Kunstnik
Kuraator
Opening at Beursschouwburg, Brussels is held on Friday 7 February at 7 pm.
The exhibition is supplemented by two events:
8 February at 5pm – tour with Ingel Vaikla and Laura Toots.
18 March at 8.30pm – screening of artist films, curated by Ingel Vaikla; followed by a conversation with Alicja Melzacka.
The co-production of Shapes and Distances between Beursschouwburg, Brussels and EKKM, Tallinn is also a continuous collaboration between the artist and filmmaker Ingel Vaikla and curator Laura Toots, previously working on an exhibition You Have Become the Space held at EKKM in late 2018.
For her first solo exhibition in Belgium Vaikla conceptualises her new works through the idea of double exposure – overlapping both past and future as well as being home and abroad simultaneously. By bringing together archival material and new footage depicting Slavutych, the last city the Soviet Union built, located in northern Ukraine, Vaikla asks how do the subjective and collective identities form as well as materialise (on film, in politics, in architecture).
The adolescent character of both the city, being only three decades old, and its daring inhabitants invites the audience to balance oneself on the barriers between time and space, and every now and then, having built enough courage, to make the jump or climb across experiences, places, eras and screens.
Ingel Vaikla is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Belgium. In 2018–2019, Vaikla attended the postgraduate residency programme HISK in Ghent and recently started practice-based PhD studies in Audiovisual and Visual Arts at PXL-MAD, Hasselt. Vaikla’s artistic research focuses on the relationship between architecture and its users, and the representation of architecture in photography, video and film.
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication with the same, including texts by Alicja Melzacka and Laura Toots. Graphic design by Jaan Evart and Ott Kagovere. Published by EKKM together with Beursschouwburg and Lugemik.
Exhibition scenography: Gauthier Oushoorn
Supported by: Embassy of Estonia in Brussels, Estonian Ministry of Culture, FOKU – Estonian Union of Photography Artists
With thanks to: Yevgeniy Abdulaevich, Yaroslav Fedchenko, Margarita Gasanova, Victoria Gonzalez-Figueras, Bogdan Grabovskiy, Roman Grabovskiy, HISK, Yuriy Kalenskiy, Dmytrii Korchak, Pasha Kozachenko, Simonluca Laitempergher, Alicja Melzacka, Anastasia Obumova, Mathijs Poppe, Olha Kopylova and Valentin Pravosud, Jasper Rigole, Aryna Starovoitova, Lennert De Taeye, Achiel Van den Abeele
Additional information:
Laura Toots, curator
laura@ekkm.ee
mob: +372 5117 886
Beursschouwburg
Auguste Ortsstraat 20-28, Brussels
beursschouwburg.be
Exhibition open: Wed–Sat from 12:00-18:00