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Diivan Magazine - February 2022

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PARADISE - I ALREADY WENT AND CAME BACK

(AV17) Gallery, Vilnius Lithuania

Kristel Saan

2021 06 08 – 07 08

Photos: Jonas Balsevičius

Kristel Saan is an Estonian artist residing and creating in both Vancouver and Tallinn. She has already presented her works in Finland, Hungary, Denmark, USA, Canada, Germany, and many other countries, while her art pieces are a part of multiple international collections. She has also been working for several years now for the Hollywood movie industry and created sets and artworks for big blockbuster movies. In her process of creation, the artist is paying close attention to corporeal sensations as well as the relationship between the body and its environment. Her means of expression encompasses large-scale installations, photography, video works, ceramics, textile pieces, etc. The artist’s work often resembles diverse utopian areas where poetry, philosophical topics, and various unexpected organic and artificial materials intertwine, while one of the main aspects becomes the perception of object, material, and space.

In the exhibition “Paradise – I Already Went and Came Back” at the (AV17) gallery, Kristel Saan introduces artworks that are related to the concept of paradise through the prism of Wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi is a Japanese philosophy of aesthetics that is based on the fact that beauty is seen in imperfect, impermanent and incomplete things – it is the beauty of modesty and humbleness. Meanwhile, paradise is often paralleled to nature, Human nature, and God. God, which is unpredictable, sometimes gentle and at times mad. Nature in the context of Wabi-sabi is untouched by humans, it is in its original state. In this sense, nature means things of the earth such as plants, animals, mountains, rivers, and forces – sometimes good-natured and sometimes violent as wind, rain, and fire. However, nature in the context of Wabi-sabi should also encompass the human mind and all of its unnatural, artificial inventions. This means that everything that exists corresponds to the western monotheistic God or in other words to Paradise.

Kristel Saan (b. 1985) acquired a bachelor’s degree in Ceramics Design from the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has also studied Visual Arts in London at Central Saint Martins University of Art and Design. While completing her master’s degree, she has also studied Visual Arts in Vancouver at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and also ceramics at Rhode Island School of Design. Apart from her international exhibitions, Kristel Saan also creates interior and product design as well as scenography for theatre. In 2014, she has been nominated for an Adamson-Eric Young Artist Award and in 2013 she received Ilmar Palm Ceramic Award.

The project is partially sponsored by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Nordic Culture Point, Estonian Artists Association and Kogo Gallery.

Exhibition “Paradise – I Already Went and Came Back” was open at the (AV17) Gallery, Totorių St. 5, until July 8.

Visit the show in 3D here.

http://www.satenai.lt/2021/07/05/ciabuviskas-laikas-su-savimi/?fbclid=IwAR1fl0Es8fEXsIFrLvNq9xjtBILCXfQOa7P_HhChD1ZXLulH0JFbX7n-YzI

https://echogonewrong.com/going-back-to-your-true-self-a-conversation-with-kristel-saan/

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Tallinn Art Hall

Estonia 2019

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ZERO G TONIC / 2018

Hobusepea Gallery / Tallinn Estonia

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RABBIT OWNERS MEETING / 2018

TAVA 18 / Vacuum as a Mindset / Tartu Art Hall

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RABBIT OWNERS MEETING / 2018

TAVA 18 / Vacuum as a Mindset / Tartu Art Hall

http://www.sirp.ee/s1-artiklid/c6-kunst/polanski-hitchcock-lynch-ja-kafka/

https://tartu.postimees.ee/6437251/kunstnik-moonutab-teosega-teadvust?fbclid=IwAR3NHzAaWP4iePAG2QSu3rKVoLTDROpLbg3wXnRm9TzJR0Qz4Gp7z-fVK2Y

