Art is born out of collaboration. The year 2025 at the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia was marked by rich and rewarding collaborations with many local and international artists and curators, as well as numerous cultural organizations. A total of 14,257 people visited EKKM in 2025.
In 2025, EKKM hosted three main program exhibitions:
The season opened with a collaborative project by seven curators, “Rooms in Rhymes” (05.04–01.06.2025), featuring curators associated with EKKM: Evelyn Raudsepp, Johannes Luik, Marten Esko, Laura De Jaeger, Brigit Arop, Laura Linsi, and Anita Kodanik; and artists Agnes Isabelle Veevo, Alexander Webber, Alina Kleytman, August Weizenberg, Ben Caro & Kat Cutler-MacKenzie, Benjamin Arthur Brown, Camille Laurelli, Coumba Samba, DJ Tiine Rott, Eke Ao Nettan, Filip Vest, Gerta Raidma aka Lacqueer, Gretchen Lawrence, Helena Keskküla, Julia Scher, Kadri Liis Rääk, Katja Novitskova, Kirte Jõesaar, Liis Vares, Louis Morlæ, Madlen Hirtentreu, Mihkel Ilus, Piibe Kolka, René Kari, Samira Elagoz, Sandra Ernits, Ulvi Haagensen, and Zody Burke.
The second exhibition of the season was an international group exhibition entitled “always is everywhere” (14.06–17.08.2025), curated by Margit Säde. Participating artists: Angela Maasalu, Helena Keskküla, Jonas Mekas, Maud van den Beuken, Nele Kurvits, Reto Pulfer, Sirkku Rosi, Uku Sepsivart, Vaim Sarv, Yvette Bathgate & Jake Shepherd, Zorica Zafirovska.
The third exhibition of the season was Jass Kaselaan’s solo exhibition “Shepherd. Grave. Human with Wings” (6.09–2.11.2025).
The year began with the exhibition of the Estonian Art Academy’s Young Sculptor Award before the season started, and after the official end of the season, we invited the Estonian Young Contemporary Art Association (ENKKL) to take over the museum and held a group exhibition “Together, We’re Warmer” (14.11–14.12.2025).
In addition, we experimented with a new format for the EKKM Vitrine Gallery and exhibited works by three artists, Keiu Maasik, Raul Keller, and Raili Keiv, in various locations in our outdoor area between the main program exhibitions, i.e., during the installation periods. The curator of the Vitrine Gallery was Laura De Jaeger.
Alongside the exhibitions held indoors, the outdoor community garden, which has been running for six years now, brought together around 20 hobby gardeners.
In the second half of the year, we organized a music program that continued to offer young artists a platform to showcase their work in an environment that encourages experimentation and where the audience supports it. In addition, this year we continued to experiment with EKKM as a venue focused on alternative music and collaborated with several local party series and scenes. The following artists performed as part of EKKM’s music program: Avemaria, STD, Motonormal, Nova Lux, TAPES, Raul Saaremets, Kersten Kõrge, HOSTILE, Anca, elsa is missing, Hr. Mimmu, Jimmy Powertools, Po4(sh)taljon, Vilma Vaginosis, Kreemikast, The Lunacy of Flowers, Raul, Echo Lucida, White Gloss, hlntmbl, Bubblecum crew, IDM (idiot dance music), Shelter crew. The music program was curated by Mark Alexander Ummelas.
This year’s performance program featured several performances as part of the project “Rooms in Rhymes,” which included performances by Kirte Jõesaar, Gretchen Lawrence, and Filip Vest, and culminated at the end of the year with the performance and concert evening “Holy Glory”, featuring Jette Loona Hermanis, Deividas Vytautas Aukščiūnas, Gloria Viktoria Regotz, Norman Orro, and Artjom Astrov. The performance program is curated by Evelyn Raudsepp.
The year 2025 will mark two other important long-term collaborations on the international and local scene: EKKM joined the Nordic art institution network Museum Why; and the City of Tallinn announced an architectural competition for the City Museum’s new Open Collections building, which will also involve the renovation of the current EKKM building.
EKKM is now closing its doors for the winter, only to reopen on April 10, 2026, for its 20th anniversary season with the Köler Prize nominees’ exhibition.
We would like to thank all the artists and colleagues in the art field with whom we have had the pleasure of working, as well as our loyal audience. Let’s sail through wind and storm into a bright new year!