Kati Ilves

Kati Ilves (1984, Estonia) works as a curator in the Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia. Kumu is the largest of the five branches of the Art Museum of Estonia, displaying both permanent and temporary exhibitions. In Kumu, Ilves is in charge of the contemporary art gallery, and focuses on curating the current tendencies in Estonian and international art, as well as introducing the classics of modern and contemporary art to the public. She has curated solo exhibitions and group shows, and put together research-based projects, such as an exhibition focusing on the development of the sound art discipline. Ilves has also edited several catalogues and books accompanying exhibitions and has made a documentary film about the artist Raoul Kurvitz, a central figure in the Estonian art scene at the beginning of the 1990s. She is the initiator of the Kumu Art Film Festival KuFF: the first cultural event in Estonia of its kind, which highlights works by visual artists, focusing on the relationship between film and art. Since 2009, she has been a lecturer in the Department of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She is also a board member of the magazine Estonian Art and a regular writer for several papers. Her current fields of interest include the history of contemporary art curating and working with the archives of past exhibitions. Ilves graduated from the Department of Art History at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and studied literature and film in Paris 8 University.