Riin Maide ja Krista Mölder "and then, suddenly, nothing"

ARS Project Space 15.08.–7.09.2025

Mon–Fri 12–18, Sat 12–16

Exhibition opening on August 14 at 18.00

A touch can be a vessel for both unimaginable lightness as well as incredible weight. Yet, oddly enough, both seem equal in effect. Every touch demands the recognition of some sort of boundary. The question: "Where does the other end, and where do I begin?" ends in (a) touch. Where we meet is where our boundaries lie, and thus, every touch also presents as a hidden border situation. However, the ability to spot lines drawn in sand deteriorates over the course of a lifetime.

Boundaries, which one might recognise as such, oftentimes tend to border on the extreme – be it national borders, the line between life and death, or the edge that separates depths from altitudes. Taking this into account, the exhibition "and then, suddenly, nothing" turns its attention towards the birthplace of a boundary – towards touch; be that touch the glistening condensation of water on a windowpane, the trace of a pen on paper, the refraction of light in the distance between a wave’s crest and a camera’s lens, or the last brush of a bee’s hind leg against the landing board of its hive, before taking off in solitary flight.

In their work, both Mölder and Maide deal with places and motifs, for which "almost, as if" acts as a motor of meaning. Almost, as if there was something just beyond sight. Almost, as if you could spot some kind of flicker, somewhere over there. Almost, as if things were not quite as they seem. Combining the mediums of photography, glassworking, drawing, graphic arts, and installation, both artists observe the sound of silent touch and the illusory nature of certain boundaries with remarkable deliberation and attentiveness – what remains is a touch, which lingers in its traces.

Curator: Aleksander Metsamärt

The exhibition is supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Artists’ Association, Suti Viinaköök

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Riin Maide (1997) is an artist and scenographer living and working in Tallinn. Tenderness, graphic depiction and site specificity take on a central role in Maide’s work. Her works deal with fragile boundaries and spatial dissonance – built elements, installations, scenographic tools, and symbols intertwine and blur the lines between the internal and the external, between closeness and distance, and between the present and the past.

Maide holds a master’s degree in scenography (2025) and has previously completed her studies in graphic arts (2020) at the Estonian Academy of Arts’ Faculty of Fine Arts. She has also pursued further training at DAMU’s Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre in Prague, as well as the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Riin has received the Edmund Valtman and the Eduard Wiiralt scolarships and was awarded the EKA Young Artist Prize in 2020.

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Krista Mölder (1972) is an artist who, at the centre of her work, deals with light, time and the potential for something to emerge, to develop – characteristics which are inherent to the photographic medium. These technical and formal aspects also stand as a substantive starting point in her artistic process. Her photos and videos hold and capture potential: the contours of perspective, the outlines of possibility. Mölder stages situations that are not fully finished, and in her photography, it is that which gets left out of frame that captures her interest, as well as the interplay between the separate elements of a picture.

Krista Mölder was a nominee for the Köler Prize in 2016, and she received the Annual Award for Visual and Applied Arts by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia in 2020. In 2022, Mölder worked at the WIELS Art Center residency in Brussels. Among her recent exhibitions are: "A Temporary Thing" (2024) at Ars Projektiruum in Tallinn; "The Death Began in Autumn" (2023) at Casa Lü in Mexico City; "and Other Shades of Light" (2022) at Tallinn Art Hall; "The Blue Bird. To the Other Me" (2021) at the Tartu Art House; "You were a bird" (2020) at the Temnikova and Kasela Gallery in Tallinn; "before the sun blinded our eyes" (2020) at the Hop Gallery in Tallinn; and "Getting Lost" (2017) at the KanZan Gallery in Tokyo.