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ZERO G TONIC / 2018

Hobusepea Gallery

08.08-02.09 Kognitiivse keskkonna omastamine on piiratud infotöötluse võimekusega - kontekst on olemas aga detailid alles renderdavad oma täisväärtuslikku kolmedimensionaalset kohalolu. Toimub paralleelsete narratiivide ja keskkondade põimumine. Taustal ristuvad teineteist mõjutavad ajajooned, mida alles analüüsitakse.. Tajutav on sõnatähenduse ja detailsuse hõrendamine ning taasloomine uues keeles, kus kogetav maastik ja selle semiootiline tõlgendus on ühte sulanud. Pigem rõhutatud kontrastid, mille tulemusena harvendab tervik end eelnenud reaalsuse nihkeks. Internetis on null gravitatsiooni.. Suhtluskeeleks on kujundid, kuvandlikud mudelid, mida õnnestunud osadeks lahutamise eritelus on võimalik päriselt kogeda. Olukorra vigade analüüs on jätkuv protsess. Järeleaimamine on seda edukam, mida realistlikumaks muutub maastik meie ümber.. Hakkame kohale jõudma.. ____________________________________________ Absorption of a cognitive environment is limited by information processing - the context exists, but the details are still rendering their fully-fledged three-dimensional presence. The intertwining of parallel environments and narratives is in process. In the background there are intersecting timelines that are still being analyzed.. The perceptible is the depletion and regeneration of details and the implications behind signifiers in a new language, where the experienced landscape and it’s semiotic interpretation have fused into one. Contrasts are emphasized and as a result the whole will eventually thin out itself to a shift in the previously known reality. The Internet has zero gravity.. Communication language consists of shapes and figurative models that are feasible to experience when dispersed successfully. Situational error analysis is an ongoing process. The more realistic the landscape around us will become the more successful becomes the depiction of it. We are almost there..

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THE WITCHES DO NOT PLAY, THE WITCH WILL COME IN / 2018

Everyday Witchcraft / Kogo Gallery 

21 July – 8 September Participating artists: Anna Mari Liivrand, GolfClayderman, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Kristel Saan, Laura Põld Curated by Merilin Talumaa

http://www.arterritory.com/en/texts/reviews/7693-beige_magic/

http://epl.delfi.ee/news/kultuur/igapaeva-noiakunst-ehk-lood-kunstnike-toode-taga?id=83424943

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I ATE EMPTINESS ALSO / 2018

Vaal Gallery

8.06. - 14.07.2018

Kui Jumal jälgib sinu tegevust iga minut ja hoolib sinu igast mõttest ja tundest, siis Data-religioon väidab, et sinu iga sõna ja tegu on vaid osa suurest infovoost, et algorütmid jälgivad sind pidevalt ning et nad kannavad hoolt kõige eest, mida sa teed ja tunned. Dataistid usuvad, et kogemustel, mida pole jagatud, puudub väärtus ning tähendusi me enese seest ei leia. Meie peame üksnes ühenduma suure infovooga ja oma kogemused salvestama - algorütm avastab siis meie jaoks mõtte ja tähendused ning ütleb meile, mida me tegema peame - interpreteerides uut religiooni Yuval Noah Harari "Homo Deusi" kohaselt. 

Selles, väga personaalses faasis oled Sina kõige tähtsam, sest eesmärk on sind koondada lihtsaks ühikuks. Ja veel enam, Dataismi kohaselt on hambahari, valuvaigisti ja inimene, kes neid kasutab, kõik üks aines. Et neid on võimalik erinevate algorütmide tasandil analüüsida ühes valemis. Kui see on nii, siis oleme me väikesed kiibid suures infotöötlus süsteemis. Me oleme nagu bioloogilised juhtmed digitaalses mikrouniversumis. Olles ühendatud suuremasse võrku, moodustame selle iga religiooni niiske unistuse – Ühtsuse. Mida rohkem me jagame, seda rohkem me enda kohta potentsiaalselt teame.. Aga kuidas ma tean, et algorütmi interpretatsioon on tõene, kas ma saan teda usaldada, kas ma saan ennast usaldada.. Kuidas leida endas või elus meie ümber see koht, kus tekib usaldus.?

