Twenty years after moving into the auxiliary building of the abandoned Tallinn Power Plant, the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM) will turn the museum inside out with its jubilee exhibition, taking the artworks from the exhibition spaces to the courtyard, the garden beds and the street. On 23 July at 19:00, the international group exhibition Why Do Shoes Rub and Other Questions will open at EKKM, remaining open to visitors 24/7 until 27 September. The outdoor exhibition views EKKM as an artwork, introducing the building as a temporary monument and social sculpture that grew from a squatted dwelling into a museum thanks to twenty years of communal and artistic work.
The jubilee exhibition, collectively curated by the EKKM team, takes a look at both EKKM and its wider role as an art institution. The exhibition highlights socially relevant themes that EKKM deeply cares about, such as collecting, sustainability, access to culture, amplifying the voices of society, inadequacies of public space, dilapidation, practice of repair, sharing resources and collaboration. The exhibition was inspired by the image of a corn: a small but persistent inconvenience that cannot be ignored, and functions as a sign of the body’s defence mechanism, expressing resistance and care.
The exhibition brings together works by artists based in Estonia, Finland, Denmark and the United States with pieces from the collections of EKKM, the Estonian Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Roskilde. New works will be presented by Alexei Gordin, Flo Kasearu, Rait Lõhmus and Taavi Piibemann. In addition, EKKM has initiated an open-source project, The Complaints Choir, by Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, in the framework of which a song of lamentation and the music video No Way! was produced in a collaboration between the disgruntled citizens of Tallinn and the local musician Florian Wahl. The elaborate exhibition design was created by the architects Mari Möldre and Margus Tammik.
During the opening weekend of the exhibition, on 26 July from 16–18, a twine weaving workshop by the designer Marta Konovalov will take place in the EKKM community garden. A more detailed schedule of the public programme will be published soon on the museum’s website (https://www.ekkm.ee/en).
Exhibition artists: Alexei Gordin, Bogna Luiza Wiśniewska, Eric Andersen, Finnegan Shannon, Flo Kasearu, Herman Halliste, Marta Konovalov, Rait Lõhmus, Taavi Piibemann, The Complaints Choir of Tallinn and Florian Wahl, Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen
Artists with works in the EKKM collection and authors of works created for or left at the museum: Dénes Farkas, Edith Karlson, Erik Hõim, ENKKL (Loora Kaubi, Katariin Mudist, Inessa Saarits, Lisette Sivard), LLRRLLRR (Laura Linsi and Roland Reemaa), Helena Keskküla, Jass Kaselaan, Johnson and Johnson, Marge Monko, Neeme Külm, Margit Säde and Tanja Muravskaja, Raul Keller, SELJO126, Sigrid Viir, Uwe Schloen, Yvette Bathgate and Jake Shepherd
Space designers: Mari Möldre and Margus Tammik
Opening schedule on 23 July (the bar is open until midnight):
19:00 exhibition opening
19:30 opening speeches and the ceremonial acquisition of new works for the collection
The exhibition is open 24/7 from 24 July to 27 September. During the jubilee exhibition, the EKKM bar will be open from Wednesday to Sunday from 14:00 to 21:00.
On 4 September, EKKM will celebrate its 20th anniversary with the launch of an extensive jubilee publication compiled by EKKM’s curator and project manager Evelyn Raudsepp, and EKKM’s former manager Marten Esko. The publication is being designed by Ott Metusala. The book launch will culminate with a celebratory garden party worthy of the anniversary.
Supporters: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture, City of Tallinn, Akzo Nobel, stoneroc, Ledzep, Metal Express, Verostiil OÜ, Tallinn Creative Hub, VLND Burger and others.