Kristina Norman (b.1979, lives and works in Tallinn) is an artist whose interdisciplinary work includes video installations, sculpture, and projects in the city space, as well as documentaries and performance. She is interested in the issues of collective memory and forgetting, the memorial uses of the public space, but also the subtle sphere of the body politics that transgresses the boundaries between the public and the private. In 2009 she represented Estonia at the 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia with a solo project, a multilayered mixed media installation After-War. The project was a study of a conflict around the relocation of a Soviet monument in Tallinn and Norman’s public intervention in the former location of the monument became one of the most debated artworks in re-independent Estonia. In 2022 Norman represented Estonia at the 59th Venice Biennial with an ecocritical exhibition Orchidelirium. An Appetite For Abundance, a duo show with Bita Razavi, curated by Corina Apostol. Norman’s experimental film trilogy commissioned for the Estonian Pavilion, offers multiple ways to reflect on the legacies of colonialism from a specific Eastern European perspective.
CV
Kristina Norman is a visual artist and documentary filmmaker, born in 1979, lives and works in Tallinn
Education
2010 Estonian Academy of Arts, MA in visual arts
2003 Estonian Academy of Arts, BA in printmaking
Performative work
2022
Orchidelirium Expanded. Norman & Supriyanto, a cinema screening expanded to performance, (60 min) premiered at Kumu Art Museum’s cinema hall, Tallinn
2019
Lighter Than Woman, solo performance, (90 min). Continuously on festival tour in Europe 2019-2023. Co-produced by Kanuti Gildi Saal, Santarcangelo Festival, New Theatre Institute of Latvia, Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione / Atlas of Transitions Biennale. Premiered on 5 July 2019 at Festival Santarcangelo dei Teatri in Piazza, Italy.
2018
The First To Leave, co-authored theatrical production, (120 min). Performances at Eduarda
Smilga theatre in Riga, Latvia; performances at Kanuti Gildi Saal in Tallinn; performances in Mazirbe, Latvia. Co-produced by New Theatre Institute of Latvia and Kanuti Gildi Saal.
2015
Star-bright hour, (120 min) site-specific solo performances in Estonian History Museum, Tallinn. Commissioned for Saal Biennaal, produced by Kanuti Gildi Saal.
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Filmography / Videography
Comparative Anatomy, mixed media installation including two-channel video, ca 20 min, 2022
Rip-Off, part of Orchidelirium film trilogy, 13 min 37 sec, 2022
Shelter, part of Orchidelirium film trilogy, 13 min 30 sec, 2022
Thirst, part of Orchidelirium film trilogy, 14 min 20 sec, 2022
Lighter Than Woman, performance including documentary footage, 90min, 2019
Awakening Of Birds, video installation, 5 min, 2018
Bring Back My Fire Gods, video installation, 13 min, 2018
At Home With Refugees, documentary, 28 min, 2017
Festive Spaces, video installation, 30 min, 2016
Governing the Living, video installation, 4 min, 2014
Governing the Dead, video installation, 6 min, 2014
Iron Arch, video, 15 min, 2014
PMR. In the State of Limbo, documentary, 80 min, 2014
Common Ground, video, 37 min, 2013
0,8 Square Metres, two channel video installation, 30 min, 2012
A Monument To Please Everyone, documentary, 87 min, 2011
We Are Not Alone In The Universe, documentary, 11 min, 2010
After-War, mixed-media installation including 5-channel video, ca 30 min, 2009
Monolith, experimental documentary, 15 min, 2007
The Pribalts, experimental documentary, 58 min, 2006
The Field of Genius, mocumentary, 18 min, 2003
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Selected solo exhibitions and performances 2014-2022
2022
Orchidelirium. An Appetite for Abundance, the Estonian Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (2022), a duo show with Bita Razavi, curated by Corina Apostol.
