Shortly after his army experience , Toomik enrolled in the art academy in Tallinn , where between 1985 and 1991 he studied in the faculty of painting . Some large-scale paintings with openly Neo-Expressionist brushwork have survived from that time ( e.g. '' Menstruation '' , 1989 ; '' Dancer '' , 1990 ) . The artist described himself as being heavily influenced by Jorge Luis Borges in those days : “ the perception of identity was different during the Soviet era . / … / We all lived in some other world . Even geographically we transferred ourselves somewhere else . / … / However , during the Singing Revolution ( 1988 ) you started to identify with this land and nation . ” A good example could be Toomik ’s temporal installation '' Bed 75 '' ( 1993 ) , located in the centre of Tallinn for one month , which consisted of 75 iron beds , bought by the artist from the Russian military bases – then still located all around the newly independent Estonia . Through painting , Toomik had gradually found his way to performance art and then to installation art and site-specific art , actually abandoning painting altogether , albeit for a short period of time . His interest in installations marks an important move in his professional career . An art historian , artist and curator Hanno Soans has even suggested that “ many of Toomik 's fans among foreign curators have not properly digested his early development story , the way the Neo-Expressionist painter converted himself to a modern Post-Conceptual installation and video artist . ” The start of his international career was somewhat “ symptomatic ” to an artist from post-Berlin Wall generation . Estonia regained its independence in 1991 ; Jaan Toomik has participated in different international art events since 1993 . During the first part of the 1990s , he began to create simple conceptual actions that he usually videotaped . A performance and installation video '' Way to São Paulo '' ( 1994 ) prepared the background for Toomik 's eventual breakthrough on the international art scene . First presented in 1994 in Brazil at the São Paulo Biennale , it depicted a peculiar cube mirror floating on three rivers in Tartu , Prague and São Paulo – all cities geographically on the same line . This was followed by '' Dancing Home '' ( 1995 ) , first presented at '' ARS ’95 '' in Kiasma , Helsinki , where the casually dressed artist is seen on the rear deck of a ferry dancing to the hypnotic rhythm of the engines ( indirectly echoing the Estonia cruise ferry disaster that occurred on 28 September 1994 ) . In 1997 , Toomik represented Estonia at La Biennale di Venezia with another of his site-specific installations , a “ view corridor ” made of bottomless/topless coffins . With '' Truck '' ( 1997 ) , he projected a bright sunny video image taken from the highway in the San Antonio , Texas desert onto the back of a truck driving from Tartu to Tallinn in the darkness of the autumn night . The 200 km drive on the trail of the “ video-mobile ” was documented from the following car . Among other things , on the video documentation of this work , Sirje Helme ( then the director of Estonia ’s Contemporary Art Centre ) can be briefly seen explaining the art project to the traffic police . In 1998 Toomik ’s most celebrated video '' Father and Son '' was completed and first presented at City Gallery in Tallinn . In this short video ( 2 minutes , 35 seconds ) the artist is skating naked across the icy cold Baltic Sea , continuously circling the viewer . Accompanied by a religious choral sung by his ten-year-old son , he finally disappears into the white radiance from which he came . The video belongs to numerous collections ( Art Museum of Estonia ; Courtesy Nicole Trussardi Foundation ; Erika Hoffmann collection , Berlin ; Stedeljik Museum , Amsterdam ; Moderna Museet , Stockholm ; Ludwig Museum , Budapest ) and all authorized copies are sold . More than a decade later it was still circulated in prestigious international contemporary art events ( e. g. 4th berlin biennial of contemporary art , Berlin , 2006 ; '' Ostalgia '' at New Museum , NYC , 2011 ) and the artist frequently receives requests from different collectors and institutions about the possibility of acquiring a copy . Toomik has had more than twenty noteworthy solo exhibitions at different venues around the world since 1997 , and is considered one of the few contemporary Estonian artists who can be discussed from two distinct angles – the domestic approach and the international reception . For example , the video , '' Untitled ( Man ) '' ( 2001 ) , displays a certain