PRESS RELEASE

LIINA SIIB's (1963) personal exhibition Sylt without Ulrike will be opened in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on August 24, 2011.

Sylt is the largest island of the North Sea in Germany, being among the most popular destinations of domestic tourism. Since the beginning of 20th century, the island of Sylt has been characterized by the keywords such as eminence and  wealth. Also, numerous intellectuals have been spending their summer vacations here, including writers Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig and Hans Fallada; artists Käthe Kollwitz, Max Liebermann and Emil Nolde; film stars Brigitte Bardot and Romy Schneider; composer Richard Wagner and German ex-chancellor Willy Brandt. Roman Polanski's „The Ghost Writer“ has been filmed at the dunes of the island.

The flawless facade of the popular resort among the eminent crowd of the last century started to crack during the Second World War - Rudolf Franz Ferdinand  Höß, chief and founder of Auschwitz concentration camp, came to the island in order to escape the  Nurenberg Trial. Yet, perhaps the most controversial person spending her summer vacation in Sylt after the war was Ulrike Marie Meinhof (1934-1976), former journalist and editor of the magazine „konkret“ and co-founder of New Left Movement terrorism organization RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion, also known as Baader-Meinhof group).

Current exhibition project presents Liina Siib's documentation of the daily life of the resort island – the place that corresponds to the requirements of welfare society. The artist is studying Meinhof's references about the former German society and values, while bringing together images of film and photography about the atmosphere of welfare and leisure. Siib's choices have been based on the parallels to Meinhof's columns about West Germany in 1960s. According to RAF, Western society has lost its understanding about the positions of the repressed and the exploited; all they can dream about is a car, a tiled bathroom and going on a vacation. At the present exhibition, Liina Siib is concentrating on the dream about vacation. What is the difference between work and vacation? Is there any difference at all when we motorically perform the same movements during our summer vacation and when being at work?

Exhibition will be open until September 5, 2011.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Thanks to: Stiftung kunst:raum sylt quelle, Indra Wussow, Giedre Bartelt, Tiit Rammul, Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia.

LIINA SIIB

Born in 1963 in Tallinn, Estonia

EDUCATION

2002  MA Photographic Studies, University of Westminster, London (in exchange)
2001–2003 MA Photographic Studies, Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, MA
1998  ArtsLink Fellowship program, The Friends of Photography/Anselm Adams Center, San Francisco, USA
1995  America-bound II Exchange artist, The Lower East Side Printshop, New York, USA
1983–1989  Estonian Academy of Arts, graphic fine art

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTED)

2011 A Woman Takes Little Space. 54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
2010  Gimme Danger. Tallinn City Gallery, Estonia
2009  The Man In The Back Seat. Tallinn City Gallery, Estonia
2009  A Woman Takes Little Space. Hobusepea Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia
2008  Happy Hunting Grounds. Hop Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia
2008  Apartness. Giedre Bartelt Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2008  Shift & Marlowe Path. Endla Theatre, Pärnu, Estonia
2006  Lla Ri Lli Ra. Hobusepea Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia
2006  Eye Strip. Giedre Bartelt Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2005  Marlowe. Tallinn City Gallery, Estonia
2005  Dexiosis. Tartu Art Museum, Estonia
2004  Movie Posters. The Scotland House, Brussels, Belgium
2003  Stepdesires. Rotermann Salt Storage Arts Centre, Tallinn, Estonia
2002  Le Carceri. Les Boreales Festival. Centre d’Art Contemporain, Herouville St. Clair, France
2002  Klips! Gallery of the Hansabank, Tallinn, Estonia
2001  Phantastische Bibliothek, Wetzlar, Germany
2000  Children’s Album Part 2. Tallinn City Gallery, Estonia
2000  Children’s Album Part 1. Gallery of Tartu Childrens’ Art School, Tartu, Estonia
1999  Hypnosis. Gallery G, Helsinki, Finland
1998  Seance. Haapsalu Town Gallery, Haapsalu, Estonia
1998  Pastoral. Rakvere Gallery, Rakvere, Estonia
1997  Hospitality. Kivisilla Gallery, Tartu Art Museum, Tartu, Estonia
1997  Three Statements on Innocence. Estonian Embassy, Riga, Latvia
1997  Presumed Innocence. Gallery of the Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, Estonia
1997  Mr. Horton and His Cigar. Galerie am Brauhaus, Hettstedt, Germany
1996  Exit. Matinpalo Museum, Nastola, Finland
1995  Cage. Gallery Draakon, Tallinn, Estonia
1992  Talking. Being Silent. Gallery Draakon, Tallinn, Estonia

