From 1 August 2024 visitors to the Botanic Garden in Tallinn can watch the exhibition “You have to find your place, sit down and wait. Joanna Concejo in search for soul in illustrations”. The illustrator’s nature-inspired works will be exhibited at the new visitor centre and in the Palm House. Interactions with drawings arranged in pavilions filled with plants will be possible until 27 October 2024.
Exhibition "You have to find your place, sit down and wait. Joanna Concejo in search for soul in illustrations”
The interactive exhibition “You have to find your place, sit down and wait. Joanna Concejo in search for soul in illustrations” brings the works of a Polish illustrator Joanna Concejo to life. It invites viewers not only to watch, but also to enter the world of the artist’s works. The exhibition presents three-dimensional covers of several books, such as “The Little Red Riding Hood”, “The Wild Swans”, “The Prince in the Pastry Shop” as well as “The Lost Soul” – recently translated and published in Estonian. Visitors can immerse themselves in Concejo’s works and become acquainted with them by watching delicate drawings, getting inside the illustrations through a multimedia window, arranging own compositions out of elements of illustrations or processing the artist’s work by means of artificial intelligence. It is also worth listening to the drawings – the exhibition offers a chance to hear the sounds that are equivalent to audio illustrations.
Joanna Concejo was born in Słupsk. Throughout her career she has illustrated more than 20 books and received numerous awards for her work. She collaborated with Olga Tokarczuk on the book “The Lost Soul” published in 2017. Her illustrations are globally recognised and have been exhibited, among others, in Portugal, Italy, Taiwan, South Korea or France. She has elaborated her distinctive character of ‘image script’ thanks to the reduction of creative means: she has virtually restricted herself to drawings in pencil and crayons. Joanna Concejo is also a Grand Prix laureate of the prestigious Tallinn Illustrations Triennial “The Power of the Picture” in 2023. Concejo’s works were first presented in Estonia in 2015 at the Estonian Children’s Literature Centre.
Joanna Concejo, a Polish illustrator, is an ambassador of Polish art around the world. Her works are known in numerous countries and appreciated at prestigious competitions and exhibitions. The Adam Mickiewicz Institute supports and popularises with full conviction Polish artists who prove with their talent, skills and passion that art knows no borders and is a space for common experiences and emotions, just as is the case with fabulous illustrations and graphics of Joanna Consejo – as Olga Wysocka, Director of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, points out.
Exhibition “You have to find your place, sit down and wait. Joanna Concejo in search for soul in illustrations” – display stands with illustrations in the space of the visitor centre of the Botanic Garden in Tallinn.
Photo: AMI
Illustrations with floral motifs in the Botanic Garden in Tallinn
The first edition of the exhibition “You have to find your place, sit down and wait. Joanna Concejo in search for soul in illustrations” took place at the Estonian National Museum in Tartu. It was organised to celebrate the publication of the first edition of Olga Tokarczuk’s “The Lost Soul” in Estonian, which was possible owing to the collaboration between the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Estonian National Museum in Tartu.
The exhibition will be shown from 1 August to 27 October 2024 in the Tallinn Botanic Garden to residents and tourists visiting the Estonian capital. Thousands of plant species in the open air and in greenhouses form one of the most unique exhibition spaces in the country. The presentation of the works by Joanna Concejo perfectly interacts with the main motif of her illustrations, namely lush vegetation. It is the most suitable place for the fourth edition of the exhibition “You have to find your place, sit down and wait. Joanna Concejo in search for soul in illustrations”.
The Adam Mickiewicz Institute recommends the visit!
Exhibition “You have to find your place, sit down and wait. Joanna Concejo in search for soul in illustrations” – display stands with illustrations in the space of the palm house of the Botanic Garden in Tallinn.
Photo: AMI
Curator: Adrian Chorębała (EKA/AFA Katowice)
Exhibition design: Natalia Jakóbiec (Wzorro Design)
Interactive installations: Kacper Mutke, Michał Urbański/tajny_projekt
Organisers: Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Tallinn Botanic Garden, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tallinn, Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice
Partners: Estonian National Museum, Estonian Children's Literature Centre in Tallinn, EUNIC-Estonia
Financing: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tallinn Botanic Garden