Estonia 2026

Title: The House of Leaking Sky
Commissioner: Maria Arusoo
Curator: Natalia Sielewicz
Exhibitor: Merike Estna

The project transforms the exhibition space into an open studio where the boundary between art and maintenance, and between the elevated and the everyday, is collapsed. The presentation centers on a monumental canvas that the artist gradually saturates with colour and form throughout the duration of the event.

The exhibition explores painting as a process that seeps into daily life, performance, and routine. By living in the host city with her family for the duration of the project, Estna entwines the labour of the artist with that of the mother, challenging traditional myths of solitary genius and permanence. This performative approach is heightened by the venue—a former church turned community centre—where sacred and civic elements, such as frescoed ceilings and basketball court lines, intersect.

The project reflects the artist’s long-standing preoccupation with how mediums slip beyond the confines of fixed objects, turning the workspace into a multilayered archive.