Marge Monko's exhibition "Do I Know What It Is, From Which None Can Escape" in Düsseldorf

‘Do I Know What It Is, From Which None Can Escape’ brings together a series of photographs depicting lost gloves on the streets of Tallinn, and the found photos of human hands.

The so-called ‘gloves’ season’ in Estonia lasts relatively long, from October to April. Especially towards spring, one can notice many lost gloves on, which lie on the ground, or are placed in a visible position by passersby.

Gloves are immediately connected to hands, protecting them from cold or dirt, and there’s a trace of human touch in the gloves. A single glove on the street signifies loss but also care, especially when observing the creative and sometimes humorous ways that passersby have displayed them so the owners can find them again. The photos of gloves and vintage images of hands are a kind of interplay of the notions of lost and found, and of precarity and care.

The title of the work is a quote from the Estonian writer Viivi Luik, whose poems often deal with the changing seasons and the human psyche.

Marge Monko (born 1976) is a visual artist who lives and works in Tallinn. She has studied at the Estonian Academy of Arts, University of Applied Arts Vienna, and Higher Institute for Contemporary Art (HISK) in Ghent. Monko works with photography, video, and installation. Her works are inspired by historical images and theories of psycho-analysis, feminism, and visual culture. She works as a professor in the Department of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Monko has recently shown her work at Times Museum, Guangzhou (2024), KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION (2023), EMST, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2022), and MUAC Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of Mexico (2021).