Anglers. Silvia Jõgever and Kadi Estland 01/11/2019 – 08/03/2020

Location: 4th floor, Project Space 

The exhibition in the project space on the 4th floor of Kumu focusses on the oeuvre of the Tartu art teacher and artist Silvia Jõgever (1924–2005) created in the 1960s and 1970s. The central image in Jõgever’s dreamlike, defiant and melancholy works of art is the stage as a metaphor for life. So far, little attention has been paid to the fact that, in the artist’s image space, the main roles are usually played by female characters. The depicted women, however, tend to be faceless in their assigned roles. They seem listless and passive in the situations in which they have been placed. Some of Jõgever’s playful works, on the contrary, express her firm belief in women, highlighting women’s potential for taking active roles.

The choice of topics in Jõgever’s paintings is rather exceptional in the context of the 1960s and 1970s. Violence against women was not a topic that the artists of the period wanted or dared to depict. The art of the era does not include works that showed the problems of a woman’s personal life or her struggles with the freedom of decision.

The two different contexts – the Soviet era and the present day – are bridged by the oeuvre of Kadi Estland (1973). Estland’s politically charged absurdist images and works, in which she has appropriated and redefined the tranquil and traditional world of historical embroidery patterns, have a kind of therapeutic effect. This is especially topical in today’s world, in which the aggressively conservative world view is forcefully trying to occupy both public and private spaces.

The artist and designer Sandra Kosorotova (1984) participates in the exhibition with a textile project.

Exhibition curator: Eda Tuulberg
Exhibition design: Kadi Estland
Exhibition team: Külli Kaats, Johanna Lamp, Margit Pajupuu, Sirje Rump and Uve Untera