ARS Project Space 15.01.– 8.02.2025 (Mon–Fri 12:00-18:00, Sat 12:00–16:00)
Organizer: Estonian Painters’ Association
In collaboration with: Helsinki Artists’ Association, Gallery Arka (Lithuanian Artists’ Association)
Estonia, Finland, and Lithuania are connected by the sea, nature and geopolitics, which serve as symbolic cornerstones for cross-border artistic collaboration—a pursuit of poetic-analytical expressions and interpretations of our living environment. On January 15, 2025, at 5:00 PM, the third exhibition of the FinBalt collaboration project, initiated in 2023, will open at the ARS Projectroom in Tallinn: “Under the Surface. Environmental Ideologies.”
In the Estonian context, we recall the sharp rise in environmental awareness during the Soviet era, where nature conservation emerged as a primary means of protecting national identity. At that time, it appeared to be the only permissible argument that could serve as a shield for individual free will within society. Globally, in the latter half of the 20th century, ecological discourse grew into a scientific discipline. Yet, one of its forebears can be considered art itself. Art, with its inherent ability to play without prescribed rules, offers a unique platform for developing new discourses aimed at mitigating the harmful effects of human activity on the environment.
When observing large, interconnected ecosystems, it becomes evident that humanity—with all its social systems, economic theories and practices, interests, history, and culture—is but one element among the multitude that forms a whole. An object among objects, a subject among subjects.
The concept of the exhibition at the ARS Projectroom incorporates the human being as an equal subject among other factors in the examination of environmental issues. Specifically, the exhibition explores contemporary thought patterns and their spheres of influence as factors shaping the environment. What are the ideas, understandings, and collectively comprehensible notions that humanity considers, believes in, and seeks to implement in practice today or in the future concerning the living environment?
The Lithuanian exhibition features artworks that explore humanity's complex and ever-changing active relationship with nature. The Finnish selection highlights the immense waste problem of our time while simultaneously offering paradoxical glimpses of hope. The Estonian exhibition focuses on examining the intuitive and analytical capacities of human consciousness in the context of the broader environmental crisis.
How does the contemporary eco-critical artist respond to a complex living environment damaged by past ideologies? What are the messages and practices of today’s environmental art? These are the questions explored by the third exhibition of the FinBalt collaboration project, curated by the Estonian Painters' Association.
Tiiu Rebane / www.maal.ee
Curators: Satu Kalliokuusi (HAA, Finland), Eeva Muona (HAA, Finland), Evelina Januškaitė (ARKA, Lithuania), Tiiu Rebane (EML, Estonia)
Participating Artists:
Finland: Teemu Mäki, Jaakko Autio, Alexander Salvesen, Sara Pathirane, Laura Pietiläinen
Lithuania: Gytis Arošius, Sinaima Kontautė, Emilija Noreikaitė, Karolina Ūla Valentaitė
Estonia: Angela Soop, Jane Remm and Marta Konovalov, Grisli Soppe-Kahar, Lilian Mosolainen, Johanna Mudist, Pille Ernesaks, Veiko Klemmer
On January 22nd, starting at 4:00 PM, an open workshop with artists JANE REMM and MARTA KONOVALOV will take place as part of the exhibition's public program.
The exhibition at ARS Project Space is supported by: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Estonian Artists’ Association, City of Helsinki, TAIKE (Finnish Arts Promotion Centre), Lithuanian Artists’ Association, City of Vilnius, Lithuanian Council for Culture, LATGA (Lithuanian Copyright Association).
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