Comparative Anatomy, exhibition in collaboration with Joanna Kalm, commissioned for Art or Science, a research and exhibition project based on archives, curated by Kadi Polli, Linda Kaljundi, Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn
Orchidelirium Expanded. Norman & Supriyanto, a cinema screening expanded to performance, Kumu Art Museum’s cinema hall, Tallinn
Lighter Than Woman, performances at Auawirleben theaterfestival, Bern, Switzerland
After-War at Art in the Comfort Zone? The 2000s in Estonian Art, KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn
2020
Lighter Than Woman Theaterfestival Basel
Lighter Than Woman Plartforma festival, Klaipeda
Lighter Than Woman PNP Pubblico Non Privato, Teatro Magro, Mantova
Lighter Than Woman Black Box Teater, Oslo
Lighter Than Woman Bazaar festival, Ponec theatre, Prague
Lighter Than Woman Baltoscandal Festival, Rakvere theatre
Lighter Than Woman DRAAMA festival, Tartu
Lighter Than Woman DocPoint festival, Tallinn
2019
Festive Spaces. Ideological Art In Time. Solo exhibition, curated by Jan Elantkowski, FUGA gallery, Budapest
Lighter Than Woman, four solo performances at Kanuti Gildi Saal, Tallinn, Estonia
Lighter Than Woman, three solo performances at contemporary theatre and performing arts festival Homo
Novus, Riga, Latvia
Lighter Than Woman, premiere of the production and seven solo performances at contemporary theatre and
performing arts festival Santarcangelo Dei Teatri in Piazza, Santarcangelo di Romagna, Italy
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Selected group art exhibitions and performances 2014 – 2022
2022
Shelter, at D’Autopsie à Utopie, cur. Renato Casciani, 3cinq, Lille, France
Rip-Off, at Around Video art fair, Lille, France
2021
After-War at Art in the Comfort Zone? The 2000s in Estonian Art, KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn
Iron Arch & Souvenir, at Making Another World Possible, Tallinn Art Hall, cur. Corina Apostol
Iron Arh & Souvenir at Art Museum Artsi, Vantaa, Finland, cur. Jussi Koitela, Christine Langinauer
2019
Bring Back My Fire Gods, at Report to the Audience. Acquisitions of Tartmus, cur. Julia Polujanenkova, Heiti Kulmar, Tartu, Estonia
Iron Arch, at La linea del frente. El arte ucraniano, 2013-2019, curated by Svitlana Biedareva, Museo Memoria y Tolerancia, Mexico City, Mexico
The First to Leave, a co-authored performance at Livonian House – Tautas Nams, Mazirbe, Latvia
Bring Back My Fire Gods, at Survival Kit 10. Outlands. Cur. Inga Lāce, Angels Miralda, Solvita Krese. The former Faculty of Physics, Mathematics and Optometry of the University of Latvia
2018
The First to Leave, a co-authored performances at Kanuti Gildi Saal LAT.EST festival’s Tallinn edition
Bring Back My Fire Gods, at Related By Sister Languages, cur. K. Szipocs, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
Bring Back My Fire Gods and A Monument to Please Everyone at Freiraum, Kunsthaus Dresden, cur. Ch. Mennicke, Dresden
Festive Spaces, at Survival Kit 10, Riga Circus, cur. Inga Lace et al., Latvia
Bring Back My Fire Gods, at Supercontinent, Festival Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy
Common Ground, at Portable Landscapes, cur. I. Lace, S. Krese, Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga
Festive Spaces, at History in Images – Image in History, cur. L. Kaljundi, T.-M. Kreem, KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn
Bring Back My Fire Gods, premiere at A State Is Not A Work Of Art, cur. K. Gregos, Tallinn Art Hall
The First to Leave, a co-authored performance at Eduarda Smilga Museum, LAT.EST festival’s Riga edition