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If God is watching you every minute, caring about all your thoughts and feelings, then Data Religion now says that your every word and action is part of the great dataflow, that the algorithms are constantly watching you and that they care of everything you do and feel. Dataists believe that the experiences do not have any value unless shared and that we cannot find meaning within ourselves without that valuable help by algorithm. We need only record and connect our experiences to the great dataflow, and the algorithm will discover their meaning and tell us what to do, in theory based on Yuval Noah Hararis “Homo Deus”. In this very personal phase, the most important is You, because the objective is to compress you to one simple unit. Even more so, according to Dataism the toothbrush, the painkiller and a human being using them, are all one substance. That it is possible to analyze the latter mentioned in one formula using different sets of code. If that is so, then us human are just tiny little chips in a vast information processing system. We become biological wires in a row of digital micro-universes. Being then connected to a larger network, we start to resemble the wet dream of every religion – The Oneness, The Unity.. The more we share the bigger is the potential to get to know ourselves. But how can I know that the interpretation of the code is true, can I trust it, can I trust myself.. How to find that place within ourselves and the world around us where the trust can grow..

https://kultuur.postimees.ee/4519220/minapilv-ka-tuhjust-soi

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EKSITAJA (MISGUIDER) / 2017

Dead Man’s Skis / Tartu Art Hall / Vaal Gallery 

“Eksitaja” 2017 Kristel Saan

Minu töö uurib ja tõlgendab Uut Religiooni. Töö tunnistab eksitaja mõju meie igapäeva elus ning uurib avaliku ligipääsuga privaatset hõljuvat keskkonda.

"Mets jääb alati võõraks. Laias laastus jaguneb meie maailm koduringiks ja selleks, mis jääb sealt väljapoole. Kui koduringi kuulub kõik see, milles kehtivad tuttavad reeglid ja käitumistavad, siis sellest väljapoole jääv sisendab ebakindlust just tuttavate strateegiate kohaldumatuse tõttu. Seal on kerge eksida  nii nagu metsas.  Mütoloogilises maailmapildis on mets olnud võõras ja kultuuristatud maailmale vastanduv sfäär, pigem hirmutav kui kodune." Aivar Jürgenson, Eksitaja Meelevallas EL 2010/3

See hunnik juhtmeid selles suspenseeritud keskkonnas ning siis see naturaalne ja päris, mis peaks sinna justkui sobituma. Lihtsam on võrrelda digitaalset reaalsega ja leida vigu viimases, kuna digitaalne on täiuslik. Täiuslik illusioon. Meelepete ideaalsest omandist, jah just sellest samast, mis tegelikult kellelegi ei kuulu. Kaasaja inimene kipub segi ajama, mis on avalik koht ja mis on koht avaliku ligipääsuga. Kas meil ei olegi privaatset kohta? Või peame seda püha paika, mis on ligipääsetav ja Oma kuidagi salaja hiilides otsima. Kas sellised paigad üldse enam eksisteerivad? Privaatsus, mida lubatakse on eksitus..ja eksitajad on kõik meie ümber. Nii pea kui sekkume, siseneme otsingusse, saavad ka meist endist eksitajad. Internet on seni kõige laiahaardelisem ja ulatuslikum järelvalve ja eksitus mehhanism. Aga miks? Sest keegi ei oma internetti nagu päris maad. See ei ole avalik aga ka privaatne ei ole, see on hõljuk, mis paneb meid tundma maaomanikena.. Tegelikult on see rendimaa ja ka viljad tassitakse arbitraalselt laiali. Kunstnik Jonathan Harris pakub välja, et internetist on saamas planetaarne meta-organism, kuid selle evolutsioon ja kujundamine selliseks, et me seda ka edaspidi asustada tahaksime on meie endi teha. Kas Interneti võrdlemine elus organimi või koguni metsaga on otsitud või on see tõesti sobilik metafoor kirjeldamaks lõõgastumis laigukest argipäevast, kuhu saab kaduda ja siis jälle leida tee oma igapäeva. Metsa müsteerium on romantiseeritud nii kui kõigi valikute heakskiit digimaailmas. Kunagi peeti ka internetti selleks argielust puhkamise keskkonnaks. Tänaseks oleme seadnud kahtluse alla isegi puu metsas kukkumise kui keegi ei olnud seda tunnistamas, me ei usu, et see metski seal oli. Metsahaldjatest on saanud kasutajad, juuserid, valvajad, tunnistajad ja jälgijad.. Selleks, et ekistaja sind eksiteele ei meelitaks pead sa olema nutikas orienteeruja. Kuid nagu Aivar Jürgenson oma essees Eksitaja Meelevallas sõnastab tuleb alati arvestada võimalusega, et punktist A punkti B liikudes võidakse valitud sihtkoha asemel kogemata sattuda hoopis teisale ning lisab, et vanarahvas tõlgendas seda kui inimese kokku sattumist ekistajaga. Eesti rahvatraditsioonis võis eksitaja tähendada nii teispoolset, konkreetses vormis kehastunud olendit kui ka mitteisikulist eksitavat jõudu või väge. Eksitajaga seostati kõige enam metsahaldjaid. Nad pidavat juhtima eksiteele neid, kes on üle astunud üldkehtivatest normidest või kellel on metsa või selle asukohaga kurjad kavatsused, kirjutab Jürgenson.

