The Sauna: Metal, Heat and Tradition. Reose,Teevet and Uustal in A-Galerii’s vault. An Exhibition Review

The sauna installation is a surprising discovery at a bright gallery, which is filled with hundreds of works by Estonian jewelry artists. The door is closed, the light is soft. On the wooden wall where the towels are usually hung, hang metal versions of towels.

As I open the wooden door into the sauna, the cozy smell of tar washes into my nostrils. Everything looks as it should: the bench, the glowing stove, the enameled bowl with water and the whisk. The golden leaves of a sauna whisk are scattered around the bench. Some things that the usual sauna has have been turned into metal. The stove is made by the blacksmiths, with hot stones on top, some of them in cast bronze. The sauna bench, with three levels, has metal soaps and a bowl with a metal whisk. The space is more than familiar to every Estonian.


Exhibition display


The sauna is part of Estonian bloodstream and everyday life. It is present in almost every respectable household. Not long ago, it was the only place to wash yourself. The artists dwell into the memories of a sauna. I talk to Reose and Teevet on the phone. Although the best talks are of course held in a hot sauna.

Estonians can be obsessive about saunas, so much so that many have formed a firm opinion of what a good one should be like. With this exhibition, Teevet, Reose and Uustal want to oppose those high brow views and demystify the experience. They say that ultimately, a sauna is a sauna. It is mostly a practical place, that is born out of necessity.

Reose says that each sauna is unique, even if it is built by the same person, with the same materials. “It doesn’t matter if it is made of plastic or wood or even if the builder is the same, a sauna is always different from others.” Reose adds, “Even if you get the experience of sweating, of whisking in every sauna, it has a different feel.”


Exhibition display


It is only natural that the blacksmiths wanted to exhibit in the sauna space. They studied together in the Estonian Academy of Arts. “Metal department blacksmiths are connected through sauna,” says Reose. The academy’s smithy has been in various places, and in most there has been a sauna. When The Estonian Academy of Arts finally moved to a new building, the sauna was missing. The blacksmiths built one in a shower room. Having a sauna together unites.

The great Tammsaare, an Estonian writer, wrote: “When people have been to the sauna together, they form a kinship, become almost friends. The sauna equalizes everyone. The sauna is like a grave.” Those same words are cut into the side of the stove.

"Sauna is a bodily place,” says Teevet. The sauna that they built in the vault has become a huge part of their artwork in A gallery. Teevet says that the most important thing in the exhibition is the experience of the space. The works could be there or not.


Exhibition display


"The works presented are not necessarily bodily experiences but the sauna itself is. We built a sauna, it became an exhibition space but it is also a sauna. Sauna is a space with no unnecessary things, it gets hot and humid there. So we are on the borderline with our works, are they needed or not,” Teevet says. I argue that since the sauna in A-gallery doesn’t get hot nor wet the works are definitely needed. They are hidden in the familiar space and made me look for them. It was different to stand close to the stove and look from down to up the bench where various pieces were placed.

Sauna is devoid of objects which presents a challenge for the artists. Which are the objects to depict? Reose made a soap that is smooth from use. It is made of steel. “I was thinking of childhood when making these works. I was thinking of my first sauna experience and what I remember. I chose to use a symbol of a worn down soap that has taken the shape of the palm that uses it. After the wash, it is left and dries and crackles, then it is picked up and used again. That is the life cycle of a soap,” says Reose. To accompany it, he made a sponge that weighs about 3 to 4 kilos. It is made of a steel block, where he drilled the holes.

Teevet made a golden sauna whisk that you can hold in your hand. He thinks it has the potential to be jewellery as anything that can be held in the hand. “Just like the things you attach to your clothes with a needle or hang around your neck with a chain,” he says. With the whisk, he points to the extreme lengths that the sauna experts have gone.


Exhibition display


"Now there are so many experts to say when is the right time to make a sauna whisk, from what tree it should be made of, and how it should be cut. At what moon it should be made, some say new moon, others the old, if it should be made before midsummer day or after.” Teevet likes what an old man somewhere said: make the whisk when you need it, when you are going to the sauna. A sauna whisk is a bouquet of branches that are soaked in water. It is used to whisk the body, sort of a massage tool.

Outside of Estonia, saunas are often considered as part of a spa experience. Teevet says that for Estonians, the sauna is a crucial and practically important space. “If you compare a sauna to a spa, then the sauna is a darker, more humid and smokier place,” says Reose. In the old days, the last wash of the deceased was done in the sauna. Teevet likes Tammsaare’s comparison of a sauna to a grave. Sauna is where most people go naked.

Teevet compares sauna to a mass in a church. He says, “While priests prepare for the ceremony, you heat up the sauna stove, while wine is given at mass, you throw water on hot stones. People in church get soul blessings and purification and you get hot humid air which also purifies the soul. Both are built on simple structures that work, that’s why are both still standing,” says Teevet.


Exhibition display


Last year was the sauna year in Estonthey ia, and director Anna Hints won the Sundance Movie Festival main prize with “The Smokesauna Sisterhood.” Teevet says their exhibition was planned before the movie aired. Their sauna is a statement against the built mysticism and fanciness around it. “Sauna is mostly a practical place,” says Teevet. “A hot room where you sweat and cleanse,” says Reose.

The exhibition will remain open until 30th of November 2024. Hopefully the sauna will travel outside Estonia. A sauna can be built anywhere. Surprisingly, even as the exhibition space, it still feels like a real sauna. If you leave the door to the sauna in A-gallery open for too long, you hear someone shout: Close the door, don’t let all the heat out! The exact words of my deceased grandmother who made sure that even if I live outside Estonia, there will be a sauna.
 

About the author

Kaia Ansip is an Estonian jewellery artist based in Portugal. Ansip graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts  with a master's degree in jewelry and blacksmithing in 2022. In addition to her studies, Ansip has completed internships at ArCo art school in Lisbon and with jewellery artist Catarina Silva. The artist has participated in exhibitions in Portugal, New Zealand and Estonia, including the Portalegre Biennale of Jewellery in Portugal; in the exhibition "Balance" at Kristie Debbs’ gallery and in the group exhibition “Phantasmagoria”. In a collaboration with Claudia Lepik and Ljubov Kedrina, Kaia Ansip has created the project "Domestic jewelry”, within which the artists shared photos of jewellery made from everyday objects on Instagram for 365 days.