27. I–15. IV 2012

The Great Hall at Kumu Art Museum.

 

26.IV–3.VI 2012

Новый музей.

 

How do you relate to society as an artist? Are you, like all of us here in this space, a small part of a large comprehensive system, or do artists have a privilege/responsibility/freedom to be an observer, an analyst outside of the system?

Well, a little bit of both. I think that the positive aim of all of culture, not just art, should be the separation and differentiation (rather than joining) of us all––artists as well as public––so we can stand alone to face important questions. It is the awareness of existential solitude that makes a man of the boy; the army doesn’t do this, as people repeatedly said when I was young. At the same time, we are inevitably “within” a system, as we live on the same planet and are exceptionally similar.

 

You say that art has made you work properly. Hearing this, someone who doesn’t know you might sigh with relief in a Tammsaare-like manner—finally a strong young man has come to his senses and taken the spade in his hand. What does work mean to you?

It is a conscious purposeful activity. Ideally, it embraces one’s entire life and that way loses conventional boundaries between work and free time, work and rest, work and hobbies, and so on. In other words, it virtually loses everything negative that is usually attributed to work but maintains and adds the positive.

 

I have a feeling that many of our art people tend to be leftist in their political convictions, being rather critical of the current social model in Estonia. Once in North Korea (the left-most country in the world?) we visited local artists. They worked in a big factory-like institution and seemed to be better sheltered and fed than the rest of the population. The government was certainly taking care of them because the market as such barely existed there. Does that sound tempting?

Not really. I try to remember all kinds of systems are comprised of people, and that all the bad and the good starts from each individual and not the system itself. It is necessary to be constructively critical all the time, of systems as well as everything else on offer, but above all, of ourselves. It is necessary to try to evolve and behave without denying our strong and weak sides––especially the latter. By recognising our screaming imperfections we should probably become substantially more tolerant towards our equally imperfect fellow citizens. In this context neither the leftists nor the rightists alone are capable of solving the problem. At best, they can help maintain a constructive discussion, but at worst they may bring on the likelihood of a violent finale. It depends on the level of those discussing. In short, I believe that a better new world will be born when the best positive output is found for the human limitations that are inherent in all of us. So far the most widespread solutions that send redundant citizens to prison or shopping are no longer sustainable.

 

Very often making art and business are referred to as opposites––creative versus pragmatic, bohemian versus organised, and so on. I know a young Estonian artist who drives a Mercedes Benz that he paid for himself; many artists are more punctual than me (for example you). Maybe being a freelance artist is actually about being an entrepreneur?

This is certainly true. Everything is business. And, if we exaggerate just a little bit, everything is also art. For example, even supply and demand are not just business terms. Do not do unto others what you wouldn’t want others to do unto you––this, to a great extent, speaks of the same thing but from an ethical point of view. At least in my opinion. Ethics is one of the cornerstones of our lives, and at the same time, one of the goals in the area of human activity. Business is not just about money, sport is not just about muscles and painting is not just about solving the problems of colour beautifully. Above all, those and many other areas should polish us into becoming thinking responsible people and in that responsibility game we are all relatively equal. The businessman and the customer, the artist and the viewer––no one has more than one life.

I want to say that in my opinion every area of life contains all of the most important components of other areas, simply the structure and order are different. Moreover, the absence of something may be just as striking and productive as its presence. Sometimes it is even more real and decisive. For me this further reduces the fundamental discrepancies between different areas. In trying to behave reasonably in whatever area, we inevitably have to be aware of the whole and not concentrate only on the most striking and evident. The most striking is often not the most essential, or at least will not necessarily yield the best results.

Therefore, yes, art and business have a lot in common. Another question is how to use that.

 

In business there are such terms as the market, customer, product, price, quality, guarantee, marketing, PR etc. How often do you as an economically independent artist think about such things?

Here, too, I have to answer that above all, I try to think about human beings––about myself and all those who look at my pictures or who buy them. I think about others, above all, as human beings, not as businessmen, plumbers, women, teenagers, foolish or wise. I believe that most of all we learn best through role models and through my life and work I try to provide an example to others. Actually, I am inevitably doing that already. By “example” or “role model”, I do not mean some extrovert or extra polished “Potemkinism”, where in order to follow more serious people one has to bend over backwards, but the inevitable fifty-fifty version where the good and the bad fight out their endless duel.

