Yesterday's”/ Eilne

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“Yesterday's”/ Eilne”

“Yesterday's” is a new site-specific painting installation by Alexei Gordin located in the heart of the Central Market, a nostalgic place, a sanctuary of an old time of transition when capitalism was just a baby in post-Soviet territories. In the nineties, markets became training grounds for nascent market-based relationships, often associated with criminality and a certain danger. “Yesterday's” is an absurd pun reflecting the artist's thoughts about contemporaneity, nostalgia, and the place of art within it. Tallinn Central Market will soon be renovated into a trendy contemporary marketplace, losing its old-fashioned authenticity and the last signs of perestroika aesthetics. Everything new, nevertheless, becomes nostalgic after a long time passes. We live in constant change, and art is something that tries to stop and dissect particular narratives in time. However, art itself, like any other human creation, often needs to be studied and dissected. In his installation, Gordin refers to a famous painting by Ed Ruscha, where, on a reddish background, it is written “Artists who make pieces.” The word "piece" is associated with something incomplete, cut, and imperfect; thus, art seems to lose its elitist, sacral meaning, becoming equivalent to a “piece of meat” or even a “piece of shit.” This is also how capitalism works: it divides our will and desires into many small pieces, preventing us from perceiving the whole. Throughout history, the market has been not only a place for buying goods but also an important communication platform. Recent developments are showing us that shopping areas are noticeably winning over communication platforms. What will be the role of art on the periphery of these changes? Let's hope that these fears are unfounded. In the same time, nostalgia is not such an innocent thing, always making us dream about a “beautiful yesterday” instead of creating a better tomorrow.

supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.