URBAN PARACITES
VARVARA & MAR (EE/ES)
installation programme
URBAN PARASITES / August 18-21
10 installations / different locations
This year Urban Festival UIT is turning its focus on parasitic architecture. We’ve asked both local and foreign artists to view the city from a parasite’s perspective and encouraged them to find new ways of life either the deficit or excess of space. Urban parasites have found their master organisms in narrow spaces between buildings, in abandoned factories, overgrown ponds and forgotten cinemas. Installations are scattered all over Tartu, go and find them!
photo: Laura Strandberg
VARVARA & MAR (EE/ES) “NFT shop”
August 18–21, 12:00-20:00
Vahi gas station, (Vahi street, next to Mõisapargi bus stop)
The artists open a NFT pop-up shop in an old tank station. NFT stands for non-fungible token or simply put a certificate that proves the originality of the digital asset. We have already seen that cryptocurrency has its part in the economy. But what is NFT art and what kind of art market it has to offer? NFT art shop operates within an alternative economy of cryptocurrency. It is a shop / gallery / meeting place in an old gas station. Similarly to the fuel’s price, NFT gas prices and also art value fluctuates a lot creating new opportunities, and definitely also damages.
The artists are present (most of the time) and offer an individual participative performance to the ones who want to immerse themselves in the topic of NFT or simply want to chat about changing economies and other big and small issues.
Tänud: Urmas Koch and Olerex
Supported by: City of Tartu, Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Varvara & Mar is an artist duo formed by Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Canet in 2009. In their practice, they confront social changes and the impact of the technological era.
Artists have exhibited their art pieces in several international shows, such as at MAD in New York, FACT in Liverpool, Santa Monica in Barcelona, Barbican and V&A Museum in London, Ars Electronica museum Linz, ZKM in Karlsruhe, and more.
Varvara (born in 1984, Tartu), has a Ph.D. in art from the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has a master's degree in digital media from ISNM, Luebeck University in Germany and a bachelor's degree in IT from Estonian IT College.
Mar (born in 1981, Barcelona) is a Ph.D. candidate and Cudan research fellow at Tallinn University, focusing on AI and interactive art. He earned his MA Interface Cultures at the University of Art and Design Linz. Mar has also studied art and design at ESDI in Barcelona and computer game development at University Central Lancashire in the UK.