homage to the themes related to Vienna Actionism , which were important to Toomik in the late 1980s and early 1990s . It shows a man ( an amateur actor and performance artist Alar Sudak a.k.a. Elaan ) in the middle of the muddy field whose genitals are tied to a stake or a rod through a long piece of white bandage , making him look “ castrated ” . It is also one of the earliest examples in Toomik ’s video art when he turns the camera away from himself and experiments with documentary approach . '' Peeter and Mart '' ( 2001 ) is a dialogue between two artists , a discreet , yet honest interview with a painter ( Peeter Mudist ) suffering from Parkinson ’s disease . '' Invisible Pearls '' ( 2004 ) , made in collaboration with Jaan Paavle and Risto Laius , is really a short documentary film about ex-convicts who have free-willingly gone through genital mutilation . '' Liina '' ( 2003 ) and '' Jaanika '' ( 2007 ) also vividly demonstrate the documentary side of Toomik ’s art , which contrasts with his usual artistic signature – universally laconic , short video images and sounds such as '' Jaan '' ( 2001 ) or '' Waterfall '' ( 2005 ) . However , in most cases Toomik ’s video pieces have a deeply personal background and explanation , as in the case of '' Untitled '' ( 2002 ) . It ’s a documentation of a performance dedicated to his deceased brother . In the video , the artist falls freely from a height of 9 meters as if diving or jumping into water , but instead of water it is the earth that “ swallows ” the artist . '' Dancing with Dad '' ( 2003 ) is executed in a similar vein : the artist is dancing on the grave of his father , whom he never had the chance to dance with in reality because of his father ’s early death . Tellingly , Toomik shares his full name with his father who was also Jaan Toomik . The motive of cycle within the family bloodline often reoccurs in Toomik ’s art . By entitling his short film piece '' Father and Son 2 '' in 2007 ( not perhaps without a certain sense of self-irony ) , the artist makes a reference to his “ hit ” video '' Father and Son '' from 1998 . The camera captures the artist when he ’s driving his car and appears to be screaming behind the wheel . Like in 1998 , the voice of the artist ’s son is used in the soundtrack of the piece but this time it ’s a newborn baby , whose loud cries are juxtaposed by the abrupt “ tantrums ” of his middle-aged father . Jaan Toomik continues to live in Tallinn , Estonia , and in the 2000s he has worked at the Estonian Academy of Arts as a professor in the Chair of Interdisciplinary Arts and as a Head of Department of Painting . In 2005 , he received the Konrad Mägi Medallion – once-in-a-lifetime award and considered quite prestigious , especially among painters – from the Estonian Artists ' Association . As Toomik is considered to be primarily a video artist internationally , his paintings have been received with greater enthusiasm in Estonia than abroad . According to art historian , Eha Komissarov , “ these works by Toomik provide a good example of the influence of the manipulation of the body that characterises his video art . They include a self-portrait of the artist / … / , accommodate both the origin of the interpretation of aggressively psychoanalytical surrealism and the story of that generation . ” Another change occurred in Toomik ’s artistic strategy when his solo exhibitions took place at Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn in 2007 . Alongside his newest paintings and video works , it featured his first attempt as a filmmaker : a short film '' Communion '' ( 2007 , 12 min ) shot with a 35 mm camera . His long-time friend and ( sort of ) '' alter ego '' Alar Sudak plays the protagonist of the film where almost no dialogue is used and atmosphere of Toomik ´s earlier video installations is clearly present . This short film proved to be successful : '' Communion '' received jury ’s special award at the 54th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and in 2011 it was screened at Centre Pompidou alongside works by Alexander Sokurov , Zbigniew Rybczyński and Želimir Žilnik . In 2010 Toomik finished his second short film '' Oleg '' ( 2010 , 20 min , 35 mm ) , a psychological story with a dark guilt-ridden atmosphere , which is based on his memories from the 1980s when he was in the Soviet Army . Toomik has also publicly expressed a desire to make a full-length feature , while still maintaining a passionate attitude towards painting and all kinds of interdisciplinary art practises
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
Jaan Toomik