Kadriorg Studio

Production of international exhibitions, educational projects, and audiovisual works, Tallinn, Estonia and London, United Kingdom 2005-2009.

Selection of video works
Quest project
Tartu.mov project
Young Spanish Painters exhibition series
Empty spaces and their occupants project

Selection of produced works

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Flight 002

Video documentary
Director: Maxim Surin

Sound: Martin Pedanik

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Dentro o fuera (Inside or Outside)

Minna Hint and Maxim Surin video documentary 2006.

Dentro o Fuera looks at applying a romantic worldview to a neo-liberal globally capitalist world. The main characters in the film experience a flâneur-like ‘poverty’ in a very unorthodox way…Being lazy, being happy, being yourself whilst making people smile is one of the best feelings that exists…

Grand Prix for the best Estonian audiovisual art work at XIII Pärnu International Film and Video Festival, Estonia.

Dancemarathon

Film based on the ballet performance by Estonian choreographer Mai Murdmaa 2007, Tallinn, Estonia.

Dancers and actors:
Andrus Laur, Mari Savitski, Ruslan Stepanov, Marika Aidla, Rita Dolgih, Vladimirs Latisonoks, Maarja Paugus, Janek Savolainen, Polina Zukova, Viktor Larionov, Margus Jaanovits, Aivar Kallaste, Herta Elviste, Maimu Krinal, Kais Adlas, Tiit Lilleorg.

Director: Maxim Surin
Choreographer: Mai Murdmaa
Music score: Rainer Jancis and Narva Symphonic Orchestra directed by Anatoli Schura.
Supported by Vanemuine Theatre and Estonian Ministry of Culture.
Watch on request.

3 Images of Life and Time

Video documentary
Director: Minna Hint

Editor: Maxim Surin

Documentary takes a look into three rather different lives in a small industrial town called Kingston upon Hull in the UK. Each of these three people has its own relation to time and therefore also to their lives. The first tries to speed up the passage of time in order to live life the least time possible.
The second, the author herself, is trying to prolong her time maximally or postpone the moment of facing it, equaling time and money.
The third character tries to live in the maximum possible synchronisation with time. He simply quits his personal life in order to discover a higher sense of life through the materiality of time.

Film in collection of Tartu Art Museum, Estonia.
Watch on
request.

Collaboration with Merike Estna

Shatulka, Crazy naked woman who dared to be honest, Fiction documentary, God´s Zoo is Diverse aka War and Peace, It can be dangerous to want to know why.
Read more about works in collaboration with Merike Estna here.

Selected projects

Quest

Video documentary project and collective exhibition

Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea, UK. 1 August – 23 November 2008.
Roles: Project manager, camera and editor.

Collaboration between Estonian and Wales based artists: Jacob Whittaker, Paul Granjon, VJ K-os, Maria Arusoo, Merike Estna, Minna Hint and Maxim Surin.

“Repetition” documentary revolves around three artists based in Wales.
VJ K-os, a VJ and organiser of music events, based in mid Wales; Paul Granjon, based in Cardiff who specialises in the creation of robots and machines, and Jacob Whittaker, an installation artist based in Carmarthenshire who uses film, found objects and broken machines. Through their conversations and the editing process connections emerge and we are encouraged to consider these engaging contemporary portraits of three artists.

The exhibition featured works by each of the artists in the film.

Minna Hint and Maxim Surin are emerging Estonian artists who use a
documentary style approach to create engaging film works which immerse us in the lives, obsessions and concerns of their central characters.

Through these films there are also questions raised about the way we live our lives in contemporary society, as often the protagonists in these works have chosen alternative lifestyles or occupations and therefore question the dominant values of our world.

The resulting films reveal a great deal about our contemporary
condition and our own attitudes to what life is really all about. Hint and Surin create portraits of people from different social backgrounds with often alternative outlooks which attempt to convey these values and perceptions.

Quest has been commissioned by Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, The Arts Council of Wales, Walestonia Festival & Centre for Contemporary Arts, Estonia

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Tartu.mov

Pedagogical documentary project

Tartu Art University, Estonia 2008
Roles: Project manager, filming workshop.

Series of screenings of emerging Spanish documentary makers at KUMU Estonian Museum of Art, Tallinn and Ateena Cultural Center, Tartu, Estonia.

Collaboration between Kadriorg Studio and Kanema Documentary Association, Barcelona, Spain.

Participated artists: Joanot Cortes Fabregas, Pillar Monsell Prado, Maxim Surin, Minna Hint, Mari Jänes, Eret Kuusk, Sten Eltermaa, Mari-Leen Küpli, Filipp Solovjov, Lilli Tölp, Mari Liis Roots, Liina Soosar, Roland Seer, Tiit Joala.

Collective doc film won II Prize at Julius Film Festival, Spain 2008.

Supported by Espana Cooperacion Cultural Exterior, Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores i de Cooperacion, Spanish Embassy in Tallinn, Tartu Art University and KUMU, Art Museum of  Estonia.

Young Spanish Painters

Exhibitions series

2 collective and 3 personal exhibitions at Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn season 2006-2007.
Roles: Project manager.

