On Wednesday, December 13, at 3 pm, the painter Sirje Petersen will open the exhibition “Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow”, where the walls of the former maternity hospital and our current university building have 18 oil painting Petersen’s different creative periods since 2008. https://www.yti.ut.ee/et/uudised/sirje-petersen-avab-uhiskonnateaduste-instituudis-maalinaituse

Petersen took a few weeks to think about what an exhibit could be in a house with a special atmosphere. “Both myself and my children have been born in this house, and this is meaningful to me yesterday,” she described. “Today we are dealing with the sharing of wisdom and teachings in this house with young people, and we are sure that this work will continue here tomorrow.”

Petersen added that the premises of the institute are a bit of an exceptional exhibition arrangement, since the distance to the walls is around three meters, which does not leave the viewer just a lot of resignation and remote observation space.
So he had to relate to different parts of the room and find exactly the works that could fit in both the message and the format and color.

Professor Margit Keller, Head of the Department of Social Sciences, said that the Institute has a lot of fun at the exhibition, which in the same way relates specifically to the work of Sirje Petersen, whose colors and depicted people call for reflection. “For example, they can offer different, humorous interpretations according to which corridor or whose door they are located. On the other hand, we will discover our working environment in a fresh way. It will start to speak differently about art, “she said. “In the usual routine space, a new, visual and physical experience is emerging – which we have perceived as an exhibition floor in the past, but still quite rare. It could be inspirational and I believe that we will start organizing exhibitions more often. ”

The whole of Petersen’s work is strongly related to the emotions and memories of both yesterday and today, which will get together on the canvas tomorrow. “In my case, the rule is that everything is inexplicable and everything is not to be explained, the viewer must always have the opportunity to interpret the work in terms of his own point of view,” says Petersen.

Sirje Petersen’s artistry began in 1980. She never had the freedom of a freelance artist, Petersen has always worked as a lecturer in various educational institutions. Currently, she is a part-time associate professor of painting at Tartu Art College.

Her last bigger personal exhibition consisted of 12 large-format paintings at the Noorus gallery with Per William Petersen’s creations.