Both the exhibition and the publication are material explorations of these ideas. Often this is a mixture of the historical and personal: forms from classical painting or sculpture, objects from religious and cultural history and the artists’ own personal experiences. Each artist uses materials (bronze, plastics, text, images etc.) and material play to build their own responses to the present.
The artworks and texts have been developed through conversations among the artists over the past two years. Sagasti has written a text – Absolute Reality – that is produced in translation in the publication. Talpsepp-Jaanisoo and Prevett have developed works that emerged from common interests in making as a way of processing the material world and the continued influence of classical sculpture. Both artists use modes of reproduction or re-making that are reiterations of other things. The publication and the exhibition are seen as iterations of similar ideas in different form. In this way, each book becomes an individual iteration or ghost of an event that took place at the Tartu Art House in August 2023.
Berit Talpsepp-Jaanisoo (b. 1984) is an artist from Tartu who lives and works in Estonia and Finland. In her recent work, she has focussed on how sculptural objects relate to identity, belonging and trauma, and how working with materials opens closed passages in our memories and minds. She graduated from the Sculpture Department of the Pallas University of Applied Sciences (2008) and received her master’s degree from the Glasgow School of Art (Master of Research in Creative Practices, 2011). Since Autumn 2022, she has taught sculpture history at the Pallas University of Applied Sciences. In addition to solo and group exhibitions in Finland, she has participated in exhibitions in Estonia, the UK, Uruguay, Serbia and elsewhere. Her works are part of the Kiasma Museum Collection, Heino Art Collection (Finland) and October Salon Collection (Serbia).
James Prevett (b. 1977) is a British artist who lives and works in Helsinki. He is interested in sculpture as a means to explore the limits of minds and bodies, both personal and collective. He has exhibited widely, including in the UK, Finland, Thailand, the USA, Austria and Brazil, and was part of a team that represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2006. His works are in Kiasma, the Finnish National Gallery collection and numerous private collections. James is a Lecturer in Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki. In 2021 he was awarded the inaugural Linnamo Prize, by the Olga and Vilho Linnamo Foundation for committed exploration shown in artistic practice.
Luis Sagasti (b. 1963) is a writer, lecturer and art critic who lives and works in Bahia Blanca, Argentina. He graduated in History from the Universidad Nacional del Sur, where he now teaches. From 1995 to 2003 he was Curator in charge of Education and Cultural Outreach at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bahía Blanca. He has published six novels and a book of essays. His work has been translated into English, French, Portuguese and Turkish. He participated in dOCUMENTA 15 in Kassel (2022) as a member of the group La Intermundial Holobiente, and is the author of the work El libro de las diez mil cosas. He won the National Prize for Art Criticism in1997 and the Second National Literature Prize for the book Una Ofrenda musical in 2023.
Graphic design by Silver Sikk.
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Arts Promotion Centre, Finland and KUMU.
