Don't avoid what is easy

👨‍🎨 DE STRUCTURA will gather young aspiring professionals in the fields of visual and performing arts 🖼 🎭

They will join the project from different countries of the European continent to communicate with experts and their peers in order to realise 25 cross-border projects and discover the institutional politics of art.

It will happen in two stages:
🌱 The first is a 9-day forum that will gather around 150 participants in May 2022 in Tallinn.
🪴 The second will include the implementation of artists’ cross-border projects that will support peer-to-peer long-term exchange and networking across European borders.

We are now looking for 9 passionate volunteers, who would like to bring this project to life together with us - 3 people for sub-teams focusing on the following:
💳 fundraising;
☎️ communication:
👬 partners and patrons.

Art auction by Kogo Gallery on June 5 and many more opportunities to support! 🤓👇
Currently, Kogo Gallery is running a fundraising campaign Kogume Kogos | Gathering at Kogo and the most substantial part of it is an art auction held on June 5 at Aparaaditehas (Widget Factory) in Tartu and also online.
All funds raised will be used for the sake of the community and artists. We are elaborating our public programme, bringing the exhibitions to the virtual platform to evoke art purchases, and participating in noted events in the art field - this year at Liste Art Fair Basel in Switzerland, the international leading fair for new discoveries in contemporary art.
Besides selling art we are developing other services, we are also continuing to submit applications to funds, but at the moment, we also need your help to take those big steps.
You can help by:
🔴 participating at our auction where we will have more than 40 artworks and sketches on sale by 21 artists from Estonia and abroad with whom we have worked over the years. All works are donated by the artists. By the way, this auction is also a good place to buy your first art piece as the prices will be friendly. Please register to the auction by June 4 (link below);
🔴 doing one small gesture on our Patreon site, but with that, helping us monthly. Each euro counts, honestly;
🔴 buying art visible on our website. Should you make your purchase before June 5, you might get gifted two VIP passes to Liste Art Fair Basel 2021;
🔴 taking part in our crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter which we will launch after the auction;
🔴 making a donation to our account should none of the above fit for you but you wish to help. You will find all the needed details on Gathering at Kogo campaign page.
Auction registration form 👉https://docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLSfHXKx4nSSEoV.../viewform
Catalogue 👉 https://www.kogogallery.ee/.../gathering-at-kogo.../
Kogo Patreon 👉 https://www.patreon.com/kogogallery
Gathering at Kogo campaign 👉 https://www.kogogallery.ee/en/gathering-at-kogo/
Thank you!
Kogo Gallery team

Auction - Kogo Gallery On the 5th of June, Kogo Gallery will hold a fundraising auction day with more than 40 artworks and sketches on sale. The pieces are generously donated by 21 artists from Estonia and abroad with whom the gallery has worked over the three years. The artists are: Eike Eplik, GolfClayderman, Bruno Goos...

The exhibition opened on the 14th of August. That you to everyone who was there and you can still see it until the 9th of September in Tallinn!

Photos by Mariia Ned

ABOUT OUR TEAM

There are people behind every project. We are happy to introduce you people who are willing to contribute to this project in various ways!

Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova is originally from Moscow, has lived and worked in multiple European countries. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from Tartu University and has received training in Belgium, the Netherlands and Russia. Her current projects include the “Don’t Avoid What is Easy” exhibition in Tallinn, Estonia, and the 2020 ModernDiplomacy Conference in Vienna, Austria.

Tiiu Meiner is a writer and freelance curator born in Estonia with a recent Masters diploma from Design Academy Eindhoven (2019). Her topics of interest deal with establishments of knowledge and self-discovery through readings of contemporary culture.

Mariia Nedosekova is “EU-Russia Studies” MA student at the University of Tartu who came from St. Petersburg, Russia. In the field she is mostly interested in Gender Studies. In her spare time she is reading existential books, painting and exploring the world around.

Verena de Lange is a Dutch student of International Relations at the UT. She is interested in the way the creative sector can contribute to better relations between countries. She has studied in Russia and Germany and likes to study art history in her free time.

Liisi Raudsepp is studying psychology at the UT and working as one too. Her secret (not so secret) hobbies are improvisation theater and painting.

Valeriya Bilich is a Ukrainian-American Masters of Science student currently studying Geoinformatics at the University of Tartu in Estonia. Her passions include traveling, wildlife and nature, and all things related to art and music.

Would you like to have a seat in a comfortable bean bag chair, have a chat about your ideas to improve your European living environment and look at a lovely painting? Then here is your chance!
Yesterday was the first of our live performances, but you can still come say hi on the 6th of August (Barlova, Tartu) and the 8th of August (Telliskivi, Tallinn)
We are looking forward to talking to you and hearing about your plans and dreams. And if you cannot make it, stay tuned because our event for the opening of the exhibition will go up very soon...

Modern Diplomacy published an article about the project last week. It describes the underlying motivation of the artist and in it the exhibition curator provides some context.

"An inhabitant of a city logically has the right to express ideas or wishes when it comes to their surroundings – it is, after all, their home. But they are often stuck in the belief of not being able to change anything. In this instance, I am not talking about taking action or creating a plan. This is about the simplest first step that does not require anything – feeling like one is entitled to express a wish."

Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova

Don’t avoid what is easy – diplomacy meets art - Modern Diplomacy Individuals should and need to feel like they have the right to want. That is the message that artist Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova is continuously expressing

What do you see when you look in the mirror?

Another portrait finished! Every day we are getting closer to opening day, and then this lovely painting is ready for you to see live.

See you from the 14th of August onwards in the Freedom Gallery in Tallinn, where this mirror portrait and other masterpieces will be waiting ☺️

Ongoing GoFundMe campaign - gf.me/u/yh9d4d

A few workshops will take place during the exhibition. One of them will be led by Nathan Hunter. Here's how he describes it:

""Things in life ain’t always quite what they seem
There’s more than one given angle to any one given scene”

We walk into each moment of our life understanding the complexity of the path that lead us here. We are the sum of our past experiences, and we can acknowledge that the only way to understand our current actions is by looking to our past.

But what about others? Can we judge their actions or behaviour based only on what we see in the present?

This interactive workshop will push participants to create art that questions our ability to judge situations and categorise people."

Stay tuned for the dates and enjoy Nathan's TED talks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8GUP87jwUY!

The curator plays an important role in the life of any exhibition. The curator of “Don’t avoid what is easy” is Tiiu Meiner.

Tiiu Meiner is a writer and freelance curator based in Rotterdam. Her topics of interest deal with establishment of knowledge and self-discovery through readings of contemporary culture. Her research methodologies range from deeply empathic to carefully self-reflective to enthusiastically factual. For her work she uses theories borrowed from different fields.

The most recent large project of Tiiu was а performative workshop “The fragility of Truth”. It deconstructs and subverts the existence of conspiracy theories. Now Tiiu is also working on a film project about the geo-political narratives of sand quarries.

To know more about Tiiu and her projects you can visit her website:
https://www.tiiumeiner.com/

EXHIBITION BACKGROUND STORY

What began with the case of Porto Vecchio, then became a larger project that ran from 2017 to 2019 and has seen numerous artists and designers take part in various ways. One of them was Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova.

300 young people from 40 countries came together to discuss topics that affect Europe and to imagine solutions to the challenges it faces. Using her role as creative director of the event Lemberg-Lvova explained the principle of what was done in Trieste and asked the participants to express their wishes for their home — Europe. Their answers could relate to anything big or small, so some talked about building a high-speed railway spanning across the whole continent to avoid flying and some just wanted to maintain a cinema hall in their town.

The result of Yerevan 2019 - 89th International Session of the European Youth Parliament is a deck of 52 cards with the most interesting answers, which will be shown as part of Harbour for Cultures and they are the starting point of the 2020 exhibition in the Freedom Gallery.

Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova is at Kogo Gallery until the end of the month working on "Don't avoid what is easy" portraits. You can join her for a chat about the project, have a look at so sketches or just enjoying the summer at Aparaaditehas.

Photo Mariia Ned

EXHIBITION BACKGROUND STORY

Harbour for Cultures looked at the mostly unused old port of Triste (Porto Vecchio) as a case study and a metaphor for inciting creative thinking in the inhabitants of the city. It started by asking Triestines to come up with 5 wishes related to Porto Vecchio and its territory. After all, it’s their city and up to them to shape it. In order to help coming up with ideas and encourage lateral thinking, the project used a tool designed to break artists’ creative block — “Oblique Strategies” created by Brian Eno.

The exhibition "Don't avoid what is easy" is based on Harbour for Cultures and another project, Yerevan 2019, but this is already the topic for next time. 😉

On the 1st of July the conference titled “From the Victory Day to Corona Disarray: 75 years of Europe’s Collective Security and Human Rights System” will take place at the Academy of Diplomacy in Vienna.

Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova is one of the speakers. She will be speaking about the art project “Don’t avoid what is easy”, her work in general and the European Youth Parliament (EYP).

Here you can find some information about the following conference, its participants and programme and also find the link to live stream - https://www.da-vienna.ac.at/en/Events/MoreInformation/Id/3403?fbclid=IwAR3UtUO_J-Bf0SS_E_9fTQbK34wyhHv5ojeGeWn-ZFcVJX_ugPqH_0nXSK0

OBLIQUE STRATEGIES

Oblique Strategies is a card-based method for promoting creativity. It was jointly created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt in 1970s. It looks like a deck of cards in a box — each card proposes to use some challenging constraints in order to break creative block that artists have. Despite the fact that originally this method was used for musicians, it has been very useful for all kinds of artists as well.

Oblique strategies method was used as a way to engage people in thinking and as a starting point to reflect on the space around — the city, country and Europe. The form of deck persists and you have a chance to look how Oblique strategies method was used for purposes of motivating people to come up with ideas about the space around them — their city, country and Europe.

In May the Social Distancing Festival posted about the exhibition and the effects Covid had on it. Anastasia is also participating in their Long Distance Art project.

Don’t Avoid What is Easy — The Social Distancing Festival When Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova sent us this collection of work, we knew we HAD to share it. In the submission, Anastasia explains that the exhibition ‘Don’t Avoid What is Easy’ is the result of over one year of research, but due to social distancing, the Freedom Gallery in Tallinn has closed it....

The curator of the exhibition Tiiu Meiner has written an engaging manifesto that allows the reader's imagination to start building the home they want to live in. Give it a read!