Ann Mirjam Vaikla

My practice as a curator, artist or scenographer lies at the intersection of visual and performing arts working internationally within various contexts at galleries, theatres and public spaces. I studied Scenography (BA) at the Norwegian Theatre Academy (Østfold University College) and Culture and Arts (MA) at the Novia University of Applied Sciences in Finland.

Nominated for a CEC ArtsLink fellowship (2020-2022), I was participating in residency programmes at the Triangle Arts Association (Brooklyn, NY) and Grand Central Art Center (Los Angeles, CA).

My works have been exhibited at the Tallinn Art Hall (Outside/In), Kai Art Center (Copy, VII Artishok Biennial), Black Box Theatre (Oslo, 2020) and Prague Quadrennial (Formations).

I led 2017–2021 Narva Art Residency (NART) where I focused on curating projects that involved community engagement (Point of No Return. Attunement of Attention, WEEDs FEED!, Narva Urban Labs: (Re)configuring Territories and Narva–Detroit: Post-industrial Cities on the Border – Where to?).

I am the co-founder of the Kordon Art Residency where I am currently curating an international residency programme KORDON LAB on Food and Energy, and co-member of a creative platform Vaikla Studio.

I am the curator of the 8^th Artishok Biennial “Botanical Witnesses” at the Tallinn Botanic Garden (29/09-30/10/2022) which has become the site of and for collective (un)learning for the invited artists and critics.

Currently lives and works in: Estonia (Tallinn, Hiiumaa), internationally (Norway, USA etc).

Areas of interest: Visual Arts, Performing Arts (inc. Scenography), Architecture, Curatorial Practices, (Re)thinking Residencies.

Why are you a part of MagiC Carpets: I was invited by Tartu2024 European Capital of Culture team to curate the MagiC Carpets international residency programme in Estonia due to my former and current experience running residency centres both on the eastern border of Estonia/EU-Russia (NART-Narva Art Residency) and in the midst of the Baltic Sea, on Hiiumaa island (KORDON Art Residency).

Past projects

“Point of No Return. Attunement of Attention” at Narva Art Residency (NART), 2021

Project “Point of No Return. Attunement of Attention” (24 April–20 June 2021 NART – Narva Art Residency, Narva, Estonia) portrays Vaikla’s recent curatorial work resulting in a large-scale international exhibition by taking the entanglements of life and death in times of ecological distress as a starting point for further process. The selected artworks encourage prolonged attention to human and other-than-human beings, rhythms, and worlds, in order to sense our shared vulnerability and interconnectedness, without which we would not be here. Vaikla builds her curatorial statement on a notion of a “Third Curator” by situating the ideas on modernity, imbued with human-centric desires for progress and novelty, to the historical Kreenholm district, home to what once was the largest textile mill in Europe.

Artists: Saara-Maria Kariranta, Hans Rosenström, Marit Mihklepp, Felipe de Ávila Franco, Alma Heikkilä, Hannah Mevis, Pia Arke, Juss Heinsalu, Manfred Dubov, Flora Reznik, Sissel Marie Tonn, Melanie Bonajo, Anne Noble, Nina Schuiki, Vera Anttila, Sepideh Ardalani, Sandra Kosorotova

“Monument of (R)evolution, 7th Artishok Biennial at Kai Art Center, Tallinn, 2020

“What can you build of 1000 bricks?”, group exhibition “Formations” at Prague Quadrennial, 2019

Narva Urban Lab: “NARVA – DETROIT: Post-industrial Cities – Where to?” at Narva Art Residency (NART), 2018

Why have you chosen to be a curator or why has curatorship chosen you? To relearn, rethink, recontextualize, reimagine, reconnect etc.

What do you think is the purpose of art? Offer meaning, depth, colour and shelter in life.

Your favourite book? J. D. Salinger novels (on The Glass family).

Your favourite film? Lost in Translation (by Sofia Coppola).

Contact Information

Email: [email protected] | Instagram | www.vaiklastudio.ee | www.kordon.ee