Exhibition opening on FRIDAY, July 23rd at 7 pm

artists: Ēriks Božis (LAT), Martin Creed (GBR), Dénes Farkas, Kiwa, Fred Kotkas, Neeme Külm, Kaido Ole, Taavi Piibemann, Johanna Reich (GER), Tõnis Saadoja, Tarmo Salin, Hanno Soans, Triin Tamm, Toomas Thetloff, Laura Toots

curator: Anders Härm

"But I say, we are next to nothing!

We are nothing, next to nothing, we are nothing"

Darkseed, Next To Nothing, 2005

Perhaps this German gothic metal band really has nothing to do with this exhibition, which is entitled Next to Nothing, the connection itself is as good as nonexistent -- next to nothing. However, maybe this massively expressive self-denial is related to the positions of the exhibiting artists through the self-manifestation that takes places through this denial -- we almost don't exist, but we still do.

To use a bit of bravura, the artists participating in the exhibition bring us messages from the landscapes between one and zero, "being and nothingness", where the questions that are thereby actualized are more existential in nature than anything else. However, one cannot rule out political, psychoanalytical or phenomenological interpretive horizons that may discretely unfold from here.

The works (videos, installations, photos, paintings and objects) of fifteen artists are on display, which test the EKKM spiritual and physical endurance against the attacks of "white-cube art" and vice versa. A large number of the works have been completed especially for this exhibition; others have been adapted for this exhibition; and many are being displayed in Estonia for the first time. Three foreign artists are participating, of whom the most notable is undoubtedly Martin Creed -- one of the most important contemporary British artists.

If white cubes have the magical ability to make anything into art, then former industrial spaces have the tendency to swallow the art -- overpower it. In some sense, the exhibition is an experiment to see how expressively hyper-minimalistic art, that is sometimes totally hermetic, can cope with a spatial situation that is anything but commemorative of the works.

Since the EKKM can only organize exhibitions during the summer months, it may seem strange to call this EKKM's summer exhibition, although it undoubtedly is. In this case, the lightweightness, which tends to characterize these types of undertakings, is more conceptual in nature and is based on the fact that the participating artists express themselves laconically and relate to space contextually. Keeping their personal artistic histories in mind, the emphasis is inevitably on Duchamp, Baldessari and even Rothko rather than Dali, Picasso or even Warhol.

More Information: EKKM or by e-mail anders@kunstihoone.ee