOHATUnne” for the first, second and third stages of basic school. In addition, each exhibition venue will host a lecture programme for upper secondary school students and adult audiences interested in culture, with topics varying according to the specific characteristics of each location. More information about the exhibition and the works on display can be found in the accompanying exhibition booklet and on the EKKM website: www.ekkm.ee

The first stop of EKKM’s travelling exhibition was the Kuressaare Art Studio Gallery (30 October – 5 December), followed by the Valga Cultural Centre Gallery (6 March – 5 April 2015)

NB! INVITE “KOHATU” AND EKKM ITSELF TO YOUR LOCATION!

We invite other small towns and boroughs to host EKKM. The earliest possible time for visits would be October 2015. EKKM will cover most of the costs associated with the exhibition. For further information, please contact: info@ekkm.ee

THE CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM OF ESTONIA (EKKM) is an institution that has deliberately established itself within a gap in Estonian cultural policy. EKKM serves as a vehicle for the self-institutionalisation of a younger generation of artists, curators and art students, a tool intended to exist somewhere between official, institutionalised art organisations and alternative artist-run do-it-yourself galleries; a (counter)public, peculiar and unconventional vision of a museum, dedicated to producing, exhibiting, collecting and promoting both international and local contemporary art while challenging the conventional methods of art institutions. EKKM operates in a building that was squatted at the end of 2006 and has since been legalised, the former office building of Tallinn District Heating, located next to Kultuurikatel, which had stood vacant for years. Since 2007, EKKM has organised exhibitions and built an art collection. Since 2010, the museum has presented a regular exhibition programme from late April until mid-October, while events, seminars and performances take place throughout the year. Since 2013, EKKM has also been home to the bookshop “Lugemik” and the creative production company “Valge Kuup”, specialising in art and exhibition production. At weekends, the museum transforms into a popular club hosting parties and concerts. “Kohatu”, which began touring in autumn 2014, is EKKM’s first travelling exhibition project, created to take both the museum and contemporary art beyond the capital during the winter season. More information about EKKM, its exhibitions and events can be found on our website at www.ekkm.ee and on EKKM’s Facebook page.