Book launch & conversation: Paul Kuimet, Gregor Taul & Laura Herman

The revised English edition of Notes on Space, first published in Estonian in 2012, is a concise summary of the monumental paintings, supergraphics, and art realised in mosaic technique in mainly Soviet-era Estonia. An essay and short descriptions of all the 94 depicted monumental works written by art historian Gregor Taul accompany Paul Kuimet's detailed photography. The book gives an excellent overview of the art in public space in Estonia before the so-called percentage law came into force, of the Soviet-era "synthesis of the arts" and the fate of the works in the working class lunch rooms, cultural houses and apartment buildings under capitalism.
 
Paul Kuimet (b. 1984) is a Tallinn-based artist who is currently in residence at WIELS. He works with photographic installations and 16 mm films, the subject matter of which ranges from landscapes and architecture to objects and works of art. His works often look at Modernist objects by way of highlighting their aesthetic, political and historical connotations that were perhaps hidden from the naked eye.

 
Gregor Taul (b. 1986) is a critic and curator based in Lisbon, currently working on his doctoral thesis on late Soviet monumental decorative art at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa. His main academic research topic is art in public space, in addition to monuments and murals of the Soviet era he is interested in contemporary public art commissions, especially the One Percent Act.
 
Laura Herman (b. 1988, BE) is an independent curator and writer whose work focuses on spatial infrastructure and the relationship between architecture, affect and human experience. Laura currently serves as a curator at La Loge, a Brussels-based space dedicated to contemporary art, architecture, and theory, and she is an editor at De Witte Raaf.


 
20.04.2018, 16:00
WIELS Auditorium
Free
In English
 
Compiled and edited by Gregor Taul, Paul Kuimet, Ingrid Ruudi, Anu Vahtra
Designed by Indrek Sirkel.
144 pages
290 × 220 mm
Edition: 400
Offset duotone printing
Softcover + dust jacket
In English
Printed by Tallinn Book Printers
Supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia
ISBN 978-9949-9934-7-5
2017