19.06.–24.08.2014
Curator: Maria Arusoo
Artists: Kaisa Eiche & Urmo Mets, Elmgreen & Dragset, Dénes Farkas, Cyprien Gaillard, David Ferrando Giraut, Paul Kuimet, Ragnar Helgi Ólafsson, Triin Tamm, Simon van Til, Salla Tykkä, Anu Vahtra, Mare Vint
“Archeological Festival_ a 2nd hand history and improbable obsessions” originates from the obsession with the “askew” situations of the present and reflects on them by glancing at different layers of time and space. The question under investigation is the nature of representation – the complex relation between the world and its image. The exhibition travels through many layers and deconstructs physical and mental space through the archeological method of trying to get closer to the question of how we depict the world or whether it is possible at all. The dialectics between outside and inside, between the real world and the museum world, is important for its conception.
The Archeological Festival is focused on the notion of memory, history and revisiting histories. It is a place for the town and museum to intersect, the layers of the exhibition landscape including art, the viewer and architecture to be revealed, and, finally, nature and art to be inseparably entwined with life. It explores the relationship between place and memory, and the effect spatial and aesthetical experience has on personal identity. The exhibition is a journey through the museum landscape excavating the archaeology of the present – the collapse of past and future – which reveals that time is passing and volatile even as it deposits and accumulates.
The exhibition is accompanied by the publication Entry Points. Stories of the Leaning House which includes the visual essay Museum 1–5 by Anu Vahtra, essays, prose and poems by Kaisa Eiche, Ragnar Helgi Ólafsson, Tanel Rander and Valentinas Klimasauškas. The book is designed by Mikk Heinsoo.
Exhibition team: Marika Agu (coordinator); Mikk Heinsoo (graphic designer); Tõnu Narro, Kaarel Narro, Kristjan Nagla, Olavi Sander, Arvi Kuld (installation); Sten Ojavee, Rebeka Põldsam (curatorial assistant); Hanna-Liis Kont, Solveig Jahnke and Ruta Rannu (communication and opening); Ago Teedema (frames, Nele Ambos (conservator); Kadri Asmer (graphic arts collection). Special thanks go to Rael Artel, the director of the Tartu Art Museum.
Organisers: Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia and Tartu Art Museum
Sponsors: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Kulturkontakt Nord
Thanks: Sprüth Magers, Victoria Miro, Museum Morsbroich, Studio Elmgreen & Dragset, Galerie Perrotin, Art Museum of Estonia, KLG Eesti, Tartu University Hospital, University of Tartu Botanical Gardens, Estonian Printing Museum, Tartu Art College, Kulbert AS, Pelltech OÜ, AS Kemmerling, Pepleri Hostel, Pallas Hotel, Hansabuss AS, AS Salvest, AS A. Le Coq, Polli Horticultural Research Centre, LTT, Estonian Theatre Union, Anneli Elme, Viktor Gurov, Vesa Humalisto, Ester Kannelmäe, Elin Kard, Rachel Kinbar, Helle Kont, Märt-Matis Lill, Triinu Meres, Martin Rünk, Sanne Sild, Taavi Suisalu, Timo Toots, Kristiina Tuubel, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo and to everyone who has helped with the project.
