In primitive societies, the wrong gender can be a matter of life and death. Jill Peters, an American photojournalist, documents the sworn virgins of Albania. The “sworn virgins“ are concept a dating back hundreds of years that refers to biological women living in Balkan villages who have decided at an early age to assume the social identities of men for the rest of their lives.
Lilia Li Mi Yan, a photo artist from Turkmenistan, representing the Armenian Pavilion at this year’s Venice Art Biennale, deals with aging in the photo series called Mature Beauty. Li Mi Yan looks at how middle-aged women feel about their bodies and to what extent they feel beautiful, desirable, and sexual.
In her environmentally friendly installation, Sandra Jõgeva also discusses the interrelationships of sexuality, pleasure and happiness. Jõgeva has created an interactive installation by reusing the sex dolls left over from the yoni-massage classes of Epp Kärsin, the most famous Estonian pleasure-educator. By familiarising oneself with it more closely, one can receive a personal message on how to make happiness blossom in their life.
Valeria Vavoom, an Italian artist based in Berlin, analyses the ideals related to the age of social media. The digital art materialised for the exhibition interprets Instagram trends and norms through hyper-characterised characters who struggle with the ambitions and fears of our time.
Mare Tralla’s fragment from the installation titled We Have More Chickens to Pluck is the documentation and mental continuation of the artist’s performance of the same name in the South London Gallery (2018). The work, which plays with repressive words, points to the need to keep speaking out about issues of gender and power, and to continue the struggle for equality and power.
Participating artists: Jill Peters, Mare Tralla, Valeria Vavoom, Lilia Li Mi Yan and Sandra Jõgeva.
The curator of the exhibition is Marian Grau.
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the city of Pärnu .
Art project “Pärnu-Tartu Art Express” is part of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 additional programme.