Portaal on avanenud, vaateplatvorm võtab korraga vastu isemoodi tundjaid..Kas sa oled Eksinud? Tahad Privaatseks minna?... ja sealt edasi hunnik juhtmeid, mille sees on elu..Proovi läbi minna, lase eksitada, ole ise eksitaja või ignoreeri, mille sisse sind on juhatatud. Meil on uus religioon, püüame mõista..

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“The exhibition addresses a topic that applies to everyone these days: how to describe the forest to digital rabbits. The selected artists form a network, a rhizome, in which all parts differ substantially: they work using a variety of means of expression, are a variety of ages, and possess antithetical life experiences. Each of them is involved in the forest’s magical aspects, but does so in his or her own way. Almost all the works have been made specially for this exhibition. There exists a whole range of things that go far beyond a single person’s capability or comprehension. There are things that cannot fit into a person’s field of vision: one must back up very far to approach them. Or duck into a rabbit hole and create an extra dimension. Must throw three-dimensional space like a curve ball through the drifts of time. Must untie the mind’s knots. Must step past, outside, and beside oneself. Rhizomic resonance is an entirely suitable instrument for launching an extra dimension. The result is a multimodal exhibition that stimulates synesthesia”.

-Peeter Laurits

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PEOPLE YOU MAY KNOW / 2017

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IDEALISM KUI AJUTINE INVESTEERING / 2016

Idealism as a Temporary Investment / Müürileht

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NEW RELIGION / MY BABY IS FLOATING / 2017

X.Perience / In De Ruimte / Gent Belgium

C U R A T O R nime all tegutsev Genti kunstnik ja kuraator Van Der Borght Bjornus küsitleb käesoleva X.perience näitusega ruumi laiemalt. Uurimuse all on interneti ruum, mis ei ole midagi muud kui hunnik juhtmeid ja kasutajaid; ei midagi müstilist vaid pikendatud hõljuv vahemaa, millele meil kollektiivselt kasutusõigus on. Nagu Jonathan Harris ütleb, on internet planetaarne meta-organism, nii nagu kollektiivnäituski. C U R A T O R uurib, kuidas sellist printsiipi kohaldades ühisnäitusele hakkab või ei hakka ta koosmõjuma vaatajaga. Kas meta-organism saab tekkida ka väljaspool seda planetaarset funktsiooni.

X.perience an exhibition in Space

May 26 – June 4

In De Ruimte

Fransevaart 28, 9050 Gent, België

We've been uploading, downloading, sharing and communicating online and it's time for smth new. X.perience deals with this next step. Yes, it's that time of the year and we're super stoked presenting you a selection of internationally acclaimed and young and upcoming artists from all over Europe and beyond. In essence I research new phenomenon in art which relate to social issues or anything for that matter that suffers from stereotypical views nowadays. We try to free the exhibition from its neo-liberal convention by questioning the core function of the exhibition.Is the exhibition an artwork on itself? Is a changing world having an effect on art?... It seems more likely that the art world is not so much made out of exhibitions in a conventional sense seen but tends to transgress toward smth bigger, smth more profound. Therefore the characteristics of an exhibition can be revisited in a way that not only serves the function of portraying artworks but also offers a view as an overall context which in itself plays a role more fitting within todays transcending mindset. Experience a new exhibition that deliberately is dealing with an open idiosyncratic. But on the inside, the origins lay connected toward social tendencies of today. Neo Liberalism and its pseudo competitive ideology are being re-contemplated as we speak by more and more people and therefore the artist as well. People start detaching from mass consumption and start questioning conventions from their immediate/global surrounding. Conventions within society on the one hand but on the other hand within art are being consciously used, reworked and analyzed and serve as base coats for their oeuvre. This exhibition offers a metaphysical view and most artists will be there to talk about their work. Come and see how different internationally acclaimed artists selected, explore new worlds stimulated by a not so impossible utopia driven by technology, ecology, software but more so offering a view on our search to contemplate and capture our future in time and space.

