On 30 January at 6:00 pm, an artist talk will take place at Artrovert Gallery, featuring artist Mall Nukke in conversation with film critic Tristan Priimägi. The discussion will be moderated by gallerist Siim Raie.
The evening focuses on Mall Nukke’s exhibition “Avatars of the Past” and on the role of painting and cinema in shaping cultural memory and identity. What influences us, and why do we remember the past the way we do? Do the eras of cinema and the internet differ in any essential way?
Mall Nukke’s exhibition “Avatars of the Past” remains on view at Artrovert Gallery until 31 January.
The exhibition brings together painted scenes from Estonian cult films, exploring reflections of cultural memory and the media landscape through personal and generational experience. These works function as icons of a kind—not in a religious sense, but as familiar faces and scenes from the cinema screen that carry a cult aura and trigger memories, sounds, and quotations. Films such as Spring (Kevade), The Last Relic, and The Hotel of the Dead Mountaineer form part of the collective memory, continuing to shape identity even when their original contexts were ideologically biased.
During the talk, Mall Nukke will discuss the connections between her painting practice and cinema, reflecting on how film functioned as her generation’s “media world” in the 1970s—a safe space and, at the time, the only way to step outside the grey reality of everyday life. Tristan Priimägi’s extensive knowledge of film history and cinematic language helps to further unpack the cultural and historical layers of the works.
All are welcome to join the conversation at Artrovert Gallery. The language of the evening is Estonian.