Iron Arch, at Vdrug, festival of Russian culture of Estonia, cur. Olesja Rotar, Nizhni Novgorod, Russia
UUE – Performance Art Festival, Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum, Helsinki
2017
We Are Not Alone In The Universe, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Wavelength Series, cur. Erik Martinson, Toronto
We Are Not Alone In The Universe, at Hosting the Inhuman, cur. Karen Sarkisov (VAC Foundation), MMOMA, Moscow
A Monument To Please Everyone, at The Monument and Me, Kaunas Biennial, cur. Udi Edelman, Kaunas
A Monument To Please Everyone, at Process: Monument, cur. Maria Kramar, The GULAG History Museum, Moscow
Without title, at Dissolution, cur. Krist Gruithuisen, Tallinn Art Hall
After-War, at Absent Monuments, cur. Maria Kramar, CCA Vladivostok, Russia
2016
Festive Spaces, at The Specific Emotional: Between The Repetition and The Event, cur. Aleksei Borisionok, Liljevalchs Hubb, Stockholm
Festive Spaces, specially commissioned for and premiered at Darkness. Silence, cur. Anneli Porri, Tallinn Art Hall
Monolith, at KUMU hits, KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn
Shaken, not stirred. A Selection of Estonian video art from 1997–2015. cur. Kati Ilves, Festival of Opinions’
cultural programme, Paide, Estonia
Iron Arch, at Extension.ee. Рефлексия: взгляд внутрь/изнутри. Vol. III, cur. Evi P.rn, Triumph Gallery, Moscow
Kilometre of Sculpture, cur. Anna Virtanen, Rakvere, Estonia
Festive Spaces, at The Specific Emotional: Between the Monument and the Ritual, cur. Aleksei Borisionok, Kryly Chalopa Space, Brest, Belarus
4000 Square Kilometers of Europe, at Identity. Behind the Curtain of Uncertainty, cur. Solvita Krese, Ukrainian National Art Museum, Kiev
Iron Arch, at Refleksioonid: sissevaade/v.ljavaade. Vol II, cur. Evi Pärn, Narva kolledž
Past and Power, cur. Jordi Guixé, Belvedere cinema, Cerbēre, France
2015
4000 Square Kilometers of Europe, at Vision of a Nation, cur. Alina Serban, Fotogalleriet, Oslo, Norway
0,8 Square Metres, at Self-managed Interest Community, cur. Nemanja Cvijanovic, Belgrade Cultural Center, Serbia
After-War, at Kapina/Uprisal, cur. Minna Hendriksson, Maailmantango-festivaali, Tampere, Finland
Iron Arch, at Decompression, cur. Darya Koltsova, Інститут Проблем Сучасного Мистецтва, Kiev, Ukraine
Iron Arch, at Reflections, cur. Evi Pärn, VDRUG Festival of Contemporary Russian Culture in Estonia
After-War, at Society Acts – Version 2, cur. Andreas Nilsson, Maija Rudovska, kim? Riga, Latvia
Common Ground, at Access Denied, cur. Sumeshwar Sharma, Clark House Initiative, Mumbai, India
Iron Arch, at Decompression, cur. Darya Koltsova, Saint-Merry church, Paris, France
2014
Souvenir and Iron Arch, the work specially commissioned for and premiered at Manifesta 10, Public Program, cur. Joanna Warsza, St. Petersburg, Russia
After-War, at Society Acts, cur. Andreas Nilsson, Maija Rudovska, Moderna Museet, Malmö, Sweden
After-War, at Turning Points, cur. Zsolt Petranyi, Vit. Vojnits Purcs.r, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
We Are Not Alone In The Universe, at FRESTAS – Trienal de Artes, Sorocaba, Brazil
Monolith, at 8th Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Ostrale’14, Dresden, Germany
0,8 Square Metres, at Shifting Identities, MACRO Testaccio, Rome, Italy
Souvenir, at Open City 2014, Lublin, Poland
After-War, at Wiener Festwochen 2014, cur. Dmitry Vilenky, Vienna, Austria
Monolith, Private Nationalism, gallery M21, Pecs, Hungary
Monolith, at A Shadow Of A Doubt, cur. Ilya Budraitskis, Maria Chekhonadskih, Garage, Moscow, Russia