Maria Helen Känd

Maria Helen Känd is a curator and art critic. In her curatorial practice, she focuses on socio-psychological topics that disclose the fragility of social fabrics and that invite audiences to perceive and reflect on the complexities of identity. In her recent projects, she has taken a more intuitive approach towards curating in creating poetic experiments with works of artists that share formal features and express mythological and archetypal themes. She works as a freelance art journalist and as a project manager and curator at the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM). In 2021, Känd was the laureate of the art critic scholarship by the CCA Estonia and the Estonian Association of Art Historians and Curators.

Exhibition projects: ars viva 2022 – Agents of perception at Kai art center (with Lewis Ham- mond, Tamina Amadyar, Mooni Perry, Janis Dzirnieks, Anastasia Sosunova, Laura Põld). Presence of People Absent at EKA gallery(Katariin Mudist’s solo exhibition), I Share Myself with Pleasure at Naked Island project space (Mia Raadik’s solo exhibition), east end(s) at Põhjala factory (with Marko Mäetamm, Tanja Muravskaja, Flo Kasearu, Alexei Gordin, Sandra Ko- sorotova, Tanel Rander and Madlen Hirtentreu), Outside of Oneself at ARS art factory (with Johannes Luik, Katariin Mudist, Mathias Väärsi, Liis Vares, Maarja Tõnisson, Lisann Lillevere, Johanna Ruukholm, Emilia Furs and Nusrat Jahan).

She has studied film, theatre, and media science (University of Vienna), cultural theory and comparative literature (BA, Tallinn University) and currently she is completing her MA in curatorial studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts. 

Känd’s visit is part of the Re-Practicing Hospitalities network funded by Nordic Culture Point.