PRESS RELEASE

KAJA KANN will open her personal exhibitions Ups and Downs in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Tuesday on February 21st, 2017.

Kann's work in progress commented by Madis Kolk:
„The artist herself states that for her it is the working process that counts the most – during which she thoroughly studies her subject, pours herself out and finally backs away from her work. Creating tapestries started from anger; videos were triggered from fear; and soap excited her.
What is rising and what is falling?
Where is the sky and where is the earth?
Are these creatures from this world or the otherwordly ones; do they portray anything or are they created? And by whom?
Something has fallen out from the soap – whether it is birth or death the artist would not say.
I believe that she doesn't know. No one knows, including myself.

All this tells about nature, love and being active; however, the state of activity here seems to be on the verge of dreaming and being awake.
The creatures are both here and there, both earlier and later.
It seemes that in the beginning there was an image of a man, followed by visualization that made the hand look distortedly long or did not complete the head. The will of movement is always directed either upwards or downwards, on a vertical axis, it either creates or destroys.
It is simultaneously the ebb and the flow; the important aspect here is the dynamic motion of the creature moving between the two. Whether something will rise or fall depends on the creature – through the act of giving up it either lowers its weight or overburdens itself.
Perhaps thanks to the fact that Kaja Kann is a performance artist for whom body and movement are essential working tools she has managed to apply lots of dynamics in her static pieces. Kann is looking for the answers about the place that would include true dynamism and powerful performativity – whether this lies in the hectic fragments of the top floor and in the perception of aloofness carried to the urban space by a curious flaneur or in the ground floor that is hidden from daylight and yearns for eternity. Does a conservative stumble downwards or from the underworld towards eternity? And will one be a conservative then after all?”

Kaja Kann was born in Vändra, in the family of five children. After graduating from secondary school in Tallinn Kann went to study in the department of food preservation and technology in Räpina School of Horticulture. She is currently studying philosophy in Tallinn University. Kann has performed in Võru, Iisaku, Pala, island of Vormsi, Narva, Utrecht, Zagreb, Hamburg, Berlin, Riga, Helsinki, Stockholm, Malmö, San Diego, New York City and elsewhere. Kaja Kann is an internationally acknowledged self-taught artist whose style is frank, often too monochrome yet sharp. Her performance has been compared to the act of playing: Kann seems to play circus; she plays music; she pretends she dances or writes a book or makes art. She says that if her work is play then it is a damn serious play – a matter of life and death.                                                                   

Exhibition will be open until March 11, 2017.

Exhibition team: Kalle Tikas, Madis Kolk, Maike Lond Malmborg, Ly Terasmees, Pavo Kann, Merike Lond.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Pardimäe Lokaal.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.