From 4 April, the exhibitions of the collaborative project Rooms in Rhymes by seven curators will start to open. Each week a new exhibition by one of the curators replaces another on one of the museum floors, thus forming a rhythmical and fluctuating whole of displays throughout the museum building. Openings on 4, 11, 17 and 25 April, as well as 2 and 9 May.
The exhibition cycle experiments with curating as a form of poetic, performative and collective practice, wishing to enhance dialogue in visual art projects and to host the plurality of voices. Evelyn Raudsepp invited an extended group of curators to join her, including team members usually carrying out different roles at the museum, and creatives who have previously worked with EKKM: Anita Kodanik, Brigit Arop, Johannes Luik, Laura De Jaeger, Laura Linsi and Marten Esko. The exhibition will feature more than 20 artists, both local and international, including authors from the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Brigit Arop’s exhibition from cycle Rooms in Rhymes combines the means of expression of ASMR, familiar from contemporary internet culture, with the presentation of the work of Estonian artists.
Artists: Ulvi Haagensen, Kadri Liis Rääk, Piibe Kolka, Gerta Raidma aka Lacqueer.
On the opening day 25 April from 12-19, the curator will be at the bar, listening to ASMR and serving tea.
The exhibition Estonian Art ASMR is a collaborative experiment by curator Brigit Arop and artists Piibe Kolka, Ulvi Haagensen, Kadri Liis Rääk, and Gerta Raidma aka Lacqueer. Blending ASMR*—a sensory phenomenon popularized by internet culture—with contemporary art, the exhibition explores both the creative and ethical boundaries of art mediation. How can a curator speak about the works on display, and what happens when these conventions are playfully bent? At the same time, the exhibition embraces the idea of itself as a draft or a process. Only a few artists and works have been included under the pretentious title ASMR of Estonian Art. This leaves the video series open to later additions, but also corrections and refinements.
* ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) is a relaxing and tingling sensation some people may experience in response to specific auditory, visual or situational stimuli.
Brigit Arop is a Tallinn-based artworker who spends most of her time curating, writing, assisting and teaching. She is interested in creative practices that use autotheory, poetry, material-sensitive approaches and humour to induce shifts in petrified perceptions and values. In her practice, she is consciously trying to create space for collaborative self-organisation. At EKKM she works as a project manager.
The Rooms in Rhymes exhibition cycle will be sequenced with six curated exhibitions and an eventful programme, see the full programme here: https://fb.me/e/7Swf8TT3z
Supporters: Ministry of Culture, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, City of Tallinn, Akzo Nobel, Estonian Academy of Arts.
Thanks to: Sten Saarits, Camille Laurelli and Hans-Gunter Lock from the New Media Department at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Aksel ja Michael Haagensen, Ketli Tiitsar and the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Kaisa Maasik and EKA Gallery, Kulla Laas, Liina Siib, Israel Bañuelos, Ketlin Kaal, Alis Mäesalu, Mihkel Oksmann, Patrick Tubin McGinley, Sanna Kartau, the Mikkin family.
EKKM is open Wednesday to Sunday from 12.00 to 19.00.
Brigit Arop’s exhibition from the cycle Rooms in Rhymes will remain open until 18 May.