Mark Raidpere, born in 1975 in Estonia, has shown a consistent search of the dynamic relationship between the evolution of self-identity and social events in the time of post-cold war transition. His work, utilizing video as the main medium, explores the psychological states of those living in our time of radical social change. Often putting himself, his family and entourage in the centre of his research, Raidpere reveals with extraordinary sensitivity and efficiency the dilemma and contradiction of everyday life. Starting from intimate relationships, he brings his observation and testimony further to the social terrain: people on the edge of the society, urban violence and street life are important subject matters in his artistic endeavor. Through the artist’s particular manipulation of the video camera characterized by an articulation of simplicity, stillness and objectivity, human traumas and social dramas are powerfully exposed to the public gaze. This kind of uncanny state of existence, resulted from drastic social changes, is increasingly becoming the condition of contemporary humanity. This tendency is particularly visible and intense in societies like the ex-Soviet, Baltic countries in permanent quests of identity and coherence in the turbulence of the “revolution” from communist system to liberal capitalist globalization. Raidpere, grown up in the midst of such a “revolution”, successfully grasps this sentiment in his art work and defuses it in the ambience of the exhibition space. The audience is moved by Raidpere’s seemingly simple presentation and inescapably immerged in puzzling, sometimes funny, but definitely unforgettable state of mind… We are all living in the same turbulence, indeed. (excerpt by Hou Hanru)
Mark Raidpere
born 1975 Tallinn, Estonia
Education:
2000-2003 Tallinn Pedagogical University, film studies
1993 Tallinn School of Communications
Awards:
2008 Ars Fennica 2008
2008 LOOP´08 Video Art Fair. First Prize, Barcelona, Spain
2005 Hansabank Art Award
1998 Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Solo exhibitions (selection) :
2008 Sven Johne / Mark Raidpere. Fondazione Morra Greco, Napoli, Italy (together with Sven Johne)
2008 International. Galerie Michel Rein, Paris, France
2006 5 Works. Vilnius CAC, Vilnius, Lithuania
2006 5 Works. Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia
2006 Videos. Platform Garanti CAC, Istanbul, Turkey
2006 Shifting Focus. Tramway, Project Room, Glasgow, UK
2006 5 Works. Hansabank Art Award exhibition, Gallery Noass, Riga, Latvia
2005 Isolator. Estonian exhibition at the 51st Venice Biennale, Palazzo Malipiero, Venice, Italy
2005 Ene-Liis Semper / Mark Raidpere. Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, Ireland (together with Ene-Liis Semper)
2002 Tallinn. House of the Blackheads´ Guild, Tallinn, Estonia 1998 Jeu à 4 mains. Rotermann Salt Storage, Tallinn (together with Ene-Liis Semper)
Group exhibitions (selection) :
2008 record, record. Shift Festival, Basel, Switzerland
2008 Ars Fennica 2008. Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland
2008 The Greenroom: Reconsidering the Doumentary and Contemporary Art. Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA
2008 Action Field Kodra. Camp Kodra, Thessaloniki, Greece
2008 Borderlives. Zeitgenössische Kunst aus Helsinki, St. Petersburg und Tallinn. Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany
2008 North by North-East: The Continental Unconscious. Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia
2008 The Space Between. Museum Anna Nordlander, Skellefteå, Sweden
2007 Body of Evidence: Imprisonment. CAC Ticino, Bellinzona, Switzerland
2007 Perspektive 07. Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, München, Germany
2007 Prague Biennial 3. Baltic Mythologies. Prague, Chech Republic
2007 Prison. Bloomberg SPACE, London, UK
2006 ARS 06. Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland
2006 Face the Unexpected. Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany
2006 Don Quijote. Witte de With, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
2006 Stage of Life – Rhetorics of Emotions. Städtichen Galerie im Lenbachhaus, München, Germany
2006 1:1. PM Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia
2005 Home Sweet Home. Rotermann Salt Storage, Tallinn, Estonia
2004 Emotion Eins. Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
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