Category: Gallery

“Come with me and you’ll be
In a world of pure imagination
Take a look and you’ll see
Into your imagination”

These are the lyrics from Pure Imagination used in the famous Sci-Fi movie Ready Player One and as it says in the movie, the gaming world is such a unique space “where the only limit is your own imagination.”

Photo: Ruxin Wang

In LVLup!, the owner Andrejs expressed all his excitement and passion about gaming when introducing his museum to me. The video game museum is full of retro consoles and all the interactable gaming elements. However, it would be quite wrong if it’s just reckoned as a place only for homeboys. On the contrary, the place well combines all the concepts of art, history and culture in a non-traditional sense. Here you can also find yourself astonished by the industrial designing and an absolutely environment-friendly vibe. Except for immersing in a game world, you can always take a break in the upper showroom where there are art exhibitions mostly from EKA students. There’s also a music corner near the coffee table where you can find vinyl records of all genres.

Located in an old factory site, the museum is surrounded by lots of artists’ workshops thus there is a mixed and vibrant environment bringing it more attractions. Another owner, a French artist Camille, also corporates lots of paintings and installations in the area. These art pieces are set in such a subtle way that it’s easy to neglect details if you are not paying attention to the green plants on the ground or observing the space layout from different angles. Even the wooden stairs were polished manually by Andrejs and the whole space was renovated by them from scratch. It’s also a museum built on public contribution and cooperation since many collections are from anonymous donations or sold at a very low price just for support. The consoles and video games are from all over the world and the same love would keep bonding people together.

Photo: Ruxin Wang

The name LVLup! indicates the idea of players progressing in gaming battles and the logo color red corresponds to the power socket when you plug in. It can be seen everywhere in the museum and it emphasizes the idea from the owners to create a modern gamification world and unite all the enthusiasts as well as youngsters born in the ’00s. It also provides a relaxing location for families and friends to enjoy intimate moments or simply chill on a weekend afternoon.

“People come for all the things they can do but they stay because of all the things they can be. This isn’t just a game”, quoting from Ready Player One, but this sentence perfectly explains why so many people are willing to visit LVLup! and spend their time in this gaming world. Because for them, for us, it’s more than just a playground, it’s also reminiscence, childhood memory and the love of your life.

Photo: Ruxin Wang

LVLup!

The first interactive video game museum in Baltic states opened its doors on the 2nd of September, 2018. The museum introduces the visitors the extensive world and history of video games. LVLup! is located in Tallinn, Pärnu mnt 154, in the building of ARS Art Factory. In LVLup! Museum, visitors can play the games on display 6 days a week. There is also a gallery of temporary exhibitions and a retro shop in the museum. The museum also hosts events and school visits.

Website: http://lvlup.ee/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lvlupmuseum/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lvlupmuseum/

Photos: Ruxin Wang

“What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language.” — Miuccia Prada

The Estonian History Museum’s “Fashion Line: Estonian Ladies’ Fashion 1920–1940” captures a snapshot of local life in textiles. The small exhibit is organized not by color or style – the way a closet might be – instead, the thirty-two outfits are grouped by the places or times when they were worn (e.g. weddings, vacations, or a night at the theater). Many of the occasions are events that still fill our lives today.

To take full advantage of this exhibit get your reading glasses (or your knees) ready. The clothes hang on easy-to-see mannequins around the room and accessories are displayed in glass cases along the walls, but the descriptions displayed at ground level add a lot of context. For example:

– “Widows spent six months withdrawn from social interaction, and wore heavy black clothes. After a year, she was allowed to switch from black to grey.”

– “An old custom said you should put on your oldest and most worn clothes before Christmas so that you could replace them with new ones when the holiday came.”

– “The daily schedule in any resort city was simple: you tanned and you swam.”

– “The groom was responsible for a white bridal bouquet of seasonal flowers. In the 1930s, orange blossoms became more popular.”

While the clothes themselves tell a story on the surface, it was these little written details (provided in English, Russian, and Estonian) that really helped me envision the clothes coming to life in each category: funerals, holidays, parties & dances, spa resorts, university & cafes, confirmation, baptism, & weddings.

According to the organizers, this exhibit “offers a look into the life of an urban woman […] helping to understand the cultural processes of the time and showing how closely fashion ideas are tied with the values and spirituality of an era.” While I can’t say I have a deep understanding based solely on this exhibit, it did make me want to go out and find some old movies or novels that would incorporate these costumes into a full story of Estonian life.

I was probably most fascinated by the black-and-white video playing on a loop that is embedded in the wall near the entrance to the room. In these vintage film clips, you could see women of various shapes, sizes and ages actually wearing the clothes, enhanced by their expressions, their posture, and their interactions with the people around them. The chance to see the clothing up close was a nice way to spend roughly half an hour, but it was these little glimpses of the people who wore them that truly sparked my curiosity.

