The exhibition is conceptually dedicated to the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture, from which all of the artists being shown have benefited. Curator Maija Rudovska (Latvia) strives to demonstrate the growth, change and development of ideas and to create a space for potential recreation that provides an opportunity to look back on projects, think about them and breathe new life into them. “The exhibition gives the public the chance to spot both the similarities and the differences between Nordic and Baltic cultural space, while it allows the artists to position themselves on that landscape and perceive the directions it will take in future,” added Eha Vain, a cultural adviser to the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Estonia.
Each year around 300 artists get the chance to travel thanks to the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture. “This leads to all sorts of things – professional meetings, joint undertakings, new works and exciting art and culture events,” Vain explained. “All of this enriches cultural life at the local level and in terms of international cooperation.” Vain works with applications for support from the programme on a daily basis. The funding model for the mobility programme has been operating in the Nordic countries since 2007 and in the Baltic States since 2009. It is co-financed by the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian offices of the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Together the three offices act as partners in Nordic Culture Point to make the mobility programme as visible as possible in their own countries and to advise potential applicants.
The exhibition has already been staged in Latvia and Lithuania, at Bergs Bazaar in Rīga and the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius. From Tallinn it will move on to Helsinki.
The artists whose work is being shown in the exhibition are Merike Estna (EE), Sigrid Viir (EE), Mihkel Ilus (EE), Maarja Tõnisson (EE), Ieva Epnere (LV), Sarah Gerats (NO), Steffen Håndlykken (NO), Maija Luutonen (FI), Jenna Sutela (FI), Hanna Nilsson (SE), Saskia Holmkvist (SE), Ylva Westerlund (SE), Lina Lapelytė (LT), Lise Haurum (DK), Kasper Akhøj (DK), Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir (IS), Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir (IS), Supernova (Zane Onckule (LV)), Rupert (Justė Jonutytė (LT)), Natalie Diaz (US), Lars Laumann (NO), Cecilia Lopez (AR) and Thomas Tsang (MY).
The exhibition will open at 17:00 on 3 February at the ARS Project Space in Tallinn (Pärnu mnt 154), during which there will also be a performance of Maarja Tõnisson’s ‘bodyIMAGEbody’.
The exhibition was produced by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Latvia. In Tallinn it is being organised by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Estonia in association with the Artists’ Union of Estonia and ARS Project Space.