Tallinn Photomonth ’21
September 1–October 17, 2021
Tallinn Photomonth is a biennial of contemporary art and visual culture and one of Estonia’s largest art events. It opened on September 1 with Art Fair Foto Tallinn and exhibition project “Intensive Places” curated by TOK that runs until October 17, 2021 across various locations in the city. Initiated in 2011 by the Estonian Union of Photography Artists (Foku), its approach has always been current and contextual. For its sixth edition it continues to support the diversity of the local contemporary art field alongside the creation of international relationships and collaborations. It has become the driving force that spreads its roots in the unsteady soil of the present era, investigating current notions of coping and adaptation, and the development of community during a challenging time of significant change, creating opportunities for new interventions and re-evaluations.
Tallinn Photomonth boasts an extensive satellite programme alongside its main programme, more information can be found here. In addition, an integral part of the Biennial is its public and education programme highlighting connections between exhibitions, expanding topics relevant to the programme and engaging with audiences. Forming an important part of the main and satellite programmes, the biennial has also enlisted a team to conduct a trilingual education programme for schools.
The main programme
Main exhibition: Intensive Places
Curators: Creative Association of Curators TOK / Anna Bitkina and Maria Veits
Until October 17, 2021
Intensive places is Tallinn Photomonth’s main exhibition. It opened on September 4, 2021 at Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM) and a few satellite locations across the city, and runs for the duration of the biennial.
The Creative Association of Curators TOK / Anna Bitkina and Maria Veits invited Estonian and international artists to develop new principles of political and environmental imagination as well as architectural, spatial and infrastructural thinking to find affirmative answers to the question "how to prepare for the future that will be based on the principles of interdependency and new ways of cohabitation?” Challenging violent power structures, reconciling social tensions, and unveiling corporate processes of the exploitation of nature across the different geographical and political contexts—from Ireland to Sudan—that would resonate with the local political and historical state of affairs. The exhibition, which is at the centre of the biennial—a network of intensive places—connects different territorial and mental locations, initiating the processes of their intensification through artistic and curatorial strategies.
Exhibition locations and participating artists
Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM)
Natasha Tselyuba and Julia Appen (Ukraine), Tanja Engelberts (The Netherlands), Ola Hassanain (Sudan/The Netherlands), Roven Jõekäär (Estonia), Gareth Kennedy (Ireland), Tali Keren (Israel/Palestine/US), Laura Kuusk (Estonia), Alexander Morozov (Russia), Natalia Romik (Poland),
Original Sokos Hotel Viru – Madlen Hirtentreu (Estonia)
Kopli rahvamaja (Kopli folk house) – Jasmina Cibic (Slovenia/UK)
Rahvusraamatukogu (The National Library of Estonia) – Terike Haapoja (Finland)
Lasnamäe, the biggest dormitory district in East of Tallinn – Anna Kaarma (Estonia)
Listen to the audio guide for the exhibition here.
Artists’ Film Programme: Diplopia
Curators: Len Murusalu and Julian Ross
Cinema Sõprus
October 10, 2021
Artists:
Anto Astudillo, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Su-Chen Hung, Saodat Ismailova, Myriam Jacob-Allard, Maryam Jafri, Piibe Kolka, Simon Liu, Rikuro Miyai, Kristina Norman, Morgan Quaintance, Mika Taanila, Keiichi Tanaami
Diplopia is the title of Tallinn Photomonth ’21’s Artists’ Film Programme. Co-curated by Len Murusalu and Julian Ross, it features work by 13 artists, two from Estonia, uniting historical and contemporary moving image from all over the world. Estonian artist and filmmaker Len Murusalu invited British-Japanese researcher and writer Julian Ross to co-curate the programme to help facilitate the recognition of artists’ moving image as being part of Estonian experimental film history.
Having already presented a talk by Julian Ross about Japanese Expanded Cinema and the first expanded screening, the second screening in the programme will take place at Cinema Sõprus on October 10, 2021. Thematically interconnected, each screening engages with doubles, diplopia and dialogue, within themselves and with each other, on both a conceptual and a visual level. An inseparable half of the same whole.
Screening schedule
October 10, 2021 at 5pm
Part 2/2
Once Removed: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, 2019.
East/West: Su-Chen Hung, 1984/87.
Her Five Lives: Saodat Ismailova, 2020.
Les quatre recits d’Alice: Myriam Jacob-Allard, 2019.
Cellula Filia: Piibe Kolka, 2021.
Surviving You: Always. Morgan Quaintance, 2020.
Biennial symposium
Kai Art Center, Tallinn
October 15–16, 2021
For the first time in Tallinn Photomonth’s programme history, there will be a two-day symposium to conclude the biennial. Curated by the Creative Association of Curators TOK / Anna Bitkina and Maria Veits. It will take place at Kai Art Center, a cultural hub for local and international art founded in 2019 by the ECADC, located in the vibrant and recently developed industrial heritage area of Noblessner.
For international press enquiries please contact Alexia Menikou: am@alexiamenikou.com
For Estonian press enquiries please contact press@fotokuu.ee
Tallinn Photomonth is organised collaboratively by the Estonian Union of Photography Artists (Foku) and the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center (ECADC).
Tallinn Photomonth ’21 partners and supporters:
Estonian Union of Photography Artists (Foku), Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM), Cinema Sõprus, Kai Art Center, Estonian Contemporary Art Development Centre (ECADC), European Regional Development Fund, Enterprise Estonia, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Folk Culture Centre, Tallinn Culture and Sports Department, Tallinn Education Department, Estonian Film Institute, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonian Embassy in Paris, Estonian Ministry of Culture, Artproof, Sunly, Luminor, DSV, Tallinn Salme Cultural Center, Kopli 93, The National Library of Estonia, Lindakivi Cultural Center, Original Sokos Hotel Viru, Akzo Nobel Baltics, Sadolin, Jaanihanso Cider House, Finnish Institute in Estonia, Kalev Spa Hotel, Lore Bistro, Kampai, Kaif, Kingivabrik, The Art Museum of Estonia (KUMU), Estonian Artists’ Association, Reklaamistuudio, Lisanna – Vegan Coffee Shop, Lugemik, Megameedia, National Heritage Board of Estonia, Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA).
