Tõnis Jürgens chosen as first artist in MMCA Art Hall programme
Tuesday 22nd September 2026 on 11:45 in
Estonia
Estonian artist Tõnis Jürgens will take part this autumn in the Changdong residency of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Korea, or MMCA, in Seoul, ERR reported. He is the first artist selected for the residency programme created through cooperation between MMCA and Tallinn Art Hall.
The shortlist was drawn up by artist and former MMCA resident Mari-Leen Kiipli and Tallinn Art Hall curators Andrew Cummings and Siim Preiman. MMCA made the final selection.
“I am happy and grateful that the MMCA committee selected me. I hope to use the time in the residency to complete several unfinished projects, get to know the local nature and learn to tell stories in the way they are told in Korean films,” Jürgens said.
Heejung Park, head of the MMCA Changdong residency, said Jürgens stood out for the clarity and depth of his artistic research into sleep monitoring, surveillance capitalism and moving-image installations.
Park said Jürgens had a clear plan for the residency: to further develop both his doctoral work and artistic practice, and to engage with Seoul’s contemporary art, film and sound communities.
Jürgens will stay in Seoul from September 30 to December 9.
Jürgens is an artist, writer and cinema projectionist. He works mainly with film, essays and spatial installations, exploring the limits of datafication. In recent years, his practice has focused on the relationship between the measurability and immeasurability of sleep and everyday life.
He received the Eduard Wiiralt Scholarship in 2022 and the Cosmopolis Prix at the Objectif Vidéo Nice art festival in 2024. This year, he was a resident artist at the WIELS contemporary art centre in Brussels. Jürgens is a doctoral student and visiting lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
Under the MMCA and Tallinn Art Hall cooperation programme, a South Korean artist will come to Tallinn Art Hall’s residency in summer 2027. The artist’s name and further details will be announced later.