Our Festival of Books and Voices continues for the month of October with Indrek Sirkels’ Lugemik 100 books exhibition, a window commission by Marge Monko, Flawless, Seamless 2023  and Tracks and Envelopes a sound archive by Sandra Nuut and Ott Kagovere which emerged from their Dear Friend project and publication.

Lugemik is an independent publishing initiative based in Tallinn, Estonia, founded in 2010 by designer Indrek Sirkel and artist Anu Vahtra.

Marge Monko’s work revolves around gender – emphasising the body and its photographic representation. Many of her works have a link to history and are influenced by psychoanalysis, feminism, and the theory of visual culture. Depending on the subject, Monko has employed methods such as documenting, staging, and appropriating existing images, often through a combination of these different approaches.

Tracks as Envelopes was an on-site recording & broadcasting session hosted by oH radio at the Dear Friend exhibition at EKA Gallery in September 2022. 44 letters were read from the Dear Friend archive by the visitors of the exhibition. This audio archive was designed and developed by Paula Buskevica with support from Alejandro Bellón Ample. oH radio lives within the Graphic Design MA program at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA). oH radio was initiated in 2021 by Paula Buskevica. Thanks to all the voices of the letters. See the project here.

Our Coupling event can be found here.

We are also pleased to host a book launch by Julia Fidder on 12th October 5-7pm.

‘Grieve with Me’ is an invitation to imagine alternative ways of grief in today’s world. In an attempt to oppose normative thought caused by capitalist thinking and the privatization of grief due to neoliberalism, the publication explores shared grieving rituals and communal mourning in contemporary times.

By adapting a variety of writing formats and including diverse artistic agents, this publication situates itself as a curatorial project that is composed of biographical texts, essays and selected artistic productions. The contributors to the publication are artists and artistic practitioners Nadine Byrne, Mariia Mytrofanova, Mourning School, Juliana Irene Smith and Jeroen van Wijk. Their contributions were supported to find an outcome in a non-traditional publication format, allowing the inclusion of textile works, sound pieces and objects.

Bio

Julia Fidder (Rotterdam, 1997) is a Dutch curator and writer based in Helsinki. As an independent curator and writer she has been exploring the meaning of motherhood, self-care, grief and rituals in today’s world. Her current research project is called Grieve with me, which is an invitation to come together to grief on our own terms. In an attempt to oppose normative thought caused by capitalist thinking and the privatization of grief due to neoliberalism, Grieve with me explores shared grieving rituals and communal mourning in contemporary times.

Fidder has worked for several art institutions including Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (Helsinki, Finland), De Kunstmeisjes (The Netherlands), Helsinki Biennial 2023, SEA Foundation (Tilburg, The Netherlands) and MU artspace (Eindhoven, The Netherlands).

Indrek Sirkel (1984, Estonia) is a graphic designer, educator and publisher based in Tallinn. After graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 2007 and a one-year residency at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht in 2008, he received his MA degree from the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) in 2014. Since 2007, Sirkel has been teaching and co-organising the programme at the Department of Graphic Design of the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA). In 2015, he became the head of the department and in 2020 was elected to be the professor of Graphic Design. Since September 2022 he is a junior researcher and a doctoral student at the Doctoral School of EKA.

Marge Monko (b. 1976) is a visual artist who lives and works in Tallinn. She has studied at the Estonian Academy of Arts, University of Applied Arts Vienna, and Higher Institute for Contemporary Art (HISK) in Ghent. Monko works with photography, video, and installation. Her works are inspired by historical images and theories of psychoanalysis, feminism, and visual culture. She works as a professor in the Department of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Ott Kagovere (1983, Estonia) is a graphic designer living and working in Tallinn, Estonia. He has studied graphic design in Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) (2013–2016) and philosophy at Tallinn University (2004–2011). He designs books, exhibitions, identities and websites in collaboration with various publishers and institutions. Most recently with Rab-Rab Press, Pyke Presje, Lugemik, Artishok Biennial. Since 2017, Ott has been teaching and co-organising the programme at the Department of Graphic Design of the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA). In 2022 he became the head of the department and in 2023 was elected as professor of graphic design. Occasionally Ott is writing about design in various media outlets (Sirp, Vikerkaar) and his self initiated work verges from design to literature, often incorporating performative elements  and public spaces. — ottkagovere.com

Sandra Nuut (1987, Estonia) is a curator based in Tallinn working at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design. She studied Art History at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2012) and graduated from the MFA Design Criticism program at the School of Visual Arts (2014). Nuut’s work includes lecturing, writing, and curatorial projects, like the Dear Friend exhibition and symposium (2022) together with Ott Kagovere at EKA Gallery, Acting Things VIII – Silent Negotiations by Judith Seng (2021) at Tallinn Art Hall Gallery, and the symposium Making Public and Publics – Art Publishing in Context (2019) at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design. Prior to her appointment at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design in 2022, she worked as a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2017–2022) and gallery associate at the New York-based gallery Chamber (2014–2017). Her writing on design and visual culture has been published in Sirp, Müürileht, and Design Observer.