All the things you listed there are useful, I wouldn’t like to be ironic about them in the least, even though according to the division of roles it’s possible, and maybe even necessary. Trouble arises when they are pursued as things in themselves, apart from the whole and keeping mostly profit in mind without bothering to think much about ethics. No instrument can guarantee good or bad music, it is only the musician who is responsible for that. I do not see a fundamental difference between artist and businessman––one is not better than the other and both have a chance to be successful or harmful.

 

If for some reason you could no longer be an artist, what would you do instead?

Indeed, it would be a good test to see if what I have done so far is actually of any use. Because if you have reached a sufficiently comprehensive understanding, it should not make too much difference what area you are active in.

I really do believe that all the essentials are potentially inherent in every approach to life, and therefore, art is not separate from the rest of the world, not even by a vague line––everything is a rather united whole. Opportunities for thinking and acting according to one’s convictions can be found everywhere, just as you can make art as if it is a dull obligation or a habit, like the habit of smoking.

 

Do the topics you use in art come to you by themselves or do you search for them, invent them?

I invent them.

 

How did the topic of your last exhibition come about?

If you have been active for long enough the steps already taken largely determine those that follow, at least in my case. Sometimes I like to continue something that I have done before; sometimes I like to contradict it. In this case it is the latter. I mean that I wanted to do things I have not been able to do for a long time. Besides, I always take into account a specific space; it has an inspiring effect in a positive sense.

With new work, I usually start with questions of form, since the substance has always been essentially the same. Let’s put it like this: I always try to make contemporary art. Even though these two words may sound very general for some people, for me they answer all the important problems and choices facing an artist. The inevitable presence in the here and now hand in hand with buoyant action.

 

Let us talk about culture in broader terms. Estonian culture. I have the feeling that if we take the five pillars of contemporary culture (literature, theatre, cinema, music, visual arts), the latter two have a certain advantage over the first three. The advantage lies in language. Art and music do not need language, they do not need to be translated, which immediately simplifies the export of those art forms (if this should be important) and expands the potential audience. If I look at your last exhibition, which I liked very much, I have the feeling that it is not art from Estonia but from the world––it deals with the issues of the world in the language of the world (just like the music of Arvo Pärt and Erkki-Sven Tüür). And this leads me to my next question: what is Estonian culture that we so desperately need to keep and preserve according to the constitution of our republic? Is this an important question at all?

Not for me. Nationality is one of the great ideas trying to pack masses of people together according to some common denominator, and very often by “explaining” certain things in advance this tends to overshadow a person’s responsibility and individuality. As I mentioned before, in order to evolve, a person should feel alone and only after going through the gauntlet of solitude will one be ripe to become a member of any collective (nationality, company, team, partnership, family). I believe that most of us have not done this or valued it enough, and that is why such collectives very easily become strange or even dangerous monsters.

The earth is small enough, and so we can actually only speak about the matters of the world. A different language or culture is often a less significant separator than a disagreeable character. For me the question is reduced to whether we want to get along with each other and how much each of us is ready to make an effort to achieve that––each individual with the other individuals that life brings along. We should have a very critical mind in situations where communication occurs between different collectives or where one uses the word “us” or “them”.

 

If you had 10 000 extra euros per year that you would like to contribute to the art sector, what would you do with it?

It depends on the situation; there are several good options. I believe that supporting or creating an alternative art institution with strong professional potential always makes sense. Large or existing systems always have a tendency to conform, and eventually get trapped somewhere in the middle. That is why it is necessary to constantly make sure that the fresh and the critical keep emerging. Or maybe, for example, a private grant for newcomers. Probably this is where I would put my 10 000 hypothetical euros.

 

Armin Kõomägi is a businessman, writer, art collector, film and art patron who lives and works in Tallinn.

CV

Kaido Ole, freelance painter, born 1963, Tallinn. 1982–1992 studied at the Estonian Academy of Arts (design, painting) and has worked there as a lecturer. In collaboration with Marko Mäetamm he represented Estonia at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. In 1998, he received the annual Kristjan Raud prize; in 1999 and 2004, he was awarded the annual Estonian Cultural Endowment prize. At 2012: 10 solo exhibitions, 9 duo shows, 37 exhibitions abroad, 40 exhibitions at homeland, 3,3 films, 2 books, 18 years of being a teacher at the Estonian Academy of Arts, 2,5 years of being a freelance artist.