Cultural Landscapes
– A Little House in Tartu –
On the 16th of October at 6pm the Finnish visual artist Miia Westerlund is opening her photo exhibition at the photo gallery Ag47 (in the yard of Aparaaditehas, address Kastani 42).
Miia Westerlund, a visual artist from Finland, has grown up in cultural cities. The backside of beautiful buildings and façades, historical stories and events has always been her big interest. Certain historic buildings are repeated in pictures as bold, beautiful, respectable. We look, and we photograph ourselves, too these same buildings over and over again. However, the façades which are beautifully taken care of, hide all kinds of history. Even today, many of these buildings are still inhabited. And in these buildings and places people love and hate, fight and make love just like in any suburb. Horrible things happen in idyllic places, too.
Miia Westerlund has photographed the Cultural Landscape series in several cities and countries. Now it’s time for Tartu, the city filled with Estonian history. Westerlund photographs familiar landscapes and builds up layered images of these places. Just like history is all about years, events and layers, her images are that as well. Randomly, the layers are ruined. Consciously destroyed. And a new layer is born. These images are what the viewer wants them to be. History is how it is told. Art is how it is understood.
Miia Westerlund: http://www.miiawesterlund.com/
The exhibition is open until the 4th of November.
Our collaboration partner and sponsor for this event is the Finnish Institute and the gallery Ag47. Miia Westerlund is in Tartu as part of the Tartu Artist in Residence program.
The TAiR program is implemented by the Estonian Print and Paper Museum and financed by the City of Tartu, Estonia’s Cultural Endowment and Gambling Tax Council. For more information about the project and future artists, visit residency.tartuensis.com