Between Objects

The exhibition is based on a gamified method developed by Curator Denis Maksimov where he has invited five Estonian artists to each respond to a work from the HAM collection by choosing an existing artwork of their own to be exhibited alongside the collection piece.

The artists connected by the dialogue between works are Pekka Niittyvirta and Taavi Suisalu, nabbteeri and Sigrid Viir, Maiju Salmenkivi and Merike Estna, Azar Saiyar and Flo Kasearu, and Sauli Sirviö & Johannes Rantapuska and Edith Karlson. Through their own artworks, the Estonian artists present interpretations of the pieces from HAM’s collection. The artists’ responses might have focused on the work’s content or perhaps a colour, a shape, or anything else in the object itself.

The works in the exhibition feature various kinds of content and shapes: the artists study technologically supported means of observation, memory, storytelling and people’s connections to different places. Instead of a thematic framework, the idea tying the exhibition together is its focus on works of art as objects. Maksimov’s exhibition concept is connected to attempts to think beyond human-centrism, with a focus on the agency of objects and their interaction. Similarly, the audience is encouraged to look at the works in new ways and focus on the act of looking at artworks.