Kristina Õllek is announced as Baltic|States Artist in Residence
17 Jul 2024
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead is pleased to announce Kristina Õllek as Baltic|States Artist in Residence. She will participate in a research residency at Baltic from September - October 2024.
The Baltic|States Residency Exchange Programme enables artist and curator research and professional development through a series of supported residencies, studio visits, curator study visits and commissions at Baltic, Gateshead and partner venues in the Baltic region. The programme builds relationships through cross-cultural exchange connecting artists, arts professionals and institutions. Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, named after the Baltic Sea, was a former flour mill housing grain from the Baltic region, and the North East has long established trading routes with Baltic countries.
Participants are invited to respond to the current shifting geopolitical landscape in Europe and develop work that explores borders, identity, citizenship, and sustainable futures. They are also encouraged to find points of connection between the Baltic region and the North East of England, building networks with the artistic communities and creating dialogue that transcends borders and geographies at a time of rapid social and political change. Artists and curators who have participated in residencies and study visits as part of the Baltic|States programme include: Andrius Arutiunian (2019), Susie Green (2020), Maria Kapajeva (2023), Eglė Mikalajūnė and Asta Vaičiulytė (2022) and Jordan Edge (Kiik Amor) (2024).
About the Artist
Kristina Õllek is based in Tallinn, Estonia. She works with photography, moving image and installation, as well as microbial and chemical processes, with a focus on investigating aquatic ecosystems, geological matter, and the human-altered environments. In her practice she uses a research-based approach, but within this she also incorporates her own fictitious and speculative perspectives. Her work focusses on the marine habitat and the notion of new technologies, including the geopolitical and ecological conditions associated with them. Within the past six years, her work has engaged with the fragile ecosystem of the deep sea, the coasts of the North Sea, and the hypoxic zones of the Baltic Sea, looking at the aquatic organisms, such as cyanobacteria, as well as the filter feeders, the living archives of our polluted environment. Her practice is often site-sensitive and analyses the location and the format of exhibition-making, questioning the display and the politics of installation.
Kristina Õllek graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a BA degree in 2013 and an MA degree in 2016. She complemented her studies in Berlin at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee in 2012 and in Rotterdam at Piet Zwart Institute in 2016. Õllek has been awarded the Estonian Academy of Arts Young Artist Prize twice, in 2013 and 2016. Between 2013–18 she was the co-founder and member of artist-run space Rundum in Tallinn. In 2023 she received the three-year artist’s grant from the Estonian Artist’s Union and the Estonian Ministry of Culture.
Õllek’s work has been shown in various international solo and group exhibitions including: Kai Art Center, Tallinn; State of Concept, Athens; Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo; L'Atlas, Paris; A Tale of A Tub, Rotterdam; Laurel Project Space, Amsterdam; Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen; Le Lieu Unique, Nantes; Screen City Biennial, Stavanger; Fotomuseum Winterthur; KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn; Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn; Titanik gallery, Turku; Tallinn Art Hall; Tütar gallery, Tallinn; Kogo gallery, Tartu; Hobusepea & Draakoni Gallery, Tallinn: ISSP, Riga; Riga Photography Biennial; Zuzeum, Riga; Benaki Museum, Athens; Snehta Residency, Athens; Coherent, Brussels. Her works are in the collections of the Estonian Art Museum, Fotomuseum Winterthur and the European Central Bank Art collection, Germany.
This residency opportunity has been developed in partnership with the Embassy of Estonia in London, the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center (ECADC) and Kai Art Center, Tallinn, and is partly co-funded by the Ministry of Culture in Estonia.
