“Let’s live in friendship!” refers to a text that was found on a blackboard of a schoolhouse in Novyi Bykiv in Chernihiv Oblast in Ukraine after the pillage by Russian soldiers. Current exhibition alludes to a self-contradictory Russian propaganda campaign.
Mari Männa has combined playful artwork and documentary found material in her unique world. The landscape she has created alludes to a location that is flushed by conflicting energy. The artwork that has formed is just like a frozen moment in this chaos. Männa started to work with her new sculptures before the Russian invasion to Ukraine. Her half-figures began to embody the ongoing events while taking on the emotions, postures and objects of the changing society.
Mari Männa (b. 1991) is a sculpture and installation artist. She obtained MA degree in contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2020. During her studies, Männa took additional courses in Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and Aalto University in Helsinki. Männa’s artistic method can be described by the use of material that opposes the understanding of a heroic male sculptor – she effortlessly experiments with lightweight and available materials. As for subject matter, the artist prefers to reflect today’s social issues through the prism of humour.
Graphic design: Henri Kutsar
Thanks: Piret Männa, Iaroslav Iakubivskyi, Kristjan-Julius Laak
Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia,
Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.
