OVERVIEW

Mari-Leen Kiipli

Liste Year

Year of Birth

Country of Birth

Presented by

2021

1988

Estonia

Kogo

Mari Leen Kiipli Husa Arvo Tarmula Lääne Elu
Mari-Leen Kiipli (b. 1988). Photo by Arvo Tarmula / Lääne Elu

Mari-Leen Kiipli creates photos, videos and installations that focus mainly on the unspoken, cognitive features of spaces and situations. As an attentive viewer, wanderer, and researcher, she has created her vision of genres such as nature documentaries, sports coverage, or nature photography, as opposed to the narrative-based notion prevalent in the media. She is interested in old myths and stories in the modern context, such as the myth of the end of the world or the tales and use of various plants. Through these stories, she explores humanity’s relationship with nature. With her inventive and fascinating installations, she sharpens the viewer’s attention to light, transparency, reflections, shadows, colour, sharpness, texture, movement, sound and other perceptible qualities. To do this, she uses various materials, found objects, plants, slow-motion videos. In videos and photographs, she depicts her own focused and sensitive presence or even improvisational movement in found places, such as an abandoned house or industrial landscape, forest, field or greenhouse. Mari-Leen’s works are both enchanting and confusing.

Mari-Leen Kiipli: "I looked around stunned. Dust balls and lint were sticking to my skin, and I tried to wipe them off. Looking out, I was passing through different environments like courtyard, my birthday party, plastic greenhouse, the impact of grass, argument of the gardeners, moisture rose, beanstalks, all year long summerhouse, a piece from somewhere else, my body is inevitable".

  • Mari-Leen Kiipli. Take the Path Through Asparaag. 2019, video still
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The earliest images in human culture reveal the recognition of the power and dignity of animals in their own right. In current times where the environment is mostly seen in terms of resources, awaking old myths about animals and nature is a way to empower and create respect for the natural world. Mari-Leen Kiipli creates a contemporary fable about personal transformation and human-nature relationships blurring the existential encounters between different forms of life. In her video, she expresses the state of standing between light and shadow, uncertainty and suspense. The video was first exhibited t ...

  • Mari-Leen Kiipli. Fish That Swallows the Earth. Particles That Dance in the Sunrays. 2018. Video still
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Mari-Leen Kiipli’s video installation 'Passiflora' creates an environment of transparencies and reflections, using slow-motion HD videos on translucent screens and semi-transparent mirrors that propose multiple perspectives of the space. The starting point for the work was the discipline of nature documentaries. Kiipli is fascinated by the mixture of scientific facts, conscience and human values and tries to approach the nature documentary as a series of personal encounters and sudden gifts.

Passiflora
Mari-Leen Kiipli. View from the installation Passiflora. Hobusepea gallery, Tallinn, 2017
Passiflora
Mari-Leen Kiipli. View from the installation Passiflora. Hobusepea gallery, Tallinn, 2017
Passiflora
Mari-Leen Kiipli. View from the installation Passiflora. Hobusepea gallery, Tallinn, 2017
Passiflora
Mari-Leen Kiipli. View from the installation Passiflora. Hobusepea gallery, Tallinn, 2017
Passiflora
Mari-Leen Kiipli. View from the installation Passiflora. Hobusepea gallery, Tallinn, 2017
Passiflora
Mari-Leen Kiipli. View from the installation Passiflora. Hobusepea gallery, Tallinn, 2017

Mari-Leen Kiipli’s installation 'Husa' depicts a fantastic garden. It consists of car windows, bent armature, concrete, dripping water, second-hand jewellery, lace boots, Ensis shells, twining plants of Ipomoea genus, runner beans and raspberries. Kiipli describes her installation 'Husa' as “a grove filled with thoughts, ideas and feelings as different poses, inspired by the lush urban and natural landscape. The installation creates a scene carried by night winds, emotional mazes, cars, building lots, flying insects and movement of plants.” Kiipli seems to be interested in the connection of thoughts, ...

  • Mari-Leen Kiipli. Husa. Haapsalu City Gallery, Haapsalu, 2020
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SELECTED PRESS


Nature constantly shows you that nothing is forever

Una Meistere, Q&A with the artists Mari-Leen Kiipli and Eike Eplik, and curator Šelda Puķīte, Arterritory, 08.07.2021

Dancing on the ruins of the future

Annika Toots focuses on the dystopian landscapes in the works of Mari-Leen Kiipli and Britta Benno, KUNST.EE 1/2021

Spatial Experiments

Diane Smyth, Aesthetica Magazine, Issue 90, August/September 2019

Photo reportage from the exhibition by Kristi Kongi and Mari-Leen Kiipli at the Kogo gallery
Echo Gone Wrong, 22.11.2018