Wheel of Power
Marje Taska, installed by Reinhold Rutks
2011/2023
„The Force“, the first exhibit in the first part of the the exhibition trilogy at the Vana-Võromaa Museum was the silver batton of the curators: a small manuscript scroll. Only the middle part of the manuscript with text from „Sanctus praesens“ was visible. The first exhibit of the exhibition „The Spirit“ was fifty times larger: a peace generator. The message was communicated in the telegraph code invented in the XIX century.
In Kadriorg Park the curators' baton has taken the shape of the „Wheel of Power“ with six scythe blades. The blades bear the names of abusers of power: Stalin, Hitler, Putin, Mao Zedong, Genghis Khan and Mister X. The key sentence is: „I'll catch you!“. As the blades are fixed to the same wheel, the pursuit is pointless because catching up is impossible. This reveals the absurdity of negative power: living on the same planet, representatives of power should think about more than their personal profit because there is no point in sawing the branch you are sitting on.
Marje Taska
JÜRI OJAVER
A Cup
Moscow
2012
2023
The flagship of the Russian Navy, "Moscow", is on the bottom of the Black Sea. This is where it belongs to. My model of the ship is still floating in the toilet.
Jüri Ojaver
JONAS JOHANSSON
Slightly Twisted
2023
Light-installation
Like a needle with a thread of light, the audience is invited to seize power, play and fight. Like a naive game for two or a dance for one. The layers refract, reflect and mirror the pattern you make. Afterwards, take a few steps back and see what has emerged!
Jonas Johansson
BRITTA BENNO
Sad Princess
2023
Installation
Musical composition „Sad Princess“ by Raimo Kangro
An artificial cave, a grotto, resonating with Baroque harpsichord sounds, invigorates the landforms of Kadriorg Park. In the tradition of manor parks a grotto is a symbol of elite culture like artificial ruins and fountains in the gardens of buildings that represent power. As such, the grotto brings power also into the relation between people and nature: in creating new landforms man declares his ability to create a new world as a demiurge of power.
Britta Benno
FIDEELIA SIGNE ROOTS
Power of Protection
2023
Installation
Protection, caretaking is one of the expressions of power. Overprotection is as bad as negligence. Power is responsibility.
Fideelia Signe Roots
MIKK MADISSON
What is the age of consent to talk about Pipi
2023
In which age are we in consent to read about the self-harm in the desert of the real? Is the Luunja cucumber part of cannon folklore or is it representative of non-reproductive viking literature canon? How can one opt out from both? Is Pipi’s patriarchy truly an organic heirloom?
FLO KASEARU, ELĪNA VĪTOLA
Sicker
2023
Bronze, monument
We erected statues, monuments of greatness and glory, commemorating war, victories over others – “bloodsucking parasites” – like there was any victoriesto begin with! Only loss, on either end. We carried accomplishments like badges, pierced through our chests; the powerfulness of an individual seemingly more important than our communities.
That’s sick.
Remi Vesala
KIRKE KANGRO
Secure Eternity
2023
Limestone
The stone sculptures remind of petrified, mutated security cameras. Their original aesthetics can be observed in the park; they have become eternal, admired objects.
Kirke Kangro
MADLEN HIRTENTREU
Karma. The Next Generation
2023
Installation
Years ago, I got an axolotl as a pet, now I have two of them: Albi and Koll. Albi and Koll feed on earthworms. I dig worms in garden three times a week. Then I go to the water tank, lift the earthworms with pincers and sacrifice them to my two characters.
Earlier, I had no appreciation of earthworms, I actually didn't pay much attention to them. Now I admire them. I dream of them becoming the next permanent residents of my home. This vision fills my future with hope and admiration. I socialised with my earthworm friends under the microscope, we were staring into each other's eyes. Like wolves for the Indians, earthworms are my holy sacrificial animals.
One night I'll wake up and walk into a living room that is noisy and littered: three giant mutant earthworms will have taken over the dining table, the table sags, graceful bodies on chairs, axolotl limbs for hands and legs. I'll take a seat as a guest alongside them.
Madlen Hirtentreu
EDITH KARLSON
Peeing Woman
2005, 2022-2023
Metal, styrofoam, clay, polyester resin
„Peeing Woman“ was completed in 2005 on Jüri Ojaver's course in the tunnel of the Viru Centre. The premise for the creative task was public space and tunnel. I made her of clay, and she held out victoriously for five days until her 'city permit' ran out. By that time she had endured a syringe stab in a breast, a sneaker print on the face, etc. Bypassers were able to show their power over her and it was okay. My idea was to comment on the smell of pee in the tunnel and the advantage men have of being able to urinate in a public space.
In 2022, I had another chance to create „Peeing Woman“, for the Kumu exhibition „The 2000s in Estonian Art“. The idea was born in 2005 and I recreated it in 2022-2023.
Edith Karlson
RAUL KELLER
I scream, you scream
2023
Installation
„I Scream, You Scream! is a site specific installation that takes its title from a scene from the Jim Jarmusch film „Down by Law“ in which the three main characters meet by chance in a detention facility and start chanting spontaneously.
With the help of inflated objects, the work visualises a soft distortion that the perception of the Apollo Belveder has suffered, located on a grass lawn near Kumu. Until the XIX century this sculpture was considered as the embodiment of canonic beauty and a symbol of art, now it is perceived as a marginal decorative object.
The installation urges the viewer to think about the complicated relations between symbolic power and real power in the art world.
Raul Keller
URMAS LÜÜS
A Border Pole
2023
A border pole, recycled scrap steel
When the renovation of the Noblessner port and shipyard started I dragged into my studio a border pole that had been left over from the wreckage work. Iron reinforcement had broken through the concrete like spring grass through cracks in asphalt. Nature doesn't recognise the borders set by man and the slowly unfolding resistance disintegrates all forms that humans have forced upon it.
Urmas Lüüs
Tanja Muravskaja
Kõrgeim võim
2023
HD video, 10’ 28’’
President Kersti Kaljulaidi mõtisklus teemal, mis on võim ja kuidas täita see targa vaimuga, et sinna tuleks vägi.
„Võim ei ole midagi muud kui vastutus,“ alustab esimene ja siiani Eesti ainuke naissoost president Kersti Kaljulaid võimu mõiste avamist. Tema sõnavõtt on hea näide Eesti Vabariigi kodaniku praegusaegsest mõtlemisest postpandeemia ning Venemaa Ukraina vastase sõja ajal.