The two-part exhibition ‘4.7Billion Books. Archive of Senses’ and ‘4.7 Billion Books. Collection of Artists’ Books’
The two-part exhibition ‘4.7 Billion Books. Archive of Senses’ and ‘4.7 Billion Books. Collection of Artists’ Books’ is a collaboration between Eve Kask and Viktor Gurov and graphic art students of the Estonian Academy of Arts. The results of this collaboration will be exhibited in the gallery and on the third floor of the Tartu University Library from 8 May, 2024
Opening: 8.05.2024, 17.00
Exhibitions working group:
The artists of the exhibition are Annamaria Bereczki, Margarita Feofanova, Eve Kask, Jan Kaus, Triin Mänd, Marten Prei, Sandra Puusepp. Ehibition designers and graphic designers: Annamaria Bereczki, Margarita Feofanova, Triin Mänd, Marten Prei, Sandra Puusepp under the supervision of Viktor Gurov.
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8.05. – 15.08.202
‘4.7 Billion Books. Archive of Senses’
Gallery of the Tartu University Library
The gallery exhibition ‘4.7 Billion books. The Archive of Senses’ is based on the memory and heritage research of the curators and the students – visits to memory institutions and archives in Tartu and Tallinn, which were related to the students’ personal family or community stories and thus to the broader themes of identity, saving, love and above all memory (the human memory capacity is comparable to the amount of data contained in 4.7 billion books). As well as collecting material, the authors participating in the exhibition drew inspiration from conversations with their loved ones. At the same time, the exhibition ties in with the theme of this year’s Prima Vista, “Better and Worse Futures”, and raises the question of how to draw strength for a better future.
In her work, Annamaria Bereczki explores a period of time of which there are few physical records – her grandmother’s childhood. The author visualises both her grandmother’s and her own memories, thus creating parallels between the two eras and her childhood.
Margarita Feofanova’s ‘Flashback’ explores the fragility of memory and its impact on the world around us. The title of the exhibition refers to memory blackouts caused by a stroke. A single fault in the brain’s circulatory system prompted the artist to understand the contradictory nature of memory, the impact of traumatic experience on the reliability of remembering.
Eve Kask exhibits three works. Firstly, scrolls that bring together stories of women’s vitality and their interactions with each other, and knitting made by or for loved ones. In this way, In this way, a kind of lacework is created that binds the women into one community. Secondly, Kask will present recent textual images created in collaboration with writer
Jan Kaus, on which the authors’ own thoughts about love, as well as those of their friends, have been handwritten. The third work is a mixed-media abstract landscapes, on which Kask hand-printed poet Kätlin Kaldmaa’s poem ‘Love in the heart of darkness’.
Triin Mänd looks at the ramifications and shaping of family stories and memories. The stories that create and define identity flow like water in a river – at times the flow is calm, at times rapids, at times the sun warms the water, at times the cold turns it to ice.
Sandra Puusepp portrays the life and work of her grandmother Milde. Her grandmother’s great work of art was a paradisiacal garden full of shrubs, flowers, fruit trees and crops, which breathed in rhythm with her family and which has now disappeared into monoculture and inevitable oblivion.
Marten Prei draws his inspiration from material discovered in the archives of the Tartu Literary Museum, concerning the songs and creative work of his family from Saaremaa, above all his grandfather’s tales of his youthful adventures on foreign seas and lands. Prei recorded his grandfather’s colourful, tobacco and malaria-scented tales, digitised the slides and created a serigraph series from the legacy of the former sailor.
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8.05. – 15.08.2024
‘4.7 Billion Books. Collection of Artists’ Books’
On the third floor of the Tartu University Library
On the third floor of the University Library, in cooperation with the Prima Vista literary festival and the Tartu University Library, the collection of artists’ books from the Graphic Arts Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts, compiled and designed by second-year students of the same department, will be presented for the first time.
The broader aim of the exhibition ‘4.7 Billion Books. The Archive of Senses’ is to draw the attention of both the general public and the artistic community to the phenomenon of the artists’ book, to open up the concept and possibilities of this medium. While artists’ books have been making their mark on the world art scene since the avant-garde movement of the 1960s and have retained their popularity to this day, the practice of the artists’ book is virtually unknown here. The small size of Estonia, which has not allowed for the emergence of a market for artists’ books and a circle of collectors with a special interest, plays a role here, and so artists’ books have remained the preserve of a few enthusiasts. It is easy to misunderstand the artists’ book: it is not an illustrated publication, nor is it an artist’s portfolio, but an independent medium in which the artist is both the author and the maker of the book, controlling the process from idea to completion. This exhibition aims to popularise the field of the artists’ book, both as an exhibition and as a presentation.
Educational programme:
Artists’ book presentation on 22 May at 16: Eve Kask and Lennart Mänd.
