With her current exhibition Exopoiesis, Kadri Liis Rääk reacts to social, ecological and existential crises that we are facing today while looking towards a possible future. The artist seeks answers to questions what an alternative world could be, how would it emerge and disappear and what our role in experiencing this time-space during these processes.
The artist treats her exhibition as a system of relations where transmissions from the imaginary to the physical, from the natural to the synthetic have been imbued with empathy. The borders between the inner and the outer, the natural and the artificial have blurred – the accompanying problems require the imagining of new possibilities. The relations lack recognizable contours; instead, Kadri Liis Rääk exhibits materials that are expressed as the symbiotic clusters of various sizes. This is a mucous co-existence where resources and space are being shared. And from these existences, non-human-centered subjects will arise and one can only imagine the dialogues and political ecologies that might form from their perspective.
There are all kinds of materials – soft and rigid, tough and flexible, viscous and solid, cold and warm – in this hybrid space, such as wool, metal, artificial leather, latex, foam, silicone, plaster, ceramics etc. The exhibition serves as an organic autopoietic process in which materials simultaneously take shapes and tell about themselves. With its entire amorphous body, the exchange of information is carried out by desire and intimacy.
The exhibition will open at 18:00 on April 5th with the durational performance created by choreographer Maarja Tõnisson.
Kadri Liis Rääk (b. 1990) is a transdisciplinary artist who uses installations, drawings, ceramics and performance art in her artistic practice while creating all-encompassing and tactile environments. The artist combines methods of scenography and new media while simultaneously standing on the expanded fields of visual art and design. She has studied scenography (BA) and contemporary art (MA) at the Estonian Academy of Arts; in addition autonomous design (MA) at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Gent (KASK). In her artwork, Rääk experiments with archetypal and symbolic narratives and discusses the ways people and various life forms get stuck in the ecological melting pot and the emerging dialogues. She has participated in exhibitions and residencies in Peru, Czech Republic, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland and Estonia. Since 2022 she’s the doctoral candidate at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
Curator: Marika Agu
Sound design: Mihkel Tomberg
Choreographer: Maarja Tõnisson
Graphic design: Rasmus Einman
Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Special thanks to: Raimond Põldmaa, Oskar Praus, Erik Liiv, Sandra Truija, Kerli Praks, Maarja Mikkin, Maarja Tosin, Eva Metspalu, Eesti Kunstiakadeemia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.
