PLAYFUL CITY:
SKULL STUDIO (CZ)
installation programme
PLAYFUL CITY / August 13-17
8 installations / locations on map
With the theme "Playful City", the 2025 festival invites you to discover the playful side of the urban environment. Play isn’t only for children – it’s a vital part of adult life too, nourishing our bodies, minds, and human relationships. Play in urban space brings freshness to routine, encourages spontaneous encounters, and sparks creativity. Eight artists and collectives from Estonia and beyond will create installations inspired by the theme "Playful City", spread throughout the town.
collage by Skull studio
Skull studio (CZ)
THE FLOOR IS LAVA SOFT!
Location: next to Turusild bridge (Anne canal’s side)
August 13, 15.00-20.00
August 14-17, 12.00-20.00
The Floor is Lava Soft! intervenes the city through the space of a car park – an impermeable slab of asphalt divided by metal cars with a backdrop of firmly standing buildings. By replacing the typical urban materiality with straw bales, the intervention softens the city landscape, creating a tactile space that is adapted and changed by those using it. This “anomaly of softness” encourages anyone to touch, jump, play, sit, gather or simply just lay around, blurring the borders between the spaces of play and the city itself. Sometimes all it takes is to simply create spaces where play is allowed.
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Skull studio was founded in 2020 by sculptor Matěj Hájek (b. 1982) and visual artist Bet Orten (b. 1985), SKULL studio operates at the intersection of architecture, sculpture and land art. Their work boldly explores the relationship between form, play, and learning often brought to life through large-scale, immersive playground installations.
In 2021, SKULL studio was invited to present their installation OFF FENCE at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Their innovative projects have earned multiple accolades, including the Grand Prix of Architects, Timber Building of the Year, and nominations for Czech Grand Design.
Skull studio portfolio
The project is supported by the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Tallinn.