Rooms in Rhymes

The exhibition cycle experiments with curating as a form of poetic, performative and collective practice. It seeks to enhance dialogue in visual art projects and invite a plurality of curatorial approaches to the museum. The practice of EKKM’s only in-house curator, Evelyn Raudsepp, has been previously characterised by performative curating and playfulness in the exhibition formats. This time, she invited an extended group of curators to join her, including team members who usually carry out different roles at the museum, as well as creatives who have previously worked with EKKM: Anita Kodanik, Brigit Arop, Johannes Luik, Laura De Jaeger, Laura Linsi and Marten Esko. The exhibition will feature more than 25 artists, both local and international.

In search of an aesthetic form for this collaboration, the exhibitions start to unfold line by line as a poem. The curated fragments are not necessarily expected to rhyme, yet the poetic tension invites one to look for the resonance between them, creating space for potential f(r)iction. Rooms in Rhymes makes use of the character of the museum building: three floors rhythmise each author’s phrases, passages create pauses, staircases cuts. When finishing the path, ascending and reversing the exhibition visit, new connections will arise, embracing the dynamics of delayed meanings and disordered attention.

The cycle of exhibitions will be accompanied by an extensive programme of slow openings:

Laura De Jaeger (4.04–20.04, II floor) will open the exhibition cycle on the museum middle floor with in-betweenness, inspired by the suspended time of the waiting room.
Artists: Agnes Isabelle Veevo, Ben Caro & Kat Cutler-MacKenzie, Camille Laurelli.
On the opening evening, 4 April at 18.00–21.00, Kirte Jõesaar’s durational performance My Pleasure takes place.

Marten Esko (11.04–27.04, III floor) fantasises of untimely rhyming and compares visions of technologically saturated futures, presents and pasts.
Artists: Coumba Samba, Julia Scher, Katja Novitskova, Louis Morlæ, Madlen Hirtentreu, Mihkel Ilus, René Kari.
On the opening evening, 11 April at 18.00–21.00, Gretchen Lawrence’s sound installation-concert will take place at 19.00.

Johannes Luik’s (17.04–04.05, I floor) exhibition approaches space using the metaphor of an egg, which is simultaneously a form and a process, a tension between interior-exterior and endless creation.
Artists: Alexander Webber, August Weizenberg, Eke Ao Nettan, Helena Keskküla, Liis Vares, Sandra Ernits.
By the opening evening, 17 April at 18.00–21.00, the exhibition is not ready yet and creating it continues during the opening.

Brigit Arop (25.04–18.05, II floor) combines the means of expression of ASMR, familiar from contemporary internet culture, with the presentation of the work by Estonian artists.
Artists: Ulvi Haagensen, Kadri Liis Rääk, Piibe Kolka, Gerta Raidma aka Lacqueer.
On the opening day, 25 April at 12.00–19.00, the curator is at the bar, listening to ASMR and serving tea.

For her exhibition from the cycle Rooms in Rhymes, Laura Linsi (2.05–18.05, III floor) has invited artist Benjamin Arthur Brown, who intertwines performance and sculptures with non-reality, reflecting the absurdity of our reality.
Artist: Benjamin Arthur Brown.
On the opening evening, 2 May at 18.00–21.00, Benjamin Arthur Brown’s performance will take place at 19.00.

Anita Kodanik (9.05–25.05, I floor) weaves a transindividualist sensibility – inspired by rats into an exhibition that explores inevitable misery; one that can only be alleviated through the hope of togetherness.
Artists: Alina Kleytman, Filip Vest, Samira Elagoz, Zody Burke.
On the opening evening, 9 May at 18.00–21.00, artist Filip Vest will perform their piece Self Tape at 19.00.

EKKM is open from Wednesday to Sunday 12.00–19.00.
Free entrance!

Supporters: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Estonian Ministry of Culture, City of Tallinn, Akzo Nobel, Estonian Academy of Arts, Nordic Hotel Forum, Liviko.