"MagiC Carpets" artist residencies bring international artists to distinctive Southern Estonian places. "MagiC Carpets" is an European Union “Creative Europe” platform, which unites 20 European cultural organisations. European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 joined the initiative in 2022.
Inspired by the Tartu 2024 artistic concept Arts of Survival, the first year of the residency programme focuses on the unique Southern Estonian smoke sauna tradition. The custom, or “suidsusannakombõ”, as it is known in the local dialect, is an important part of the everyday life of the region. In 2014, UNESCO inscribed the Võrumaa smoke sauna tradition on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.The smoke sauna tradition, passed down from generation to generation, will act as a shared platform for the artists to reflect on a world haunted by modernity. The residency deals with the human necessity for ritualistic cleansing and healing, both physically and mentally. Keywords such as (de)growth, desire for progress, excess energy, more-than-humans, myth, ritual and traditionwill form the starting point for artistic engagements.
The residency programme is open for a wide range of artistic disciplines and practices including visual and performing arts, multimedia, architecture and artistic research. In 2022, three international artists Laura Põld, Gary Markle and Anica Huck, will take part in the residency programme.
Laura Põld
Laura Põld is an Estonian artist based in Tallinn and Vienna. Her work explores environmental history, elemental human and more-than-human skills and needs, including community, safety and shelter. In her latest work, she focuses on her choice of materials and their historical and political context, implementing traditional crafts and building techniques in ceramics, embroidery and weaving, which interest her as preservation of stories, memory and skills. Põld studied ceramics at the Estonian Academy of Arts, painting at the University of Tartu and sculptural conceptions and ceramics at the University of Art and Design Linz. Põld is currently the visiting associate professor at the ceramics department and the sculpture and installations department at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
Laura Põld. Photo: Marek Mäemets
Gary Markle
Gary Markle is a Canadian artist, researcher and educator based in Tallinn, and Helsinki. He uses the lens of expanded fashion to examine narratives of (be)longing in more-than-human worlds. He holds a BFA in fashion design from Parsons School of Design, NYC and an MFA in textiles from NSCAD University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is an Associate Professor of Craft in the Textiles/Fashion Department at NSCAD. Currently, he is on leave to pursue a Doctor of Arts degree in the School of Arts, Design, and Architecture, at Aalto University. His practice-led design research investigates the question: Do we make craft or does craft make us?
Gary Markle. Photo: Sohvi Viik
Anica Huck
Anica Huck is a visual and performance artist from Germany and based in Rome. She examines contemporary issues, from climate policies to digitalization. Her interdisciplinary approach derives from previous training and professional experience in the field of geosciences and geopolitics. Latest exhibitions include: Who Killed Bambi?, Nuovo Spazio di Casso al Vajonte, Casso, 2022; 14 metri, Mostra delle Memorie, Museo delle Memorie Archivio Corviale, Roma, 2022; Accade!, Nuova Pesa, Roma, 2022; A curse on my years if I am lying!, Maja Arte Contemporanea, Roma 2022; Arteporto. Fuori confine, Porti Imperiali di Claudio e Traiano, Roma, 2021.
Anica Huck. Foto: Rome University of Fine Arts
Curator and contact: Ann Mirjam Vaikla, annmirjam.vaikla@tartu2024.ee
Co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
"MagiC Carpets" is an EU "Creative Europe" platform uniting 20 European cultural organizations (14 active platform members in 2022) that create opportunities for emerging artists to embark on journeys to unknown lands and to create, together with local artists and local communities, new works that highlight local specificities and compensate for the shortage of story-telling existing in modern society by enhancing cultural accessibility, cultural activism and participation.
PLATFORM MEMBERS 2022-2025- Kaunas Biennial (Kaunas / Lithuania) – Coordinating Entity
- IDEIAS EMERGENTES - Produção Cultural, CRL (Porto (Guimarães) / Portugal)
- Jam Factory Art Centre (Lviv / Ukraine)
- Lab852 d.o.o. za promidžbu (Zagreb / Croatia)
- Latitudo Srl (Rome / Italy)
- META Cultural Foundation (Bucharest (Slon) / Romania)
- New Theatre Institute of Latvia (Riga / Latvia)
- Novo Kulturno Naselje (Novi Sad / Serbia)
- OPENART, Örebro Kommun (Örebro / Sweden)
- Openspace.Innsbruck (Innsbruck / Austria)
- Sihtasutus Tartu 2024 (Tartu / Estonia)
- Tbilisi International Photo Festival (Tbilisi / Georgia)
- Trempo (Nantes / France)
- Wrocławski Instytut Kultury (Wroclaw / Poland)
- Diyalog Derneği (Istanbul / Turkey)
- Folkestone Fringe (Folkestone / UK)
