Neeme Külm

1974– · Estonian artist (born 1974)
Eesti Kaasaegse Kunsti Muuseum; Eesti Kunstimuuseum; Tütar galerii

Neeme Külm (1974) is a sculpture and installation artist working with site-specific and minimalist spatial installations. In his works created for a public space, Külm often creates spatial shifts and plays with emotions, making the viewer physically participate in the piece, raising questions about social and political issues. Külm has been exhibiting since the 1990s, his most notable works were created in the early 2000s. In 2001 Külm took part in an exhibition of artistic interventions in the public space of Tallinn, titled “On the Ruins of Capitalism” (curated by Anders Härm), where he created a traffic jam by blocking a gate between two streets in the Old Town with a pile of logs. This installation-intervention focused on the volume and mass of a specific structure and material, its central components being a large mass and gravity. In Külm's work, his focus on gravity has been seen as a repeating element, as a reference to his background as a sculptor. At the same time, a crucial element of his practice is a dialogue with the public space. In the mid-2000s Külm created video works, addressing existentialism through the physical properties of gravity. In these works, the artist takes the role of protagonist, often using the image of hanging, falling, floating, or bearing heavy weights, to focus on the existential angst and awareness of mortality (e.g. “Hangs”, 2004; “Sleep”, 2004; “Untitled”, 2004; “Fountain”, 2005–2006). The 2005 video “Beslan“ shows that Külm can also use heaviness as a metaphor to address political conflicts – in the video the artist carries around the lid of a coffin in front of the Russian Embassy in Tallinn to commemorate those who died in the Beslan hostage crisis. Nevertheless, a political tone is not the goal for the artist, rather, it is the contextual frame of the moment, in which the work was created. In Külm's work, the theme of political conflicts peaked with the 2008 project “Gas Pipe” at the Venice Architecture Biennale (together with Maarja Kask and Ralf Lõoke, curated by Ingrid Ruudi). “Gas Pipe” consisted of a 60 metre bright yellow steel pipe, set up in the Giardini between the Russian and the German pavilion, commenting on the Baltic Sea Nord Stream gas pipe debate, causing controversy at the time. “Gas Pipe” was the strongest international project in Estonian architecture in the 2000s, highlighting the spatial and architectural qualities of politics. The work was a conceptual installation project that, among other things, asked questions about the relationship between infrastructure and architecture, making

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Contemporaries in Tütar galerii: Siiri Jüris · Helen Tago · Simon Sebastian Laumann · Kärt Hammer · Angela Maasalu

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Data from MuIS and the EKM Digital Collection. Full catalogue