Новости

The exhibition will take place simultaneously at Tartu Art House and Noorus Gallery. It will be opened at 5 PM at Tartu Art House and at 6 PM at Noorus Gallery. The string of openings of TAVA2018 will continue with the opening of a side program at 7 PM at Kogo Gallery - Kristi Kongi’s and Mari-Leen Kiipli’s duo exhibition „Secret Whistle in the Forest“. After the openings everyone is expected at the Widget Factory (Aparaaditehas), Hall of Love (Armastuse saal), where starting from 9 PM you can enjoy a live concert “...something drone and strange!!!” by Carl Michael von Hausswolff, the main artist of „Vacuum as a Mindset“.

The title of the exhibition – „Vacuum as a Mindset“ – derives from Aldar “Psaiko” Talviste, an anarchist street poet of Tartu, representing absurdisms characteristic to him that cancel language as well as the mentality of the experimental literary scene of Tartu. Artists and works that participate at the exhibition deal with the link between light, psychogeography and psychedelia. KIWA, the curator of the exhibition, explains the concept of the exhibition as follows: „The relationship between light as a metaphor and light as an illuminating impulse creates worlds from the point of view of psychogeography and new mythology. This is accompanied by observations about twilight zones between consciousness that registrates shifts and events in the surrounding environment.“

The main artist of the exhibition is Carl Michael von Hausswolff, the most famous artist-provocateur from Sweden, a composer from Stockholm, a visual artist and a curator, the monarch of a self-established kingdom Elgaland-Vargaland. The territory of the kingdom consists of non-places and no man’s land, a space between land and maritime borders as well as digital and mental space. The state has got its own anthem, flag, army, currency, citizens and cabinet. In 2002 Hausswolff along with ten other ministers of the kingdom tried to enter the Republic of Estonia, presenting the passports of Elgaland-Vargaland at the border. Estonian border control  confiscated the passports, even though they were both official diplomatic documents as well as works of art. The scandal was drowned out.

Hausswolff often uses light in his works. His most famous works include light installations such as the series „Red Empty“ or the performance „Torturing with Light“. He has been involved with the developments, phenomena and artists of psychedelic art of the 20th century such as William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Genesis P-Orridge, Andrew McKenzie, and others. Hausswolff is connected to Tartu through keeping the archive of Friedrich Jürgenson, a world-famous scientist and discoverer of the phenomenon of electronic sound from Tartu. In addition, Estonian artists Liisa Hirsch, Tammo Sumera, Kristel Saan, Johannes Luik, Aivar Tõnso and Artist Unknown with unknown background will participate at the exhibition.

As a special project of the exhibition, Dreamachine, invented in 1959 by Brion Gysin and William Burroghs will be presented for the first time in Estonia at Tartu Art House. The legendary invention that provokes hallucinations was popularized by Psychic TV and it has been called the first work of art to be observed with eyes shut.

The exhibitions will be opened at Noorus Gallery until November 10, at Tartu Art House until November 18 and Kogo Gallery until December 9.

NB! A special bus will be taking people from Tallinn to the opening of the exhibitions and the concert. The bus leaves from the centre of Tallinn on October24 at 2.15 PM and heads back to the capital at 10.30 PM. The cost for the round trip is 10 Euros. To get a seat on the bus, please register at [email protected] before October 20.