Marge Monko

1976– · Estonian photo artist (born 1976)
Art & Tonic; Eesti Kaasaegse Kunsti Muuseum; Eesti Kunsti Oksjonid; Eesti Kunstimuuseum; Tartu Kunstimuuseum; Vaal galerii

trained at Estonian Academy of Arts

Marge Monko (1976) is an artist combining mainly photography, video and installation in her work. Her influences include feminist, psychoanalytical and visual culture theory. She focuses on themes like cultural representations of women, women's work in a post-socialist context as well as desire for consumption and love in modern capitalist societies. Monko first started exploring representations of women in Vienna as a Master’s student in photography, inspired by the visual archives of psychoanalysts and the work of surrealists. Her series of photographs “Studies of Bourgeoisie” (2006) bridged the gap between 19th century “hysterical femininity” and its contemporary equivalent. Monko staged scenes evoking hysteria and its treatment, exhibiting them side by side with photographs of places associated with psychoanalytical studies and Sigmund Freud. She suggested that hysteria was caused by taboos of the bourgeois society and traced how historic understanding of psychological conditions has contributed to the development of a representation of women as the weaker and emotional sex as well as that of the “mystical and compulsive woman”. After her Master’s studies, Monko focused her attention on female workers (“Nora’s Sisters”, 2009), giving a voice to her contemporaries, women whose life was destabilised by the 2009 economic crisis and unemployment (“Forum”, 2009). This marked Monko’s turn towards the local post-socialist context, characterised by the tension between the Soviet legacy and values of the newly independent Estonia (“Shaken Not Stirred”, 2010). In her works of this period Monko was looking at issues like gender, nationality and language, highlighting that in post-socialist Estonia it is Russian-speaking women who are the most vulnerable. Monko’s projects from the end of the 2000s can be described both from the perspective of the social and documentalist turn as well as the feminist paradigm – she combines the roles of an archivist, director and documentalist, building solidarity with women from other nationalities and social groups. In 2013, Monko presented the exhibition “How to Wear Red” at Tartu Art Museum (curated by Rael Artel) and at mumok in Vienna, which confirmed the artist’s continuous interest in the past and its manifestations in the present. The title of the show hints at the communist history and asks how to approach this legacy today. Monko tied the post-socialist context and the changing labour policies to grass roots activism and feminist themes. The work “Free Love” (2013) juxtaposed a newspaper article from 1905 of the sam.

2 auction lots · 1 sold · 2023–2026 · €650 — as the auction houses published them; not a valuation

For sale now

3 works at Art & Tonic, €2,430–€5,265. Prices as the galleries state them.

Window Shopping, set I
€2,430 · Art & Tonic ↗Window Shopping, set V
€4,725 · Art & Tonic ↗Window Shopping, set IV
€5,265 · Art & Tonic ↗

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Window Shopping, set V
2014 · Art & TonicWindow Shopping, set IV
2014 · Art & TonicWindow Shopping, set I
2014 · Art & Tonic

3 works with a picture; the first 3 here, all in the catalogue. Pictures for public-domain works, live gallery listings and the works galleries and artists show on their own pages, from those servers.

Similar artists — same period, media and subjects: Anna-Stina Treumund · Annette Merrild · Taavi Piibemann · Mark Raidpere · Jaak Kadarik · Dénes Farkas

Also trained at Estonian Academy of Arts: Eduard Wiiralt · Evald Okas · Andrus Johani · Johann Naha · Leonhard Lapin

Contemporaries in Eesti Kunstimuuseum: Eléonore de Montesquiou · Curtis Readel · Kiwa · Karl-Kristjan Nagel · Andrew Hurle

By decade: 2000s · 2010s
By medium: Photograph · Other
Where the works are: Art Museum of Estonia · Tartu Art Museum

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Museum records from MuIS and the EKM Digital Collection; gallery stock from the galleries' own catalogues; auction results as Haus Galerii, Vernissage, Allee galerii, Vaal galerii, E-Kunstisalong, Eesti Kunsti Oksjonid and Kunstikoda published them, and the lots Osta Noort Kunsti offered (it publishes no results). Full catalogue · Corrections, removals, questions: info@museaal.ee · Privacy