August Korb photo exhibition “Thislessness” in the corridor of the Department of Philosophy

From March 26 to June 12, 2026, the corridor of the Department of Philosophy will host the photography exhibition “Thislessness” by artist and philosophy student August Korb. The exhibition is inspired by Kaplinski’s novel “Seesama jõgi” (“The Same River”) and the essay “Attention and Will” by philosopher Simone Weil.

August Korb is a multidisciplinary artist from Pittsburgh, PA, USA, currently living in Tartu and studying in the University of Tartu’s Philosophy master's programme.

Moved by Jaan Kaplinski’s semi-autobiographical novel The Same River, August set off ‘through the forest’ in the spirit of the novel’s principal character. These expeditions are what eventually brought forth the series “Thislessness”. The artists’ repeated journeys deeper into the Estonian natural landscape were guided by a desire to touch the numinous experience of nature that transfixed the book’s young protagonist. The boy gives this hopeful, peaceful, and fleeting phenomena a name, “the This”.

Korb’s work recognises and considers the similarities between Kaplinski’s descriptions and the ideas discussed in philosopher Simone Weil’s essay “Attention and the Will”. Using Kaplisnki’s poetic imagery, Weil’s mystical vocabulary, and the artist’s own photography, Korb attempts to sow together a phenomenological account of “the This”. The talk will reside in the hedges between philosophy and art, an exercise in translating between the two.