On Friday, 27th of April 1990, an unusual crowd could be seen in the evening hours on Väike-Karja street trying to enter a large building from one of the narrow doors. Until then this part of the building had not yet found use, but now it hosted an opening of an art gallery… Estonia’s first privately owned art gallery, VAAL, presented itself with its white rooms, lighting imported from Finland, and opening the first exhibition: artist group titled Rühm T presented artworks by its three leading artists, Raoul Kurvitz, Urmas Muru and Peeter Pere.
35 years later, Vaal Gallery has invited the same collective, Rühm T, to celebrate its anniversary and as a fitting tribute to their initial exhibition. The “DIRTY SNOW” is not a retrospective, as a quite large number of works from the original exhibition were acquired by the audience. Rühm T, which at the time juggled with the notion of expressionism in the media, essentially and prominently stood up against the ruling canon of art. Rühm T looked at the vital actions of people, argued with the creators of expressionism, dealt with the present existing divides of the social structure, creating new site-specific visuals, expressing new experiences that influenced the artists, all of which allowed them to form new approaches straight from everyday life. Rühm T was armed with a transcendental speculative philosophy that allowed them to choose, organize and interpret their sensual experience. Their original exhibition is remembered even now by the special performance in the old Vaal Gallery’s courtyard, from which an original video is presented in this exhibition.
Vaal Gallery then took the orientation to the art forms reflecting the vital changes, and the exhibition of Rühm T at the opening of Vaal Gallery helped to communicate that message. Now in Vaal Gallery’s birthday-show, the artists of Rühm T also present their latest contemporary works alongside their retrospective artwork.
Eha Komissarov
