The exhibition, which will be opened at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design on 25 March, focuses on the museum’s rya collection – more than 60 rya rugs from ten Estonian textile artists are displayed in full glory in the ground floor exhibition space at ETDM.

“Rya rugs are an integral part of Nordic identity,” says Kai Lobjakas, one of the curators of the exhibition. “The focus of the exhibition is on carpets made in the 1960s, which form the largest part of the museum’s rya collection. 

Ryas play an exciting part in the development of Estonian textile art, which today is open to various interpretations, but are in their timelessness also worth rediscovering as carriers of modernist design language in Estonian applied art and design.”

Rya as a phenomenon is regaining attention and is popular among designers following the principles of the circular economy in the creation of both fashion and interior design products as an easy to implement technique that facilitates DIY and reuse.

Rya became known as an artistic expression in Estonia in the 1930s, when the technique arrived here from Finland, where the tradition of rya making dates back to the 14th and 15th centuries. In the second half of the 1950s, it became one of the most preferred textile techniques. 

The long-fringed, bold and brightly coloured rugs adorned many homes in the 1960s and 1970s.

“As a technique, rya provided an opportunity to deviate from the strictness, limitations and mandatory techniques of the earlier, post-war period, and to become freer, more painterly, and more abstract in design,” Kai Lobjakas says. “This visually rich heritage reflects the modernity and contemporaneity of 1960s art in general. It reached the public both through popular applied art exhibitions and through presentations and designs created by artists and published in the press.

The driving force behind the cultivation of this technique was the legendary core of textile artists formed by Mari Adamson, Leesi Erm, Ellen Hansen and Mall Tomberg. A series of monumental rya rugs from the 1970s comes from the legendary Bruno Tomberg. In the second half of the 1980s, the rya technique was brought back to the exhibition scene in a completely changed way by Anna Gerretz.

This exhibition features the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design’s unique collection of rya, the focus of which is the 1960s to 1970s, but it also goes beyond that period.

“Focus” is a series of ETDM exhibitions that concentrates on some of the phenomena that have been in the shadows for a long time or have only just been discovered in the museum’s collections.

Several workshops and curatorial tours take place within the audience programme of the exhibition. Curated tours in Estonian will take place on 26 March at 2 pm, 21 April at 5:30 pm, 14 May at 2 pm. Tours in English available on demand, please contact: info@etdm.ee.

• On 31 March, from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm, a rya technique workshop for adults will take place under the supervision of Anu Samarüütel-Long for those interested in textile art (in Estonian and English). 
• On the Design Thursday for children aged 8–12 on 7 April, the rya rugs will be examined during a special exhibition tour for children, and in the following workshop, all participants will be able to try making a rug for themselves. (In Estonian)
• A workshop led by Tuula Pöyhönen, a Finnish fashion and textile designer who has also collaborated with Marimekko, will take place on 28 April from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, where she will teach her own rya-based technique to make chair covers. The technique can be used to make covers for any upholstered furniture. All materials and tools will be provided on site. The workshop is in English and Finnish (in Finnish and English).
• On 5 May, from 6:00 to 7:00 pm, a museum yoga class instructed by Jane Meresmaa-Roos will take place at the exhibition.
• A museum lesson “Rugs for All Senses” welcoming school groups has been developed for pre-primary school and basic school pupils.
  
  Pre-registration is required for all workshops at haridus@etdm.ee.

The exhibition “Focus. Rya rugs” will remain open until 29 May.