Curated and organised by Maxim Surin, Merike Estna and Eugenio Ocana Afan de Rivera.
Print design: Martin Pedanik.
Photos: Anatoly Stuf.

Solo exhibitions: Eleonor Solans Gracia, Eugenio Ocana Afan de Rivera, Alfredo J Pardo Marti.

Collective exhibitions: Jesus Angel Bordetas, Francisco Medialdea, Miguel Carlos Montesinos, Ramon Muro, Ramon Perez Sendra, Raquel Sepuveda, Eduardo Roca, Sergio Luna, David Barcenas, Sergio Davo, Santiago Torralba, Maru Camaestra and Enrique Campayo.

Supported by Espana Cooperacion Cultural Exterior, Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores i de Cooperacion, Spanish Embassy in Tallinn, Estonian Concert Agency, Arco Transport Group.

We are a part of space and space is not something static and solid; it arises in a constant negotiation between space, object and viewer, time or duration, the relational understanding of orientation, movement. This are some of the fundamental basics for experiencing/understanding space – and thus ourselves.
‘The space’, in most western societies is disappearing as a focus of the ‘person’, in favor of imagined and imaginary ‘spaces’ that rely on temporal rather than physical, and that ‘the space’ can be said to be living in the person.
Our experiences, then, are constantly oscillating between the expectations we bring with us; gestures, postures, language and movement suddenly come to assume a very special form that seems to be guided and controlled by the institution’s demands.
This enforced orthodoxy, which finds its parallel in the consumer culture’s marketing strategies, where the standardizing regimentation of the consumer promises greater profits to the market.
But this does not stop the external spaces from being imprinted.

Beauty is a question of interaction, not a fulfillment of certain culturally valorizing expectations.
We expecting physical input from the audience, and us are investigating the audience’s experience of navigational interfaces.
The atmosphere itself is never completed, but constantly modified by those who are present in a system of continuous feed-backs.

Being made aware of the true nature of one’s surroundings is a first step towards a dialogue: and to enter into that means that an approach can be made to see the self as it is, and not as it likes to think it is. By moving towards this state, it can be said that the breaking down of the habits, armor and illusory coatings of the self can begin, and that the possibility of a real ‘I’ begins to emerge.

Andrew McKenzie  and Maxim Surin

Мы часть пространства и пространство не есть что-то статичное и цельное; оно возникает в постоянном взаимодействии между пространством, объектом и зрителем, временем или продолжительностью, относительным пониманием ориентации, движением.
Вот некоторые фундаментальные основы для познания/понимания пространства и соответственно самих себя.
«Пространство» в большинстве западных обществ перестает быть центром «личности», отдавая предпочтение вымышленным и мнимым «пространствам», которые больше полагаются на временное, чем физическое, и такое «пространство», можно сказать, вживается в личность.

Наш опыт, таким образом, постоянно колеблется между питаемыми надеждами; жесты, позы, язык и движение появляются внезапно, чтобы принять особую форму, которая, кажется, управляемой и контролируемой требованиями институций.
Эта принужденная ортодоксальность находит параллель с маркетинговыми стратегиями культуры потребления, где распределение по группам стандартизации потребителя обещает рынку большую прибыль.
Но это не мешает внешним мирам/пространствам оставлять след.

Красота – это вопрос взаимодействия, а не реализация каких-то, искусственным образом оцененных ожиданий.
Мы ожидаем реального вклада от зрителей, чтобы затем исследовать опыт аудитории в  навигации интерфейсов.
Сама атмосфера никогда не заканчивается, но постоянно изменяется теми, кто существует в системе продолжающихся ответных реакций.

Осознание истинной природы, окружающей нас, это первый шаг к диалогу: и вхождение в диалог означает, что существует подход к видению своего “я” таким, каким оно является, а не таким, каким хочется его представлять.
Двигаясь к этому состоянию, можно сказать, что разрушение привычек, защит и иллюзорных покрытий самого себя начинается, и вслед за этим,  возможно, начнётся  проявление реального ‘я’.

Эндрю МакКензи и Максим Сурин.

Empty spaces and their occupants

Estonian exposition and performances at VI International Performance and Experimental Art Festival, Manege Central Exhibition Hall, Saint Petersburg, Russia 2006.

Role: Project manager.
Curated and organized by Maxim Surin, Irina Kogan and Arnold Praust.

Participated artists: Kaarel Kurismaa, Kaido Ole, Margus Sorge Tiitsmaa, Martin Pedanik, Kiwa, Andres Lõo, Raul Keller, Merike Estna, Sandra Jõgeva, Kristin Kalamees, Kaarel Sammet, Aino Sepp, Toomas Thetloff, Timo Toots, Meelis Kaldalu, Liivi Tantaal, Anna Aua, Helin Tikerpuu, Sergei Babasjants, Anton Sionberg, Festival of Non-Existent Bands, Pink Punk, C.n.o.p.t., Neformat, Sami Hyrskylahti, Jorge Piquer Rodriguez, Ana Cembrero Coca, Ana Berkenhoff, Anselm Belser.

Exhibition catalogue design: Martin Pedanik

Supported by Estonian Ministry of Culture, Estonian Cultural Endownment and Center for Contemporary Art, Tallinn, Estonia.

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