DESCRIPTION OF THE ART-PROJECT "THE CIRCLE"

It is an art-project including artists from Estonia, Sweden, Germany and Russia.

The project was started in 1996, intending to be active for many years. The leader of the project and the whole idea is Anne Kokkov.

The main idea is to introduce landart, but art exhibitions in different galleries in Estonia and Sweden have been arranged as well.

Landart is a phenomenon of art, which is not yet popularized in Estonia though it's conception is worth it. Its idea estimates the land, the earth, the environment and the human values, so we can set the high value on landart for the social sphere also. Its target audience is the most wide - everybody.

The advantage of landart in comparision to some other phenomenon in art is that landart is created in public, not in studios. Everyone can follow the process, ask for the explanations about the idea, the realization etc. So people learn more about the active process of creation in art. Usually public can never do it, especially in districts far away from the art-centers. This can be a unique chance for many people. So such symposiums have a great meaning in the sense of education and cultural event. In a way it means the estimation of personality.

Materials

There are no limits for creation of landart. The materials depend upon the artist, the author: his inclinations, ideas, aims. Some artists want their artwork to last. Others work for short periode of time. The material can be wood, stone, plastic, paper, light, sound etc. Modern industry manufactures every day a lot of production, which is used only for a short time but actually will never decay and join up to the cyclic process in nature. Using such secondary material to create an artwork landart can give a new life to it. So one can perceive it in the aesthetic way.

History

Landart symposiums of the project have been arranged every year since 1997: 1997 in Lahemaa, Estonia; 1998 in Bollnäs, Sweden; 1999 in Pärnu, Estonia; 2000 February and June in Rakvere. AD 2001 the symposium was held in Rakvere again to celebrate the 775th anniversary of the town. Photoexhibitions introducing landart works of "The Circle" are also exhibited. As a town with long history Rakvere is a very interesting place with its backround and architecture typical to the Estonian small towns.

The group of the artists participating is not constant. Some of them take part of symposiums every year. Every year some new participants are engaged. "The Circle" means a circle of life, a circle of people, artists who live in different areas but have actually similar cognition of the world. We live in the same epoch, in the same cultural terms. To understand more one has to know more. "The Circle" can't be a closed circle, new participants bring new ideas, enriching the whole conception.

The most important part of the project are landart symposiums.

Landart as a phenomenon comes from the 60-ies. Landartists proclaimed that they had found a new perception of the world, new light and form. The whole conception of landart treats the nature, the land and the earth. Our age needs some new assurance for itself. We need no slogans anymore. New feeling about the contact to the nature and the whole mankind is needed. We need assurance that the we and the place we live in will last. So we are searching real values again, which has been estimated throughout the whole history of mankind.

These values comprehend the essence of existence - the problem of good and evil; freedom of will and predestination, the irony of fate; relations between life and death; fertility; birth, rebirth and reincarnation; cycles in nature. In art figures, symbols and signs depict the human values. An artwork is just a matter, but at the same time it's an allegory.

In Rakvere landartists have created a womb made of hay hanging on the trees, giant human shadow on the hillside, a plastic sunrise/sunset, a wheel of time made of vinyl LP-s and other artpieces that are so symbolic that describing them in words is quite impossible.