Showcase: Self-Portrait 4
Location: Kumu atrium
“Abuse, corruption and hijacking of artistic thought. The conflict of idea and self-actualization. The relation between self and concept, concept and need.”
(Mikk-Artur Ostrov)
Showcase has a history as an exhibition space that takes contemporary art out of art centres. Mikk-Artur Ostrov’s artwork displays a corruption of this artistic idea through the artist’s need for self-actualization.
Mikk-Artur Ostrov (1992) is currently studying scenography (MA) at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Previously, he graduated from Tallinn University (Art Education). He works in mixed media and is interested in the individual’s relation to space at the aesthetic level.
Showcase is a contemporary art initiative, with a focus on extending the reach of young contemporary art to spaces it usually doesn’t reach. In the form of a one-square-meter exhibition space encapsulated in a box, it affords the possibility of art as location-specific and/or detached. The current Showcase in Tallinn is a branching off from a sequence of projects beginning originally in Prague, founded in 1998 by the PAS* group (Josef Bolf, Jan Mancuska, Jan Serych and Tomas Vanek), which spread through various European cities: Brno, Stuttgart, Grenoble etc.
*PAS – Production of Contemporary Activities
The current Showcase gallery is the second iteration of Showcase in Tallinn, taking over from the previous runners’ Rundum Showcase. The current iteration of Showcase focuses on art dealing with the relation between individuality, space, personality and location, and the commercialization of contemporary art. This season of Showcase is also more itinerant than ever before, with several of the participating artists making the showcase mobile.
Artist: Mikk-Artur Ostrov
Curator: Triin Tulgiste
