On Sunday, June 2, the Narva Art Residency invites you to celebrate a traditional art party called “Artist’s Day” at the Kreenholm manufactory. The tradition began in the mid-1980s and has continued under the leadership of the Narva Museum for decades. Recently, the Museum of Modern Art in New York wrote an article about the international informal art seminar that took place in 1988 during art festival with hundreds of participants. A lot of avant-garde experimental performance art was exhibited, marking a pivotal moment in the development of improvisational performance, installation, and public art across the Soviet Union. In 2024, however, the art festival will move to the territory of the Kreenholm manufactory and will take place in cooperation with the Narva Art Residency NART and the Vestervalli Artists’ Association.
Kreenholm Manufactory will have a varied program consisting of pop-up exhibitions, installations, workshops, art tours and music.
The TASE satellite exhibition will come to Kreenholm, featuring the works of EKA students supervised by Brita Benno. Tanja Muravskaja’s work “The Vernacular” will find a new home in the Joala factory – the installation filled with Kreenholm’s words will be opened as part of the “Artists’ Day”.
A workshop on sculptures that can be made from car tires will be held by NART’s Zimbabwean art resident, and the Estonian-US artist duo will offer the opportunity to visit camera obscura. Visitors can see Elo Liiv’s installation of Kreenholm patterns as well as the works of Leonardo Meigas, Margus Kontus and Raoul Kurvitz that were brought to the factory as part of the “Stalker” movie-inspired project “Zone”, run by Indrek Leht.
The Vestervalli Artists’ Association offers several workshops. For example, Natalja Kapajeva, who has worked as an artist in Kreenholm for many years, will pass on her knowledge of dyeing textiles with plants and flowers. Different performances will happen during the day. Olga Tjurina, Anne Pärtel and Vera Lantsova will exhibit their art installations. The exact program will be revealed soon.
The art festival is approaching its 40th anniversary, and amidst the tense life of a border town, the work of artists deserves special attention. The premises of the Kreenholm manufactory offer plenty of space, freedom and a non-conformist environment for that. On the 2nd of June, the gates of Kreenholm will open at 13:00. The programme starts at 14:00 and will continue until 19:00. The Artist’s Day will take place as part of Narva City Days.
