Culture.ee’s weekly recommendations: 22–28 Apr 2019

The Dance Week is a week-long event introducing dance art to Viljandi county by filling the area with various approaches and performances of dance. There are dance events for everyone, for those who are interested in seeing, watching, hearing or discussing dance, and of course, for those who want to dance.

Tartu Artist in Residence Bita Razavi will open the doors of her studio to the public for the first time on Thursday, the 25th of April at 7 pm and will talk about her project Raua 16. Come to Raua 16 to share your experience and stories of renovation and hear others’ over a glass of wine.

Raua 16 studies the materials and methods used for renovation and interior design in relation to the recent history of the region. Razavi peels an empty and partly renovated apartment in Tartu to excavate different layers of its renovation.

An extraordinary form of musical theatre, where the audience sits in a circle around a confessional with blinders on. The libretto of this piece is based on the motifs of the seven deadly sins. Different sounds (whispers, gusts of wind, car noises) and music (singers performing segments from liturgical works) approaching and moving away, running over the listener or sneaking up on them from under the chair. Even scents play a role. You will feel a faint touch or a drop falling on your arm… The senses are alert and the subconscious produces fantastic images.

Ruta Vitkauskaite (Lithuania)
Jens Hedman (Sweden)
Asa Nordgren (Sweden)

HÕFF introduces to Estonian and foreign audiences the largest possible contemporary range of horror, fantasy, and cult movies. Although a number of horror and fantasy film festivals are organized in the neighbouring countries of Estonia, HÕFF is unique, as it focuses on a high-quality programme and shows the best movies from the world’s most prestigious genre festivals. Most of the films have not been featured in Estonia and it is unlikely that they will be shown outside of HÕFF.

In order to respond to the wishes of the audiences, the festival will last for 4 days again; the legendary HÕFF march across downtown Haapsalu will be revitalized; the first Estonian Nazi zombie film will be premiered; horror video games can be played and there will be many other exciting activities around Haapsalu.

Supilinn Days bring spring to the shores of Emajõgi and Supilinn district. There will be communal work, fair, music for every taste, literature and lectures, open yards and home cafés.

The goal of the Tallinn Coffee Festival is to advance the coffee culture and to introduce the exciting world of coffee. Over two days people can get to know many different and special varieties of coffee, learn about the ways of making coffee and what equipment to use, enjoy a good music and a lively programme. On Saturday, there are also exciting activities for families with children.

More than 50 companies participate in the event, who will also offer tea, chai, cocoa, syrups and much more. World famous brands and local roasteries are represented. Besides hot drinks, to complete the taste delights, there are also several pop-up cafes and places to eat.

Telliskivi Creative City celebrates its 10th birthday! A lot has happened over the past ten years, the former factory landscape has changed and grown a thick cultural layer.

The jubilee will be celebrated with the community and for ten days in a row. The old times and events will be revitalised, and what happens in between the city walls on a daily bases will be shown. On different days the focus is on art, children, music, theatre and dance, skateboards and bikes, films and architecture and much else. The city’s distant and recent history will also be packaged up in several interesting ways.

On Friday, April 26 at 6 pm there will be the opening of Sigrid Viir‘s exhibition ‘False Vacationer’ at EKKM.

At the heart of Sigrid Viir’s solo exhibition are today’s blurred boundaries between work and vacation. False Vacationer is a voyage through the entirety of the EKKM, starting from the external facade of the building and leading through the three storeys inside, posing questions about attitudes, habits and insecurities common these days in the holiday and work culture. The viewer can choose whether they come to the exhibition in ‘work’ or ‘holiday’ mode and that choice determines what route they will take through the building, accompanied by an audio guide. But does a ‘pure’ vacation, true catharsis await the viewer anywhere along the way? And how contemporary would the fairy-tale about holidays sound like?

The Finale of the contest for young composers: DYCE – Discovering Young Composers of Europe.

Four concerts by four ensembles in the four partner cities with a streaming broadcast from each concert hall to the other three. Audiences will accordingly be able to listen to the 3 best pieces from each region, i.e. 12 pieces: 3 in live by ensemble U: in Tallinn and 9 in streaming. The audiences will be able to vote and select 4 winning scores from the pieces they listened to (live and in streaming), 1 from each European region. The four winning composers will be commissioned to compose a new piece for 2020.

Ensemble U:, Tallinn
Cikada, Oslo
Divertimento Ensemble, Milan
Ensemble Taller Sonoro, Sevilla

The film evening will include two documentaries from the past couple of years with a similar poetic style – they were both realised in the genre of cinema povera. The worlds described in these films are also in some respects similar, concerning the daily lives of people committed to Christianity.

The program includes Andri Luup’s Father Guy (Isa Guy) and Ingel Vaikla’s Roosenberg. The screening of the films will be followed by a conversation with the directors, moderated by Jaan Tootsen.