Ivar Veermäe (born 1982 in Tallinn, lives and works in Berlin) received a BA in photography from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2009 and a MA in 2014 at Spatial Strategies department in Weissensee Kunsthochschule Berlin. He has received various scholarships and grants – Kunstfonds Arbeitsstipendium, Elsa-Neumann-Stipendium Berlin, Stipendiums from Estonian Cultural Endowment, Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art Grant.
The artist has had solo exhibitions in Edith-Russ-Haus, Oldenburg, Germany, Gallery im Turm, Berlin, Tallinn Art Hall Gallery, AV17 Gallery in Vilnius, Cultural Center Belgrade, and City Gallery of Tallinn, Estonia among others.
His work has been exhibited in group exhibitions at Riga Biennale, Venice Architecture Biennale, transmediale Festival in HKW, Moscow Biennale
for Young Art, BIENALSUR in Buenos Aires, the Bozar in Brussels, the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Netherlands, the Art Museum of Estonia, Art Hall of Tallinn, the Estonian Contemporary Art Museum, the Latvian
Centre for Contemporary Art, the Kulturhuset Bronden in Denmark, the Kunstverein Wolfsburg, the Kunstverein Kassel, the Pinnacles Gallery in Australia.
His videos are being screened at the Rencontres Internationales in Paris and Berlin, in HeK Basel, transmediale Festival, e-flux.com, MoMa web
platform, AND Festival in Manchester, EMAF in Osnabrück, Kasseler Dokfest, Crosstalk festival in Budapest, in Virtual Memorial, Cambodia.
"My work evolves through artist research, whereby first hand information from certain locations, that is combined with discussion with people connected to the place or topic is most important. Theoretical background of my research lays in environmental theory, climate literature, technology criticism, behavioural science and diverse (science)fiction.
I combine video, photography and sound recordings with 3D animations into a mixture of documentary and staged or computer generated material. Often I present my work as multi channel spatial installations.
In my previous practice I have critically analysed digital technologies and companies who operate it concentrating on their local presence contrasted with the different representations (Center of Doubt, 2012 – 2018); mining, energy politics and decentralized cryptocurrencies, bound to certain places with cheap energy supply (The Flood, The Miners and The Heat, 2018 – 2019); terrorist attacks against property and real estate development through shipment of an entire historic building from London to Tallinn (Eternal Interests, 2016 – 2018). Currently I am working on projects, that question exceptional role, that humans have reserved for themselves to find possibilities of reduction of our importance and blend it with larger environment."
Email: contact@ivarveermae.com