Shaping the Unclaimed

Shaping the Unclaimed is an international urban space exhibition that takes place in six locations around the Kaubamaja department store’s intersection. In an urban environment saturated with an overwhelming amount of stimuli, the project seeks ways in which art can offer moments of relief and open new perspectives on what we see and experience daily.

This urban landscape is a visually and historically charged area where layers of different eras as well as important landmarks of Tallinn meet. Kaubamaja department store and Viru Centre – two symbols of commercial architecture from different eras. A new skyscraper being built on the site of the former Estonian Academy of Arts. The polemic statue Dusk located on the terrace of the Viru Centre. A constant flow of people, both underground and on the ground. You are standing in a monumental environment – not just in terms of scale, but also in terms of meaning and visual intensity.

The site-specific works intervene with the urban space on multiple levels, turning up both on the usual walking paths as well as in places that tend to be often overlooked. The selection of artists is similarly diverse. All the artworks have been created specifically for the Kaubamaja intersection, and the artists from different generations and nationalities endow the exhibition with their unique perspectives and ways of relating to the space.

Elo Vahtrik examines power structures and ways of social functioning through kitsch and irony. Mare Tralla introduces a queer-feminist perspective and focuses on social issues as well as questions related to identity. Sigrid Viir tackles the established norms and assumptions of human life, analysing them through humour and the absurd. Eva Stenram examines ways bodies are represented and concealed by digitally manipulating historical erotic photographs. Giovanna Petrocchi creates landscapes that combine futuristic and primitive worlds, as well as history and fiction. Mia Dudek focuses on the relationship between bodies and architecture, drawing inspiration from the large-panel-system architecture of Eastern Europe.

The exhibition approaches photography across disciplines – all artworks are based in photography, yet their modes of expression range from installations and digital collages to sculptural objects. We invite you to explore how photography can operate not only as a visual image but as a sculptural element that shapes space and intervenes in our experience of it.