Your guide to Estonia and Beyond Spring and Summer 2024

Known for the striking costumes she makes for herself and her works, Kris Lemsalu combines porcelain, fur, wool, textiles, silicone, found objects, sound and other materials in her works with an original sense of humour to create surreal scenes that are both dizzyingly symbolic and playful. In addition to Lemsalu’s interpretation of one of Tartu’s landmarks, the fountain frozen in an eternal kiss, the exhibition will premiere Lemsalu’s biopic Old Piano, produced in collaboration with Johanna Ulfsak, a selection of new drawings and more familiar installations.

The exhibition highlights the events of the 20th century and their lasting impacts on our everyday lives. The contemporary artworks included in the exhibition often reveal the invisible or marginalised effects of past violence in the Baltic region, including those related to various minority communities and women. Curated by Margaret Tali and Ieva Astahovska.

Using the ocean as a connecting element throughout the exhibition, the duo exhibition by Laitinen and Õllek reflects on whether humans as a species are ready to adapt to the challenges of new climate conditions in the near future.

The curator Karolin Tampere’s  group exhibition focuses on peatlands as a meeting point for art, environmental issues and the public. Peatlands act as a guide and compass, to learn about historical, cultural and contemporary changes in the environments around us in Northern Norway / Sápmi, Estonia and selected locations internationally.

Designer Jüri Kermik’s exhibition Suffolk Knot focuses on regionalism in the choice of materials, details and construction methods for seating furniture. It shines a light on the peculiarities and commonalities of furniture-making traditions in the English region of Suffolk and Estonia.

Jevgeni Zolotko’s solo exhibition The Secret of Adam presents the artist’s recent works, including some brand new works created specifically for the exhibition. Curators: Triin Tulgiste-Toss and Eero Epner.

Ülo Sooster (1924–1970), whose artistic career and life were cut short, left behind a legacy of thousands of drawings and paintings, which belong to the European surrealist heritage despite having been created on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

The exhibition looks at pilgrimage in medieval Livonia (current day Estonia and Latvia) and the impact pilgrims had on destinations they visited both near and far.  Their activities left various traces in the local material culture of the time: from the symbols used in art and on everyday items to the clothing worn by pilgrims and the souvenirs they brought back from their travels.

Ilmar Malin (1924–1994) has been called the grand old man of Estonian surrealist art. This exhibition focuses on his portraits and figural compositions, next to which the movement towards surrealism is highlighted as a separate line. In addition to paintings, the exhibition includes drawings, printmaking, assemblages and monumental works.

The programme of the first ever Sõltumatu Tantsu Festival focuses on presenting the performances of international choreographers with a side programme of talks, workshops and dance events: Ukrainian Dance Platform, Modina dance and technology, and the Nordic Students Showcase.

The 15th iteration of the Baltic Triennial, curated by Tom Engels and Maya Tounta will be exhibited at the soon-to-be-reopened Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius.

The first large-scale institutional retrospective dedicated to the multidisciplinary Estonian artist Anu Põder (1947–2013) outside her native country, bringing together more than forty works dating from 1978 to 2012. Anu Põder’s practice explores the human body, highlighting the fragility, impermanence, and ephemerality of life in a series of highly evocative sculptures. Curated by Cecilia Alemani

The exhibition We Don’t Do This. Intimacy, Norms and Fantasies in Baltic Art will presents works by both well-known and still under-acknowledged Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian modern and contemporary artists, reflecting on corporeality, sexuality, a affection, attachment and vulnerability, capturing and recording the changing political and cultural identity of the Baltic States.

The exhibition delves into paganism, spirituality and conspiracy through diverse artworks by Baltic artists. The show suggests looking at paganism and spirituality as a romanticised historical refuge, pointing to its transformation during recent years, as it increasingly takes on conspiratorial elements dressed in corporate language. Curated by Justė Kostikovaitė, Maija Rudovska, Merilin Talumaa.

An international group exhibition exploring traditions and future utopias. Curated by Lilian Hiob.