Avangard gallery explores people and technology through Estonian graphics

Pärnu’s Avangard gallery has opened “Dialogue with the Machine,” an exhibition of Estonian graphic art from the 1960s to the 1980s that examines the relationship between people and the technological world, ERR reported.

The exhibition presents the machine not only as an inanimate technical object, but also as a symbol through which artists reflect on contemporary society, cities, industry, scientific progress and humanity’s place in a rapidly changing world.

According to curator Marian Grau, Estonian graphics from the period stand out for their exceptional technical skill and ideological diversity. Geometric forms, architecture, mechanisms, electronics, systems of signs and visual experiments are combined with philosophical questions.

“In some works, the almost heroically depicted machine embodies progress and belief in the future. In others, it becomes a mirror of humanity or a symbol of alienation,” Grau said. She added that contemporary audiences inevitably view the works in a new light.

In the 1960s, the artificial world primarily represented industry, automation and technological development. Today, it is increasingly associated with algorithms, digital systems and artificial intelligence. The exhibition therefore creates a dialogue not only between people and machines, but also between two eras: past visions of the future and present-day reality.

Art historian Harry Liivrand, who spoke at the opening, said that machines had been an important source of inspiration for avant-garde artists since the first quarter of the 20th century.

“This exhibition also shows especially well how the machine was understood in the avant-garde art of Soviet Estonia, and from very different perspectives. On one hand, we see a generalised pop art landscape in the work of Illimar Paul; on the other, Lapin’s series of machines,” Liivrand said.

He said the exhibition demonstrated the possibility of creating highly modern art during the Soviet period, which censorship in Moscow did not permit, but which was possible in Estonia as a small Soviet republic. Estonian art was at an international level at the time, he added.

The participating artists are Vello Vinn, Peeter Ulas, Leonhard Lapin, Evald Okas, Illimar Paul, Olev Soans, Allex Kütt, Renaldo Veeber, Evi Tihemets and Epp Marguste. The exhibition is curated by Marian Grau and Jan Leo Grau.

The exhibition will remain open until August 31.