Culture.ee’s weekly recommendations: 21–27 Jan 2019

Contemporary art has to a great extent abandoned the classical art medium. Landscape painting seems too ordinary, aesthetically beautiful, sometimes idyllic. This particular exhibition seeks to open up the historical content and importance of forest painting and to find connections with the topic today. Paintings of forests exhibited in an industrial interior evoke a dissonance and pose the question: how do you relate to a forest that is so close and so tangible, but at the same time so alien and at such a distance?

Curator: Leila Lükko

Concert of the Estonian Association of Professional Musicians includes performances of Risto Joost (countertenor), Villu Vihermäe (viola da gamba), Kristo Käo (theorbo and baroque guitar) and Ene Salumäe (organ).

The “Cities in Films” special program includes a selection of documentary and feature films that cities have a special role to play in. There are films that pay special attention to architecture and how the protagonists interact with the surrounding city and create cities themselves.

Program

Wed, Jan 23, at 7 p.m. Big Time
Thu, Jan 24, at 7 p.m. Ada for Mayor
Fri, Jan 25, at 7 p.m. Bicycle Thieves
Fri, Jan 25, at 9.15 p.m. Columbus
Sat, Jan 26, at 7 p.m. My Winnipeg
Sat, Jan 26, at 9 p.m. Wings of Desire
Sun, Jan 27, at 5 p.m. My Uncle

Lembit Ulfsak’s feature film ‘The Joys of Midlife’ (Estonia, 1987) will be shown.

Two well-off married couples (Pille and Tõnu, Silva and Hubert) have reached the understanding that something is wrong in their lives. They pin their hopes on NIgul, the famous healer living in southern Estonia. Together with Helena, who is better equipped with esoteric knowledge, the couples set off for a cross-country car trip on a nice summer day. They are being warned during their journey that the healer won’t change their lives in a second. When arriving at their destination, the couples will face an unexpected surprise.

There will be three energetic nights during the first half of the year, where world music beats and the fresh Estonian folk music can be heard. On January 25, Etnosfäär celebrates their 2nd birthday at the Estonian Traditional Music Centre. Etnosfäär gathers in the birthplace of the band, in Viljandi, and a unique concert will be given, which will include a winter tenderness, ancient force and some spice. The concert is accompanied by Estonian Youth Mixed Choir, conductor Silja Uhs, and will be followed by a dance party at VLND Villa, where you can dance until the morning comes!

Already in the 70s, David Bowie was told by the psychic that he was going to live exactly 69 years old. Unfortunately, the psychic was not mistaken. A few weeks ago, however, the psychic announced that three years after Bowie’s death, such a Bowie special would be held in TOPS, that it will be remembered at least as long as David Bowie himself will be remembered. Music will be played by DJ Marianne Kõrver.

The performances include Ingrid Elsa Mugu’s ‘Sinumina’ and Elisa Ritsing’s ‘Lein/Leid’.

Sinumina (Tallinn University BA Diploma Thesis)
Choreography: Ingrid Elsa Mugu
On stage: Ingrid Elsa Mugu, Elisa Ritsing

I know me only in terms of others. I know who I am and what I do through the feedback of others. But who are the others? Are they at all? The performance is a Choreography BA graduation performance and part of KorFest 2019 programme.

Lein/Leid
Choreography: Elisa Ritsing
On stage: Elisa Ritsing, Waldemar Muñoz (CU)

The performance talks about finding oneself through grief. Is it possible to feel happiness and gratitude through intense suffering?

A room and money of her own – these are two prerequisites for a woman’s self-fulfilment, so wrote Virginia Woolf almost 90 years ago. Despite this, Estonian architectural culture still seems to be completely unaware of the fact that space can also be a feminist issue. The exhibition throws up nine questions about the specificities of architectural education and the development of the canon of Estonian architecture, the stereotypes and prejudices related to the work of women architects, the role expectations embodied in public urban space and housing, as well as spatial equality and the needs of marginal users. In interviews, practising architects from different generations share their experiences and views on these topics.

Curator: Ingrid Ruudi

Dr. Ildikó Sándor’s fairytale night for adults (in Hungarian, with Estonian translation). Hungarian folk songs and folk tales from the garden of love (and the rear of the garden) will be introduced. Love and erotics in Hungarian folk poetry will also be the topic of the evening.

Toxic masculinity, toxic ignorance, toxic anger… But can feminism also be toxic? Toxic to whom and in what circumstances? At the end of January, the themes of feminism, the environment and Eastern European art will be brought together in order to discuss ways how to think of about toxicity in our increasingly polluted world. The festival involves workshops, video screenings, discussions and live music. Saturday events are in English and Sunday events are in Estonian.