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Jaan Toomik

1961, Estonia

Jaan Toomik (1961, Estonia) is an internationally recognised Estonian painter, video and performance artist. Her international career started in mid-90s, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Toomik was recognised in the West as an author of conceptual performances and videos. Iconic videos – „Way to São Paulo” (1994, included in the São Paulo Biennial of the same year) and „Dancing Home” (premiere at ARS-95 exhibition in Helsinki) – became the cornerstones of Toomik’s practice as an artist. These and other works arise from local context, however, they strive to transcend the borders set by language, culture, geography, nation and autobiography. In the video of 1998 „Father and Son”, the artist is skating on the table of the frozen Baltic Sea naked, a religious song in the angelic voice of his 10-year-old son is sung in the background. This work has already become an indispensable part in the collections of the most important museums and private collections. Articles about it have been included almost in all most notable art books of the Eastern Europe. Toomik has also addressed cinema in the recent years.