Studio 22 Manifesto

Diverging from earlier Estonian traditions of geometrical art, STUDIO 22, an artistic group that developed in the beginning of the 1970's, found its inspiration in the ancient cultures and aesthetics of the Far East. This ancient art was highly mystical, and as in the European cultural tradition of geomancy - a practice of divination using random geometrical patterns - its purpose was both to create and expose a mysterious message within the structures and forms.

Ancient wise men could read the signs of nature, and they in turn retained their knowledge in a language of signs, a language that has, over time, become increasingly accessible to us, so that we can now understand it without the meditation of these wise men. We have thus created a new objective system: this common language which serves as the starting point for our artistic processes.

STUDIO 22 is a creative group of artists as well as a studio where every year new members are trained. One of the main educational goals is to make known views on cultural heritage that differ from the traditional ones. To do this, we compare historical image systems, in which we seek inspiration for our creative work. And we make an effort to unite our personal experiences with these existing ones; indeed, it is as if we remove ourselves from this world to commune with a timeless remoteness. Our new objectivity does not seek, however, to represent a visual reality, but rather to reveal a system hidden behind that reality. Still, we each need to find our own artistic language in order to reveal this system.

One part of STUDIO 22's educational process is to create a language of images specific to each individual. Each artist's specific language is revealed in a stream of conciusness exercise in which he draws hundreds of simple images within a circle or square; these images, hidden deep in the subconscience, appear spontaneosly and serve to disclose each artist's unknown language of symbols. A certain amount of creative similarity among the members of the group is to be expected at first since many of our artists share a common vision of the world and often draw similar geometrical figures, archetypes, really, of mythological origin. Even if these similarities do exist, however, each artist can continue to use this method to help him maintain his individuality in further creative process. Still, this individualized process is gradually replaced by one that enriches the entire group; in other words, the creative process is one in which individual mythology becomes increasingly universal, increasingly validated by the group.

STUDIO 22 is a movement in which participants believe that there exists an ethical relationship between human beings and creating art.

Tõnis Vint 1992