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTED)

2011  Mazzano! Amos Anderson Museum, Helsinki, Finland
2010  Kunst macht frei. Contemporary Estonian art. Modern Hungarian Gallery, Pécs, Hungary
2010  Revenge. Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, Estonia
2010  FWD: Drawing On Paper. Galleri SE Konst, Falun, Sweden
2010  Take Care. Amos Anderson Museum, Helsinki, Finland
2009  Sounding Door. Culture Capital Vilnius 2009 project. Vilnius Music Academy, Lithuania
2009  Videomusic. Days of Estonian Music, Cinema Sõprus, Tallinn, Estonia
2009  Film in Dalarna. Filmstation project. Dalarna, Sweden
2009  Video art programme for public locations. Kultur i länet, Uppsala, Sweden
2009  Untitled #4. A Look At New Art in Estonia and Lithuania. www.saisonvideo.com                
          École Régionale Supérieure D’Expression Plastique, Tourcoing, France
2009  Life 69. Rakvere Exhibition House, Rakvere, Estonia
2008  Restaging the Past / Dialogue Baltic-Balkans. Szczecin Museum of Contemporary art, Poland
2008  I See You Looking At Me. Evald Okas Museum, Haapsalu, Estonia
2008  Obscurum per obscurius. Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, Estonia
2008  Plaisirs de L’Imagination. Estonian contemporary art. Chateau de Tours, Tours, France
2008  Home Bound. kunst:raum sylt quelle, Sylt, Germany
2008  The Border State. Estonian art. Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, China
2008  Baltic Pop. Giedre Bartelt Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2007  Transparent Generation. Vaal-Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia
2007  Les Instants Vidéo. Galerie SoiXante AdaDa, St Denis; Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, France
2007  Continuous Past. Signs of Soviet era in recent Estonian art. Kumu Art  Museum, Tallinn, Estonia
2006–2007  Rencontres Paris-Berlin-Madrid. Cinema D’Enterpot, Paris, France.
          Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain. Cinema Babylon, Berlin, Germany
2007  2 Moscow Biennale. Monuments of Our Discontent: Expiration of Place. Special project, Winzavod, Moscow, Russia
2007  Sex Market. Tallinn Art Hall, Estonia
2006  Between ECO & EGO. Kawaguchi Art Factory, Kawaguchi City, Japan
2006  Flowers of Evil. Gallery Draakon, Tallinn, Estonia
2006  Collected Crises.Estonian Art in the 1990s. Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia
2006  ART’FAB. Women of Europe Summer 2006, Salle Jean Despas, St Tropez, France
2006  Wake Up! Rauma Biennial, Rauma Art Museum, Finland
2006  Time in Mazzano 3. Forum Box, Helsinki, Finland
2006  Off to Nida! Meno parkas galerii, Kaunas; Meno nisha galerii, Vilnius; both Lithuania
2005  Tallinn-Munich. Aktionsforum, Praterinsel, Munich, Germany
2005  XIII Cerveira Biennial, Portugal, outdoor project
2005  Das Land und das Ich. Baltic photoart. Ausstellungshalle, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2005  100 and Mushrooms. Art Salon. Central House of Art, Moscow, Russia
2004  Home, Sweet Home. Rotermann Salt Storage Arts Centre, Tallinn, Estonia
2004  Instant Europe. Villa Manin Centre for Contemporary Art, Codroipo, Italy
2004  As White as Snow, as Red as Blood. Giedre Bartelt Gallery, Berlin
2004  Country Market, Global Market. Kaunas Photo Festival, Kaunas, Lithuania
2004  Similar Spaces. Recent Estonian Photography. Upper Waiting Hall, Houses of
          Parliament, London, UK; European Commission, Brussels, Belgium
2004  [3D] Discourse, Diversity, Dimension. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
2003/2004  (un)dressed Körper in Baltic photoart. Vol 2, Estonia. Giedre Bartelt  Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2003  Open 2003 Arte & Cinema. International exhibition of sculptures and  installation, Blue Moon, Lido, Venice, Italy
2003  Estonia. Cinema: This Is a Lie. Technopolis, Athens, Greece
2003  MA-MA, MA-MA. MA Photographic Studies Estonian Academy of Arts. Gallery of the Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn
2003  Estonian Art after WW II. The Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn
2003  Childhood. Child in Estonian art. Tartu Art Museum, Estonia
2002  Kapital! The Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn
2002  Drive: MA Photographic Studies University of Westminster. Loading Bay and Shop 7, London, UK
2002  Collected Contemporaries. Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
2002  Closing the Distance: Images of the Body in Contemporary Art from Estonia. ‘Laznia’ Center for Contemporary Art, Gdansk, Poland
2001  Ljubljana 24th International Biennial of Graphic Arts, Slovenia
2001  Living on the Future. Braga Photofestival. Antigo Tribunal, Braga, Portugal
2000  Artists from Estonia. Grosse Kunstausstellung NRW Düsseldorf, Messe Dusseldorf, Germany
2000  Parallel: Baltic, Nordic and Russian Contemporary Photography. Finnish    
          Photography Museum, Helsinki, Finland
2000  Estonian Photography from the 1960s to the present. House of Hungarian
          Photographers (Mai Manó Gallery), Budapest, Hungary
2000  The Spirit of Image. Jiangsu Provincial Art Gallery, Nanjing, China
2000  AIDS in Culture. Loss of Immunity in Art. Rotermann Salt Storage Arts Centre, Tallinn, Estonia
1999–2000  After the Wall. Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Ludwig Museum
          Budapest, Hungary; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany
1999  In the Memory of 20th Century Artist. The Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn
1999  Without the Wall. Eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall. Photography and
          video art. Marble Palace, St Petersburg, Russia
1999  Passagen. Art from Estonia. ifa-Gallery, Berlin, Germany
1998–1999  Private Views. Space re/cognised in contemporary art from Estonia
          and Britain. Rotermann Salt Storage, Tallinn, Estonia; Institute of Contemporary Art, Dunaujvaros, Hungary
1998  Album. West Chelsea Art Building, New York, USA
1998  Divided Territories. Vilnius Contemporary Art Centre, Lithuania
1998  Freedom of Choice. Estonian Art in 90ies. Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, Estonia
1997  Crossing Over/Changing Places. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
1997  Interstanding 2. The 5th annual exhibition of the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts; Tallinn, Estonia
1997  Biennale of Young Artists, Rijeka, Croatia
1997  Eesti-Itsee. 5 Estonian photo-based artists. Centre of Photography Peri, Turku, Finland
1997  Persona. People of 90ies. Rotermann Salt Storage, Tallinn, Estonia
1996  Estonia as a Sign. The 4th annual exhibition of the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts; Tallinn, Estonia
1996  Talking Things. Exhibition of still-lifes. The Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn
1995  Biotopia. The 3th annual exhibition of the Soros Center for  Contemporary Arts; Tallinn, Estonia

