The Design Museum opens an exhibition introducing Estonian design in the Telliskivi Creative City Outdoor Gallery

26.4.2021

Exhibition

The Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design (ETDM) takes part of its permanent exhibition Introduction to Estonian Design in the form of photographs to the Telliskivi Creative City Outdoor Gallery and provides an opportunity to take a quick look at layers of local design at the time the museum is closed.

Introduction to Estonian Design provides a glimpse to the layers of local design and highlights 20 cases that have until the newly gained independence shaped the scenery and touched upon the everyday. 

A thorough overview is to be found at the permanent exhibition at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design with over 500 objects, sketches and photos from more than 200 designers and producers on display.

“There are examples in this selection that Estonians will immediately recognize, as well as such material, which will hopefully surprise and broaden the knowledge about the local design,” says curator Kai Lobjakas. “The timeline is quite long, so it includes a furniture design born of the initiative of active young women in the beginning of the 20th century;products by  local glass factory Tarbeklaas, which are familiar to everyone, as well as a reference to experiments through the exhibition “Space and Form “, which started in 1969.”

Early 20th century signified vast changes for Estonia. Gradually accumulating wealth enabled to pay more attention also to the everyday surroundings and one by one smaller and larger initiatives grew into companies focusing on that. 

Another considerable shift took place after World War II when in the changed conditions the importance of the art fields related directly to defining the everyday grew significantly. In Estonia the focus was mainly on designing furniture, lighting, textiles, glass and ceramics. In the Soviet Union the Baltics enjoyed a status of an ’inner abroad’ and Estonia played an important role in this. From 1958 Kunst ja kodu (Art and Home), for a long time the only soviet domestic design magazine was published, a lot of iconic products, still in use today, were born. 

All the presented examples here entail whole worlds in them. Design surrounds us everywhere, is in constant change and shapes our lives more than we perceive in our everyday surroundings.

The exhibition is open until the end of June.