The main exhibition of the 18th Tallinn Print Triennial: Warm. Checking Temperature in Three Acts opens at Kai Art Center on January 22nd. Curated by Róna Kopeczky, this edition of the triennial comprises three intertwined cycles entitled The Nation Loves It, Pickle Politics, and Science of Freedom and is spread across different venues in Tallinn. The exhibition at Kai will feature works belonging to the first two cycles.
Find the exhibition catalogue in English here and in Russian here.
Warm. Checking Temperature in Three Acts is a multi-part exhibition that primarily gives thought to the radical political, cultural, and social turns that affect Central and Eastern Europe, and it also inscribes these changes in a global perspective through the lens of universal absurdity. The project gives voice to contemporary artists based in or originating from the Central and Eastern European region who reflect boldly and critically on burning issues such as the rise of far-right politics, globally misplaced priorities, the collapse of democracies, the shrinking of freedom in both life and art, and the general sense of conditioned fear and hostility prevailing today.
The title reflects more precisely on the mechanisms through which positive notions shift in our interpretation towards the negative realm and become associated with different, contradictory contents depending upon the new situations they are used in. More concretely, how the originally positive signification of warm – an agreeable feeling, the sense of a fairly or comfortably high temperature, and a behavior showing enthusiasm, affection or kindness – becomes a warning sign of political turmoil, social irritation, symptoms of climate change or global pandemic, and therefore a signal of both natural and social global instability.
Artists: Artleaks, Jasmina Cibic, Hubert Czerepok, Ferenc Gróf, Flo Kasearu, Volodymyr Kuznetsov, Irena Lagator, Marko Mäetamm, Alexander Manuiloff, Dan Perjovschi, Driton Selmani, Société Réaliste
Curator: Róna Kopeczky
Róna Kopeczky (1983) is a curator and art historian based in Budapest. She worked as a curator for international art in Ludwig Museum Budapest between 2006 and 2015, where she mostly focussed on the site- and situation-specific practices of young and mid-career artists from the Central Eastern European region. In February 2015, she joined acb Gallery in Budapest as artistic director. She participated in the organisation of the first OFF-Biennale Budapest from the beginning of 2015 and was a member of the curatorial team for its second edition held in autumn 2017. Róna Kopeczky is the co-founder of Easttopics, a platform and hub dedicated to the contemporary art of Central Eastern Europe that is based in Budapest. She holds a PhD in Art History from Paris-Sorbonne University.
The 18th Tallinn Print Triennial is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, DHL Express Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts, Kai Art Center, Kanuti Gildi SAAL, Liszt Institute Tallinn, Nordic Hotel Forum, Plado Art Services, Põhjala Brewery and Tap Room, Tallinn City Culture and Sports Department, Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, The French Institute of Estonia, Valge Kuup Studio, and Vestman Group.
Other venues: Kai Art Center, Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, Põhjala Tap Room, EKA Gallery, Flo Kasearu House Museum, Liszt Institute Tallinn, Kanuti Gildi SAAL