1. Today is the opening of the Graphic Triennial's youth exhibition „Aeglased manöövrid“, which you have curated together with Brit Kikas. What is the starting point for this exhibition?
The exhibition really started with the format. The Tallinn Print Triennial (TGT) has always had a youth exhibition as a rebellious extra and we were interested in organizing and curating this.
There were several starting points. It is a good practice that the youth show somehow relates to the theme of the TGT itself, has a say about this. In the light of the main exhibition charged with political themes, we tried to find a more laid-back and timid sociality in young artists. The young artists do not directly address issues of migration, power and climate, but they do deal with (gender) identity, mental health, and use nature as a material in their works.
Another starting point was, of course, printmaking, especially traditional printmaking, and the sincere enthusiasm of both of us for it. It seems to me that graphic art today could be approached as an intriguing analogue tool rather than as a technique to be reproduced. There are strong graphic artists among the artists we studied with who use it in interesting ways, experiment, approach the technique as a conceptual tool, etc., we wanted to introduce this generation to a wider audience.
2. I've been following your creative journey, in your thesis at the Estonian Academy of Arts you also worked with space and memory. One of the classrooms became an area for your maquettes and somehow at some point the whole room was taken over. It was interesting to follow how you related to this space in Kanuti Gildi SAAL on a larger scale. But there was a sense of whether it could be expanded again. I was left wondering, what would your ideal space be?
I'm more of an adaptee in my own things. I like a space that has something to give, that you can find something in it, so I don't think I have an ideal space, so when I'm doing an exhibition somewhere, I try to take the quirks of the place into play. It was good both in the thesis and in Kanuti that I had the so-called stage to myself, I could try everything, I didn't have to take anyone into account, so the spaces fill up quite quickly. But the best good space is eventually a good partner.
3. In your text, you say that you are interested in the performing arts, as a phenomenon rather than as a means of expression. What do you mean by that?
Well, some of the things in this text are a slight artistic exaggeration, but I'd say that's true. In fact, I'm somewhere in the intersection, with my background in visual art and the thought process that comes from creating a piece for an exhibition, slowly falling over the edge towards the performing arts. But I'm scared of working with narrative and performers, for example, of managing the whole that comes with adding a temporal dimension. I'd still like to get things said with images.'
What I'm working on now, and what I've been working on, is more theatre than space. I'm interested in the environment and the phenomenon of creating illusion there and everything that goes with it and doesn't go with it and why.
Interview by MAGASIN (Lilli-Krõõt Repnau)