Marko MÄETAMM

CAR RIDE Animation, Live animation | dv | color | 3'16'' | Estonia | 2008 © This work deals with the way in which things may very often appear different from what they really are - and the way in which things are absolutely different from what they seem. One nice Friday afternoon, at the beginning of March, the author took his beautiful wife and his two marvelous children in their small Honda Civic to pay a visit to his parents in the south of Estonia. Marko Mäetamm was born in the small town of Nuia, in southern Estonia. He studied engraving at the Estonian Academy of Arts, where he obtained a degree in 1993 and his master's in 1995. Marko Mäetamm began exhibiting his work while he was still a student. His first work was essentially based on engraving techniques after which he moved on to painting, which he found more direct. At a certain point, text became essential in his projects. Afterwards, following his ideas, he started working on moving images. He works by amalgamating different types of media. He works with photographs, objects and animation, he paints and produces texts and combines everything in his installations. In 2007 he had the opportunity to represent Estonia at the Venice Biennale with the project "Loser's Paradise," which has greatly influenced his artistic career. Artist statement My recent projects are talking about family and domestic issues. I am interested in how society manipulates with me as a family man and how I see myself in relationship with my wife and children and with society that surrounds us. And I am interested in how to tell my personal stories so that they become stories of the viewer. My ideas come from very personal field and talk about our social behaviour, about controlling things and being controlled, about our decisions and choices and desires and dreams. About very simple and often very familiar things. List of exhibition, filmography... Upcoming projects in 2009: -Gallery Nettie Horn, London, UK; -Suburbian Beauty, curated by Neringa Cerniauskaite, Gallery Vartai, Vilnius, Lithuania; -Home Sweet Home, curated by Ombretta Agró Andruff, Dorsky Gallery, NY, USA; -Another Day With My Family, GoNorth, Beacon, NY, USA; - Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Turku, Finland; - locws international 4, Swansea, UK; Selected solo exhibitions: 2008 -Kicsiny Balàzs & Marko Mäetamm, Gallery of Hungarian Institute, Tallinn, Estonia; 2007 -Loser`s Paradise, Estonian Pavilion at 52. International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy; 2006 -Artists’ Studio, London, UK; 2005 -Memorial Show Tallinn City Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia; 2004 - Contemporary Art Centre Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain; 2003 -Marko und Kaido by John Smith (with Kaido Ole), Estonian Pavilion at 50. International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy; 2002 -X MISTAKES Y FOR Z (with Lucy Harrison and Pete Nevin), Rotermann Salt Storage (Art Museum of Estonia), Tallinn, Estonia; 2001 -Amentia, Gallery Platan, Budapest, Hungary; 2000 -Me Supernatural, Tallinn Art Hall Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia; Selected group exhibitions and projects: 2008 -Bad Joke, curated by Johannes Saar, Riga Art Space, Riga, Latvia; -Familienangelegenheiten, curated by Elke Falat, Kunstverein Hildesheim, Galerie im Kehrwiederturm, Hildesheim, Germany; -Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid 2008, Berlin, Germany; -Borderlives. Contemporary Art from Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Tallinn, curated by Ritva Röminger-Czako and Andreas Vowinckel, Stadtgalerie Kiel,Germany; -LA MAIN NUMÉRIQUE, curated by Dominique Païni, Ecole d´art de la Communauté de l´agglomération d´Annecy, Annecy, France; -Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid 2008, Madrid, Spain; -Borderlives. Contemporary Art from Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Tallinn, curated by Ritva Röminger-Czako and Andreas Vowinckel, Ludwig Forum Aachen, Aachen, Germany; -Biennale Cuvèe 08, OK Center, Linz, Austria; 2007 -Bad Joke, curated by Johannes Saar, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, Estonia; -Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid 2007, Paris, France; -Provokatörer? KonstBio, Biografen Sture, Stockholm, Sweden; -WARSAW DOES NOT EXIST, exhibition as a book, curated by Sebastian Cichocki; -STILL HERE: humour in post-communist performance video, Artspace, Sydney, Australia; -Political&Poetical, 14th Tallinn Print Triennial, KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia; -Baltic States, part III, Contemporary Art From Estonia, curated by Martin Schibli, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden; -Innocence and Despair, g39, Cardiff, Wales; -Priroda i društvo/Parallel Lines, curated by Silva Kalčić and Robin Mason, Muzej Rupe (Dubrovacki muzeji), Dubrovnik, Croatia; -We like it a lot, Nettie Horn Gallery, London, UK; -anger_aggression, KunstRaum Goethestrasse, Linz, Austria; -Another Roadside Attraction, The Griffin Pub, London, UK; -Exploding Cinema, The Half Moon, London, UK; -Dialogues, 13 Vilnius Painting Triennial, Centre for Contemporary Art, Vilnius, Lithuania; 2006 -Violence and Propaganda, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, Estonia; -Fiktive Bauten und Städte in der Literatur, Architekturmuseum TU München, Pinakothek der Moderne, München, Germany; -Cannibal Ferox, T1+2 Gallery, London, UK; -Collected Crises, Estonian Art in the 1990s. KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia; -Wake Up! Rauma biennale Balticum 2006. Rauma Art Museum, Finland; -Videoart From The Baltics Kunstraum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; -Emergency Biennale, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, Estonia; -Shiftscale – Sculpture at the Extended Field KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia; 2005 -The 6th Baltic Contemporary Art Biennale HABITAT, curated by Magdalena Lewoc and Marlena Chybowska-Butler, Museum of Contemporary Art dept. of the National Museum in Szczecin, Poland; -Blur of The Otherwordly, Center for Art and Visual Culture, Baltimore, USA; -Reading in Absence, Trafo Gallery, Budapest, Hungary; -Thrust, 26th International Biennial of Graphic Art. Ljubljana, Slovenia; -Pyyteetön Rakkaus/ Undemanding Love, Rauma Art Museum, Finland; -No Painting, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, Estonia; 2004 -Home Sweet Home, Rotermann Salt Storage (Art Museum of Estonia), Tallinn, Estonia; -Here, But Not Now, Picture Gallery, Kaunas, Lithuania; -EU-Positive, Akademie der Kunst, Berlin, Germany; -13th Tallinn Print Triennial, Rotermann Salt Storage (Art Museum of Estonia), Tallinn, Estonia; 2003 -2nd Biennial in Painting, Väsby Konsthall, Sweden; 2002 -About Belief, South London Gallery, London, UK; -Closing the Distance, Łaźnia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk, Poland; 2001 -ARS01, Kiasma, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; 2000 -Grosse Kunst Ausstellung Düsseldorf NRW, Germany; -Painterly Issues, Vilnius Painting Triennial. Centre for Contemporary Art, Vilnius, Lithuania; Video works: 2008 -Sock -You and Me -Car Ride 2007 -FAMILY -No Title-2 2006 -Another Day -Home Video -No Title-1 -Burst (5 versions) -Hello Hell -I was there 2004 -A Dream -Casket 2001 -Blackboard Fight www.maetamm.net