Talk by Gregor Taul: Public art in Estonia in the Soviet period and today

On 3 December at 6pm, as part of its non-formal education programme, the LCCA Evening School, the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art invites audiences to a talk by Gregor Taul about public art in Estonia in the Soviet period and today. The event will take place at the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Alberta iela 13, and is free of charge.

In his talk Gregor Taul (http://gregortaul.ee/) will give an overview of what was called monumental-decorative art in Soviet Estonia. This term encompassed mural paintings, mosaics and stained-glass pieces, which (ideally) were supposed to help synthesise the visual arts with architecture. While the first part of his talk will focus on the Soviet period, in the second half he will turn his attention to the most recent public art in Estonia. Since 2012 more than 60 artworks have been commissioned as part of the One Percent for Art law. What are the first results? Can we learn anything from the Soviet period? What needs to be changed? What does public art tell us in general about the artistic culture within a country?

Gregor Taul is a critic and curator based in Tallinn. He is currently a PhD student at the Lisbon Consortium working on a thesis on late Soviet monumental decorative art in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Taul studied semiotics at Tartu University (BA in 2009) and art history at the Estonian Academy of Arts (MA in 2012). Since 2010 Taul has been active as an author writing on visual art and architecture. In 2012 he co-authored a book on Estonian murals published by Lugemik (recently published in English). In 2016 Estonian National Museum published his book on the architecture of the museum’s new building. He is currently finishing his first novel, a story about a retired professor of the architecture of digital minds. Taul has worked as a gallerist at the Estonian Academy of Arts and was the director of Kondas Centre of Outsider Art in Viljandi. He has taught at various schools and universities in Estonia.


The LCCA Evening School is a series of conversations, talks, discussions and reading workshops devoted to current issues of contemporary art as well as exploration of the recent past, including the role of social, political and ideological contexts in culture. The LCCA Evening School takes place in the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Alberta iela 13, and its events are free of charge. The project is supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation.