19 artists from seven different countries are set to participate in the exhibition at Tallinn Art Hall's Lasnamäe Pavilion, many of whom will display their work in Estonia for the first time.

According to curator Ilari Laamanen, "Trance" has an interdisciplinary and cross-generational focus, while each artist brings something unexpected to the exhibition.

"The unusual architecture of the Lasnamäe Pavilion has strongly influenced my curatorial process. The exhibited works will have a direct dialogue with the exhibition space, making it an engaging and multisensory experience," Laamanen said.

"Estonia-based artists Zody Burke, Karel Koplimets, Anu Vahtra, Pire Sova and Ando Naulainen are creating new installations especially for the Photomonth exhibition. It is also a pleasure to feature
work by international practitioners such as Patricia Domínguez, CUSS Group, Laila Majid and Louis Blue Newby in Tallinn for the first time."

"Trance" also questions contemporary life and its domination by the use of different screens. "The exhibition explores how artworks can complicate and aid, the examination of sensory experiences in a technologically mediated world. 'Trance' moves spirally between humane and mechanical, fantastical and factual, allure and absence, in an aim to disorient and reorient the viewer and the viewing situation. The closer the viewer gets to the real, the more imaginary it becomes," Laamanen explained.

 "'Trance' can be understood here as a persuasive mass cultural phenomenon on one hand, and as a self-reflective, or even subconscious, experience, on the other," the curator added.

In addition to the main exhibition, the main program of this year's Tallinn Photomonth also includes an artists' film program, which will, for the first time, be part of the Expanded Cinema section of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF).

The film program is curated by Estonian artist and filmmaker Piibe Kolka and New York-based film curator Genevieve Yue. The selected films focus on themes of co-creative methods, collective authorship and sociality. Screenings take place on November 16 and 17 at the Sõprus cinema in Tallinn.

A strong emphasis will continue to be placed on the event's educational program, which is aimed at schoolchildren, as well the display of artworks in urban space.

More information concerning the Tallinn Photomonth '23 film program as well as the satellite and educational programs of will be announced in the coming months.

The artists participating are Sara Bjarland (FI/NL), Zody Burke (US/EE), Patricia Domínguez (CL), Elo-Reet Järv (EE), Karel Koplimets (EE), Laila Majid (AE/UK) & Louis Blue Newby (UK), Norman Orro & Joonas Timmi (EE), Pire Sova & Ando Naulainen
(EE), Viktor Timofeev (LV/US), Anu Vahtra (EE), Jessica Wilson (US) and the artist collective CUSS Group (ZA). Further artists will be announced later this summer.

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