Vilen Künnapu, a legendary architect and lecturer who has convincingly defined himself as a painter in recent years, is known as a dissident whose main theme and passion is the city.

The exhibition "Such a City" in Haus Gallery illustrates Vilen's characteristic world, where colors, emotions and courage speak to look at the well-known and mostly stereotypically visible urban landscape in a different way.

Both in architecture and in painting, the author shifts perspectives, encourages to step out of our habitual images and models of experiences. Künnapu's paintings are not simply city views with bright neon colors, with which the author seeks a visual effect, but clearly formulated statements based on the artist's overall philosophy. Künnapu's works wake us up from the comfort zone of reality, calling attention to our surroundings and the courage to live and think differently.

With this exhibition,the artist illustrates one possible view of Tallinn. He creates his own energy space for it - not only a materially structured, logical or history-based living environment, but an energy space that in different cities can be felt differently by everyone. The city of Vilen Künnapu in our exhibition hall is a visually attractive, meaningful and thought-provoking show full of subtexts - a city that the artist has dealt with in one way or another throughout his long life, knowing very well what he is talking about.

The captivating nature of art lies in its broader message and positive provocation. Yes, we can see Künnapu's cityscapes as crazy exaggerations of color that scream to be looked at, but we can also see in them Vilen's attempt to make a certain revolution of anti-stagnation, being consistently visible and active with his artistic interpretations, almost political and manifesting, appearing on canvas with "slogans" here and there, strongly inviting us to restart the way we look at the environment we live in. It is impossible to ignore Tallinn in Vilen's colors, the city of paintings invites us to compare it with the real city, to notice again its eloquent towers, roofs and street corners, which we often pass by without noticing anything on our usual routine trajectories or in gray weather. Vilen Künnapu's paintings are like traffic lights demanding attention - red, yellow, green - and your foot on the brake, the journey to a spectacular city can begin, the city of all of us...

Curator: Piia Ausman  

Vilen Künnapu is known as a worshiped architect who started painting visibly and consistently only about ten years ago, yet visual art has always been a parallel path alongside his profession as an architect. In addition to the paintings known today, Vilen has also made assemblages, collages, and drawings. His literary activities should be noted and his long-term work as a meritorious lecturer in several Estonian and Scandinavian universities should be emphasized. Künnapu's attractive, versatile and talented nature is significant in the cultural space here and is also under international attention. Künnapu dares to move one way and another. In paintings, the artist is intuitive and energetic. Formally, he deals with the same approach to problems and working methods as in architecture creating his own personal city. Vilen's paintings mainly depict a city where happy naivety, pure childish color schemes and architectural eclecticism prevail. In his own style, Künnapu revives the limitless idea spaces of different eras, using the city, and especially his hometown, Tallinn, as a significant source of inspiration.