| Abstrakt: |
This autumn, the art scene in Viljandi reached remarkable heights. In mid-October, the town's galleries hosted four artists who have represented Estonia at the Venice Biennale. The Kondas Centre presented the group exhibition "Survival Arts by Toomik, Ole and Mäetamm", featuring recent work by Jaan Toomik, Kaido Ole and Marko Mäetamm. Just a week later, Rüki Gallery opened Liina Siib's solo exhibition, "The Tint of Sets", which introduced yet more fresh work. Both exhibitions stirred excitement, drawing visitors from afar and lending an international dimension to the local art scene. However, as a younger and smaller player, Rüki, established with private capital, once again found itself somewhat overshadowed by the Kondas Centre's crowdpulling shows. Yet, in its five years of operation, Rüki has consistently demonstrated a boldness in exploring the lesstravelled edges of the art scene, often tackling topics with less audience appeal. Liina Siib's residency exhibition was no exception. In 2011, Siib represented Estonia at the Venice Biennale with her project "A Woman Takes Little Space", addressing women's invisibility in social spaces, the oppressive gender roles imposed on them and the resulting constraints on the formation of personal identity. In 2021, she opened the "Linda Vilde Museum" exhibition at the Eduard Vilde Museum – a series of retrospective time capsules intended to draw attention to Linda Jürmann (later Vilde), the wife of the Estonian literary icon Eduard Vilde, who is little known, or completely unknown, to the wider public. The current solo exhibition at Rüki brings to mind a memory from Venice in 2011, during the busy days leading up to the opening of the Estonian pavilion. Amid the hectic preparations, Liina Siib received a visit from her neighbour Marina Abramović, a living art legend, who was working at Palazzo Malipiero next door on what she described as her "legacy". In the conversation with her superstar colleague, Siib also acknowledged the inevitable pull of this pursuit: "Sooner or later, we all start dealing with legacy." It seems that the time has come. In recent years, Siib has devoted herself to exploring cultural heritage, with solo exhibitions across Estonia – from Narva to Võru and time and again in Tallinn. Against this backdrop, her recent showing in Viljandi, a city steeped in heritage, felt almost inevitable. After all, much of the local identity is rooted in the flax-growing traditions that shaped the people's lives: from the wealth cultivated in the fields by old farmers, to their sending their children to city schools and eventually taking on the pressing tasks of nationbuilding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