คгtเรtร

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Emiliano Aversa, Aurelie Bayad, Charlotte Beaudry, Fabian Bredt, Pierre Clement, Go Che, Boris De Beijer, Heleen DC, Alexis De Vos, Olga Fedorova, Sam Gunst, Anton Hewitt, Bex Ilsley, Matthijs Kimpe, Laura Lemaitre, Martijn Petrus, Denie Put, Kristel Saan, Rashid Uri, Elisabeth Van Dam, Van der Borght Bjornus, Daniel Van Straalen,Vyvy Zwevenepoel

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ORGANICALLY GROWN / 2016

Artishok Biennale / NO99 Theatre / Tallinn Estonia

This multidimensional work is taking the spectator to a journey into the subconsciousness. Guided by the narrator and organically growing with the audience. The work is questioning the gravity and levity in space, in the space where dreams may become facts and fixed is melting back in to the commencement. Organically grown is a performative piece where the artist is questioning the possibilities in being nothing in the space or in contrary, becoming everything in the weightless dance of firm presence.

http://artishokbiennale.org/AB16/teosed/kristel-saan-orgaaniliselt-kasvanud/

Photos Paul Kuimet

Camera Assistant Evelin Saul

Costume Design Katja Adrikova

Media http://artishokbiennale.org/AB16/meedia/

http://sirp.ee/s1-artiklid/c6-kunst/art-is-hock/

http://sirp.ee/s1-artiklid/c6-kunst/uhke-ja-hubane-artishok/

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Artishok Biennale 2016 Tallinn Estonia

Video Piibe Kolka

Costume Katja Adrikova

http://artishokbiennale.org/AB16/teosed/kristel-saan-orgaaniliselt-kasvanud/

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MY BABY IS FLOATING / 2016

An Honest Mimic / FIELD Contemporary / Vancouver Canada

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An Honest Mimic Rachael Archibald, David Bayus, Pieter Jossa, Sara Ludy, Kristel Saan, Hagihara Takuya Co-Curated by Shauna Jean Doherty July 15th — September 3rd, 2016 Opening Thursday, July 14th. 7:00 — 10:00PM Field Contemporary 17 West Broadway Visual simulations of human selfhood populate the online world. They conjure an anxiety brought upon by the unsettling yet subtle otherness characteristic of digital replications. The imperative to translate identity online hinges on a deep disjuncture between the realness of the organic world and the constructedness of the virtual. This unresolvable tension fuels the insatiable impulse to perform and present one’s self – digitally. The alchemical otherness manifest in the digital replica applies to the hardware and software of new technologies themselves. Digital objects possess their own unsettling animism – they communicate, reproduce, and die. The intriguing aliveness of the very instruments used to represent the physical self contributes to a dynamic spectrum of vitality that oscillates between humans and machines. This is the paradigm through which artists navigate the productive dualities of the organic and synthetic, the real and virtual. For many the virtual is indeed an escape from the real, a haven that has become less accessible as the two domains collapse in on each other. This is the phenomenon developed within this exhibition, that of the “digital uncanny” - the elusive border between the real of a human and the virtual of their avatar. A space initially described by Sigmund Freud psychoanalytically as “the boundary between fantasy and reality when a symbol takes on the full function and significance of what it symbolizes…”. The dividing line between the facsimile and its original has all but lost its significance in a world which favours the symbolic over the real. This realm of the hyperreal has produced a new sort of portraiture, which personifies the inanimate and is inhabited by digital imposters.

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I HAD IT IN ONE POINT IN YOUR LIFE / 2016

Idealists / Tallinn Art Hall / Tallinn Estonia