PRIZES

2007  Grand prix of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia
2003  Kristjan Raud annual art award, Estonia
1998  UNDP Art Award, Estonia
1997  Annual prize of Cultural Endowment, Estonia
1996  Estonia as a Sign, the 4th annual exhibition of the Soros Center for
          Contemporary Arts, Estonia – honorary mention

GRANTS

2008  Art residency at kunst:raum sylt quelle. Sylt, Germany
2005  Väinö Tanner Foundation grant for Mazzano Romano artist’s guest studio, Italy
2005  Annual stipend of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia
2004  Off to Nida! International photographic art workshop, Thomas Mann House, Nida, Lithuania
1998  ArtsLink Fellowship, The Friends of Photography/Anselm Adams Center, San Francisco, USA
1997  Annual stipend of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia
1995  The Crossing Over Consortium, USA, grant for the America Bound II – Exchange artist

WORKS IN COLLECTIONS

The Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn 
Tartu Art Museum, Estonia
Sadolin, Tallinn, Estonia
Hansabank, Tallinn, Estonia
Kalevala OY art collection, Oulu, Finland
Rauma City, Finland
Neues Museum für Kunst und Design, Nürnberg, Germany
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

CATALOGUE

eye strip Liina Siib. Liina Siib 2006
A Woman Takes Little Space by Liina Siib. KKEK / CCA, Estonia 2011