New gallery brings Estonian and Ukrainian artists together in Kolkja

ERR reports that a new home gallery called KolkjART has opened in Kolkja village in the Peipsi region, with an opening exhibition bringing together 12 Ukrainian and 12 Estonian artists.

The exhibition, titled “Mycelium”, takes its name from the network of fungal threads that connects a forest. Gallery founder Viktoria Berezina, an artist from Ukraine, said she created the space as a place for people to escape noise, stress and war and find balance through nature and art.

“The main message is that this is a living structure that connects the entire forest. It is living communication,” Berezina said. “Despite terrible circumstances and the fact that we are scattered around the world, art continues to connect us.”

Ukrainian artist Anastasiia Tereshchenko, who currently lives in Sweden, transformed an abandoned well in the gallery garden into a mirror installation. She said wells are usually symbols of ancient depth and inner searching, but she wanted to reflect the surface and convey the present moment.

Artist Konstantin Tereshchenko created a large mural on the gallery’s exterior wall, depicting memories of his native Kherson region in Ukraine. The work shows a desert, a favourite place surrounded by forest, and a campfire as a symbol of life. The firewood is arranged in the shape of the Cyrillic letter Ж, the first letter of the Russian word for “life”.

The joint exhibition by Estonian and Ukrainian artists, along with pastries baked by Berezina’s mother, will be open to visitors in Kolkja until the end of September.