May 28 - August 28, 2006
In the Museum of New Art, Pärnu


The international nude art exhibition takes place for the thirteenth time already.

Star artist for this summer is sculptor Betty Engholm from Denmark. With her husband Torben
Michelsen, the celebrated landscape architect, Betty
has created a wonderful art world in their farm close
to Soro, in the middle of Sjelland. Fields and pastures
of that 200-year-old farm are decorated with her huge ceramic figures, beds, chairs. Visitors of the exhibition are welcome to enjoy that wonderland with the help of a video review.

Guest country for this summer is the Republic of Belarus - the country where Marc Chagall was born. Contemporary Belarus artists have developed also suprematism of their compatriot
Kazimir Malevich. Young artists Ruslan Vashkevich and Vladimir Tsesler reflect relationships between human beings in a new way as the context has changed after a long experience of totalitarian regime. Man and woman are not just a polarized couple to produce new working class but an intertwined and very complicated sexual spiral. The painter Slava Zaharinski is interested in man and woman appearing on barricades with Jesus Christ and red flags. The link to poetry by Alexander Blok
is obvious. The photo artist Andrei Chchukin covers the human body with gold, and the print maker Valeri Slauk undresses men to send them back to upper branches of trees. The whole exposition of Belarus artists proves an immense energy and
brightness of art life in the republic where differently
from the rest of Europe democracy is under construction.

The annual and traditional art exhibition Man and Woman exposes fantastic concrete figures by Emma Asplund and Magnus Östling from the Swedish art studio INUTI. Their fairly touching sculptures ask with a deep cry from the bottom of the soul – why are we different? Peter Kaun from Finland shows
that one way to escape from our reality is just to change to a bronze bird.

The only Estonian artist who exhibits his very sensitive ceramic figures made of local clay, is Kauri Kallas. Other Estonian artists used quite unusual material for our nordic country. The young sculptor Kirke Kangro exhibits her giant dark men made of
earth. Her powerful figures create a sharp contrast to the marble work of other Estonian sculptors who created their masterpieces in the material beloved by Michelangelo and Amandus Adamson.

Workshops How to Save Landscape and How to Animate Clay were given by Betty Engholm and Torben Michelsen in June 2nd. Estonian professional artists and architects as well as boys and girls from Kihnu Island attended that day. All fantastic figures created together with the Danish artist will stay in the museum s collection.

The 13th nude exhibition was supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment, the Ministry of Culture, the Danish
Cultural Institute, the General Consulate of Belarus Republic, the Municipality of Pärnu, Tallink.

______________________________
The Museum of New Art, Pärnu
Esplanaadi St.10
Pärnu 80010, Estonia
tel. 44 30 772
fax 44 30 774
muuseum@chaplin.ee
www.chaplin.ee