JAANUS SAMMA Selection of works 2010-2017
DIVIDER
2017 Temnikova & Kasela Gallery The works shown at the exhibition deconstruct the public restroom using different media, offering the viewer a collection of urinals, toilet bowls, toilet roll holders and toilet pulls. One of the basic elements of this spatial analysis is the urinal divider, which gives the exhibition its name. As a symbol, it expresses the connecting function of the public toilet that acts like a social stage where different personalities and shared experiences come together, where public and intimate space meet.
Photos by Stanislav Stepashko
Installation view
Installation view
Installation view
Installation view
Divider 2017 Readymade
Flaminio Station 1 & 2 2017 Digital print on ceramic tiles, metal frame, rubber toilet pulls and chains
Collection of Toilet Pulls 2017 Porcelain toilet pulls, showcase
Study of a Toilet 2016 Ink on paper, collage
TOILET POSTERS
Artist book, 2016 Printed by Officin, Copenhagen Toilet Posters is a small collection of images from books that surrounded me during my adolescence and influenced my first erotic fantasies. Posters are shown primarily in the toilets.
Public toilet in Rakvere Kilometre of Sculpture 2016
Three Works at a Canteen. Solo show in Minsk, 2016 Photo by Masha Kozhdan
Three Works at a Canteen. Solo show in Minsk, 2016 Photo by Masha Kozhdan
NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK. A CHAIRMAN’S TALE Estonian pavillion at the 56th Venice Biennial, 2015 Curated by Eugenio Viola The exhibition consists of an aesthetically and dramaturgically integrated multimedia installation, which raises questions about power, violence and persecution in rigid political regimes that curtail human rights. The exhibition brings together archive materials from the Soviet Estonia and the elegant aesthetics of opera. Not Suitable for Work is the story of a man with a nickname the Chairman (1921–1990), a war hero and “family man”, who was a successful chairman of a kolkhoz, i.e. a collective farm in Soviet Estonia. In 1964, he was arrested and then expelled from the Communist Party due to his involvement in homosexual acts. A degrading trial was followed by a sentence of one and a half year of hard labour. Following the loss of his social status as well as his dignity, family and job, Chairman was forced to move to a different town, where he could hold only menial positions. In the end, he was murdered by an alleged Russian male prostitute, a year before Estonia regained independence and homosexuality was decriminalised. Organised by Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia
Photos by Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Johannes Säre & Anna-Stina Treumund
Installation view
Archive, bw photos, 2015
Installation view
Installation view Left: Public Toilet, video, 3’30’’, Marko Raat and Jaanus Samma, 2015 Right: 3.50 Rubles, video, 8’43’’, Marko Raat and Jaanus Samma, 2015 Centre: Props, installation, 2015
Installation view In the front: Props, installation, 2015 In the back: A Chairman’s Tale, bw photos, 2015
Props, installation, 2015
A Chairman’s Tale, bw photos, 2015
A Chairman’s Tale, bw photos, 2015
A Chairman’s Tale, bw photos, 2015
The Loge, room installation, 2013-2015
The Loge, room installation, 2013-2015
Museum of Occupations
Installation view in the Museum of Occupations, 2016
Installation view in the Museum of Occupations, 2016
CHAIRMAN. THE OPERA bw photos, 2013
“Chairman. The Opera� is a fictive opera about the most notorious gay man in Tartu. On the photographic rendering of the play we can see different scenes from the life of the Chairman. The piece based on archival material and interviews tries to give an overview of the life of sexual minorities in Soviet Estonia through the story of one man. Later I developed this project for the Estonian pavilion at the Venice Biennial.
Chairman. The Opera
Chairman. The Opera
Chairman. The Opera
SWEATERS
knittwear, 2012–2015 “Sweaters” is a collection of hand-knitted sweaters with patterns that are based of graffiti I have found in urban space. On all my travels I look for images and text which are connected with sexuality and queer topics. I consider all expressions of sexuality in public space to be very personal and powerful phenomena that are inherently politically charged. With this series of knitwear I try to share my experiences of urban space and therefore every sweater comes with the address the original graffiti was found from.
Photos by Anu Vahtra
The Hair Sucks Sweater Shop, 2014 Art Hall Gallery, Tallinn
The Hair Sucks Sweater Shop, 2014
The Hair Sucks Sweater Shop, 2014
FILTER
Installation, 2008, 2014 In the ceiling of the gallery there’s a chandelier that is switched on. With an interval of a few minutes the chandelier starts to shake making the crystals jingle. Speakers give out a vibration of low frequency sound. For a second the whole room is dark. But then the light goes on again and everything is back to normal as nothing had happened.
Photo by Johan Huimerind & Reimo Väsa-Tangsoo
Filter, installation, 2014 Tartu Art Museum
Filter, installation, 2014 Tartu Art Museum
PASSAGE
Installation, 2012 Exhibited at “Corporal punishment”, EKKM A path winding through a field of wild nettles on the second floor of the EKKM gallery leads the exhibition visitors to the next room.
Photos by Anna-Stina Treumund
Passage, installation, 2012
Passage,installation, 2012
Passage, installation, 2012
STORIES
audio collection, 2011 Exhibited at “Untold Stories�, Tallinn Art Hall The audio collection titled Stories charts the sexual life and social practices of gays in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic in the form of oral history. The centre of attention is focused primarily on the 1970s and 1980s, when homosexuality was criminalized and the social life of gays converged mainly around closed gatherings among friends.
Photos by Anna-Stina Treumund
Stories, audio collection, 2011
Stories, audio collection, 2011
Applied Art for a Gay Club (AAFAGC) Produced by Alo Paistik Video, photos, book, 2011
“AAFAGC” is a video project of six short scenes of laboring men, shot on the Estonian islands of Muhu and Saaremaa. The central interest of the project is to deal with certain socio-cultural dimensions of homo erotica in traditional agrarian environment. “AAFAGC” grew out of fascination for the erotic videos shown at many gay clubs. These videos function primarily as a way to fill the visual and temporal voids clubs desperately try to avoid. The videos show men carrying out different tasks common to rural Estonian milieu – plowing, fishing, milking, haymaking, sawing and hunting. On the most basic level the six scenes could come across as credible documentations of everyday rural life, thus replacing the habitual hedonistic tropes of gay club male erotica. At the same time, though the pseudo-ethnographic treatment the videos take a critical look at the representation of an Estonian man at work.
AAFAGC premier at the Pomada festival, Warsaw, Poland, 2010
AAFAGC, 2011
AAFAGC, 2011
AAFAGC, 2011
AAFAGC, 2011