Marge Monko (1976) was born in Tallinn, Estonia, where she lives and works. She graduated as a photographer from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2008. She has received the Henkel Art Award of 2012 and a Köler Prize nomination in 2012. She has had numerous solo and group shows internationally including a solo show in mumok, Vienna. In 2014 she received a HISK Scholarship in Gent and has recently finished the KulturKontakt Austria residency in Vienna. She has several artworks in public collections including the Estonian Art Museum, Estonia, the FRAC Lorrain, France and the mumok, Vienna. She also has several publications such as a monograph called ‘I Don’t Eat Flowers’, published in 2012 by Lugemik, Tallinn.
Monko has long been working with themes related to women’s role in society and its changes over centuries. Her photo collages and large-scale colour prints depict jewels enlarging the details of the objects and reducing the visibility of people wearing them. With her works she presents a laboratory-like demonstration of how advertisements and the display of commodities define a woman in our society. Through the close-ups and the absence of the face of the women the works stimulate the viewer to analyse what builds up femininity today.
