Ifa Galerie

Liina Siib

15 Aug - 05 Oct 2014

© Liina Siib
Saaremaa Walzer, 2014
video installation, music video
LIINA SIIB
Spin around and twirl
15 August - 5 October 2014

Curators: Elo-Hanna Seljamaa and Barbara Barsch

Spin around and twirl is a line borrowed from the lyrics of the Estonian folk song, Saaremaa Waltz. For the artist Liina Siib the island of Saaremaa, a former Soviet border area, symbolises the experiences of totalitarianism in her homeland Estonia. In the exhibition series "Solo for..." the ifa gallery Berlin presents Liina Siib's photo and video works, in which she examines social conditions and historical changes.

"Solo for ..." shows works of artists who had already been presented in the ifa galleries at the beginning of their international careers. Liina Siib participated in the ifa exhibition Passages – Art in Estonia in 1999 in Berlin. She represented Estonia at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011.

The ifa gallery Berlin presents works created during the artist’s residencies and fellowships in New York, Italy, Sweden and Germany, etc. Her approach of photographic observation in the process of a flânerie enables Liina Siib to analyse cross-cultural connections, often with subtle irony. The exhibited artworks focus on the concept of conformity. They highlight processes of self-discovery und social conformance, the tensions between truth and untruth, work and leisure time – always with an eye on the Soviet era and its aftermath in Estonia.