Sillamäe artist Eduard Zenchik builds his own artistic world and shapes the city's cultural life

In Sillamäe, an Estonian city on the Baltic Sea known for its strict architecture and industry, the artist Eduard Zenchik creates work full of symbols, riddles and mystical images. He is 50 years old and not only produces his own art but also helps develop the city's art scene.

Zenchik studied in Tallinn and has travelled the world, yet he has always regarded Sillamäe as his home. He says he has loved the town all his life and that it felt closer to him than Venice or Paris.

The SillArt gallery

Sillamäe is called a city of fresh sea winds. People once came mainly for the sea and the architecture; now they also come for contemporary art. Zenchik is among the founders of the recently opened SillArt gallery, which plans to work with local authors, artists from other parts of Estonia and artists from abroad. According to him, next projects are already lined up with a Finnish artist and an Estonian photographer.

Musician and cultural figure Vladimir Vysotsky says Zenchik is working to put Sillamäe on the cultural map of Estonia and the wider world.

The "unknown artist"

Zenchik calls himself an unknown artist. In his view, this lets him change his artistic style freely and avoids tying him to one direction. Vysotsky sees him as a symbol of contemporary art in Sillamäe and a representative of all Ida-Viru County and Estonia.

For Zenchik, art has long moved beyond the canvas. He says he sees himself as an art object, with his works as its complement. A finished painting does not always match the original idea, and it is important to stop in time, or the work loses its strength.

Zenchik does not yet consider his career a success: his goals are larger than what he has achieved. "I am almost constantly beating against concrete," he says, adding that he will keep breaking through it.