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The Estonian Exposition is Taking Shape

Stina-Maria Lusti, Lota Marie Aaliste, Elo Vahtrik, Merili Kärk. Acclimatization

The selection of participants in the Estonian expo is not based on any specific schools; everybody had the chance to take part in the public competition. However, experience has shown that there are some schools with a greater output of young artists, and this is no doubt thanks to their art teachers, who have, first of all, already explained to their students the essence of contemporary art and are also actively encouraging them to take part in the process of Eksperimenta!.


The students have been working on their projects submitted to the public idea competition through different elimination rounds; ideas have been clarified in workshops and as of now, 18 authors and 14 works are still in the competition. The final number of participants and the exact makeup of the exposition will be determined only at the setup, as many of the works are still in progress – and who knows what could happen. However, the young people who have made it to this point are doing a really good job, and as a curator I hope they will manage to the end.

The young artists are working in a largely independent manner; as a curator I mostly interact with them via email, helping to solve more difficult technical issues. However, I’m not chasing anybody with a carrot and a stick and I’m not checking on their progress on a daily basis. Quite a few of them have also found instructors for themselves who advise them a bit on the spot, which may be anywhere in Estonia.

Medium-wise, most of the works in progress are installations or videos. Some are also interactive. As a consolation to those who prefer more traditional and composed art – there is also a series of paintings and a series of photographs.

The sub-theme of the Estonian expo is “Social Ecology”, which means that the students had to first understand what ecology as a science studies and what its main regularities consist in, and then identify the appropriate parallels in the human community. This gave the young people some food for thought on, for example, the similarities between school bullying and natural selection, food chain and over-consumption, adaptation and xenophobia, etc.

One of the roles of contemporary art is to make people think, and at least those young people who are creating works for Eksperimenta! have gained a lot of new ideas. Let’s hope that the audience, too, will find a fresh perspective from the exhibition.

Overview of the art work of the Eksperimenta! Estonian exhibition

Mari Kartau

Curator of Estonian expo at E!

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