'Sheets of Past and Layers of Reality', a Group Show at Hoib, Tallinn

On 29 May a new contemporary art gallery Hoib opens in Tallinn at Tehnika 15. The opening exhibition "Sheets of past and layers of reality" is curated by the founder of the gallery Lilian Hiob. 

"Sheets of past and layers of reality" brings together five artists: Alice Hagenburch, Raluca Manaila, Denisa Štefanigova, and Lisann Lillevere and Johanna Ruukholm. The artists explore the possibility for creating collectively through intimate narratives and objects. They work in media such as painting, performance, printmaking, and sculpture. 

As part of the exhibition on 13 August Lisann Lillevere and Johanna Ruukholm conduct a workshop, inviting participants to distance themselves from the digital and return to wilderness and the core of being. 

The show is inspired by Patricia Clough's idea of the "affective turn", stating that preconscious intuition and impulses are affected by smells, hormones, gestures and the imaginary. All these feelings change according to the characteristics and conditions of our social relations. What we imagine to be individual and specific - impulses, attitudes, emotions, and feelings - in fact have social, historical, and therefore shared dimensions. 

Exhibited art works and accompanying activities rely on various modes of perception; the strictly visual aspect is not primary. The aim is to expand our perception of the world, not only evoked by physical contact but through objects and shared spaces. Transferring our emotions to objects, objects reflect back and influence us, too. 

Bringing the work of five diverse artists into the ten square metre exhibition space, presents a challenge of managing in a confined room, however, it also adds a site-specific dimension to the intimacy reflected in the theme. The opening exhibition stems from the principle of collaboration, further exemplified by the joint effort of the artists and the curator in adapting a basement storage unit into a gallery. The exhibition centres on the affective relationship between people and objects – co-creating a space allowed putting theory into practice. 

The idea to refurbish the basement into a gallery space was inspired by the need for an autonomous exhibition space for young artists and curators. Free from established institutional restrictions, the new gallery allows for artistic experimentation and curatorial freedom.