Translucency

The 2021 Tallinn Applied Art Triennial highlights the creative and critical potential of translucency. Stine Bidstrup expands on her curatorial concept, “When light encounters a material, it can interact with it in several different ways. In the field of optics, transparency is the physical property of allowing light to pass through a material without being scattered. Materials that do not transmit light are called opaque. Translucency allows light to pass through a material diffusely. It does not follow the laws of straightforwardness. When humans encounter materials, we interact with them in several different ways. We perceive and understand materials for their particular physical qualities, and materials act back on us through metaphysical figures; the fictive qualities we inevitably ascribe to them.”

Curator: Stine Bidstrup is a Danish glass artist, educator, and art historian whose work and research explores optical phenomena, and interprets and brings ideas about utopian, architectural visions to life through glass sculptures, installation and video. Bidstrup holds art degrees from The Rhode Island School of Design and The Royal Danish Academy of Art School of Design, and a degree in art history from The University of Copenhagen.

Organizers: Merle Kasonen, Keiu Krikmann, Anu Almik, Maret Sarapu, Katre Ratassepp, Kärt Maran, Marje and Martin Eelma (Tuumik Studio)

Participating artists: Linda Aasaru (Estonia), Andrew Bearnot (USA), Erin Dickson (UK), Ditte Hammerstrøm (Denmark), Heidi Bach Hentze (Denmark), Sandra Kosorotova (Estonia), Eeva Käsper (Estonia), Julia Maria Künnap (Estonia), Helen Lee (USA), Jiyong Lee (USA), Eve Margus-Villems (Estonia), Reinoud Oudshoorn (Netherlands), Julija Pociute (Lithuania), Helena Tuudelepp (Estonia), Sandra Vaka (Norway), Hanna-Maria Vanaküla (Estonia), Sissi Westerberg (Sweden), Karlyn Sutherland (UK), Grethe Sørensen (Denmark), and Wang & Söderström (Sweden/Denmark).

Tallinn Applied Art Triennial is an international art event established in 1997, organized by NGO Tallinn Applied Art Triennial Society. The triennial contributes to the development of the fields of applied art and contemporary craft.