As an added bonus, the exhibit also includes family-friendly puzzles and art supplies in one corner of the room, so that younger (or older) visitors could entertain themselves as the fashion fans browsed the exhibit more slowly.

The exhibition remains open at the Estonian History Museum until May 12, 2019.

It can seem funny to think of the details of our daily lives as a part of history, but isn’t history just a collection of stories about daily lives? The clothes we wear, the music we listen to and – as shown in this exhibit – the furniture that we use to decorate our homes often represents larger social, cultural, and political stories. Curating these elements into an exhibition can be an interesting insight into patterns over time and a fun trip down memory lane.

Urbanization

“According to local time” uses a variety of visual tools, including statistics alongside photographs, furniture, and fashion sketches, to show changes in Estonian life from the 1920s to the 2000s. One of the most striking numbers is the trend towards Estonian urbanization over the last century.

27% lived in urban areas in the 1920s
32% in the 1930s
47% in the 40s & 50s
57% in the 1960s
around 70% in the 70s-90s
85% in the 2000s

Urban life is as popular today as life outside the city limits was in the 1920s. What effect do you imagine that had on the inside of local homes?

Tech in the Home

When I think about technology’s influence on interior design today, my thoughts go to smart appliances and digital entertainment. If we think even farther back, “technology” could refer to things that many of us may take for granted today. These are detailed throughout the exhibit:

– Only 11% of Estonian homes in the 1920s had running water, and this number was still only at 84% in the 1970s. This was a reminder that innovation does not immediately spread across an entire population as soon as it’s available. It made me stop and rethink a decade that I usually associate with all of the comforts of modern life.
– Electricity grew at a much faster pace than running water, from 32% of homes in the 1920s to 100% in the 1970s.
– In the 1930s, 97% of Estonian homes used wood-burning stoves for heating, but by the 1970s almost half had central heating, and 74% of homes had it by the 1980s.

These changes often affect our comfort level at home but they aren’t always visible in the décor of a home. Entertainment, however, is visibly built into the structures of our homes. As the popularity of radio spread in the early 20th century, radio cabinets crept into people’s homes. When boxy televisions entered the mix, they needed pieces of furniture to sit on top of and living room staples like sofas and armchairs begin to focus more on comfort. In the 2000s, flatscreen TVs moved to the walls, reducing the need for a TV stand or entertainment center, and the exhibit notes the trend towards more personal areas as individual screens started to take the place of group entertainment.

Materials and Minimalism

The descriptions (in both English and Estonian) give context to the changes in styles as you browse through the decades. Means of production, availability of materials, Soviet-era regulations, and a desire for individualization all show up in the shapes and textures of the furniture on display. The last decade of the 2000s notes the modern trend of mixing vintage furniture with today’s designs so you may find yourself going home and trying to determine the era and style of your own home.

“According to local time: A century of the Estonian home in the city” runs at the Museum of Estonian Architecture until October 7, 2018, and takes about an hour to thoroughly enjoy.

Once visitors pass the large “300” sign marking the anniversary of Kadriorg Palace and park, the paths begin to glow with soft candlelight. The hum of a few drones circle overhead, documenting the light shows below and the visitors flowing in and out of the park on foot. Two young people race around the base of a small pond, relighting the floating candles beneath a glowing spiral structure in the center of the water.

The 13th annual Wandering Lights festival kicked off on Wednesday, September 19th at 7 p.m. Blue skies overhead already felt nostalgic in these last moments of summer. As the evening grew darker, the crowds grew larger and mobile phones in the hands of all ages added another layer of glowing light to the landscape.

Deep inside the park, the rear wall of Kadriorg’s Upper Garden (Kadrioru lilleaed) tells a simple story of silhouettes in old-fashioned costumes floating between two picture frames. Young children stood on their tiptoes, trying to reach their arms high enough to make shadow puppets in the lowest areas of the frames. Older generations jostled for space to pose and take photos of the “Mirage” installation by Estonian video artists Mikk Mägi and Sander Joon. Across the gardens, fire jugglers performed on the balcony of the Kadriorg Palace and small flames danced throughout the candles lining the swirls of the manicured lawns. The soundtrack in this area was quiet, with just the gurgling of a fountain maintaining a serene stream of natural noise.

On the opposite side of Kadriorg Palace, Norwegian video artist Anastasia Isachsen presented a fairy tale installation entitled “Autumn Ball” that was projected onto the façade of the majestic residence. At this family-focused spot, autumn leaves blow softly across the building in between shows. When the music begins (the lights are set to a stately string piece), the images begin to tell their story. Birds sail across the wall, an aristocratic woman with hair piled high on her head twirls around the center, with one of the round windows often hiding her face. Towards the end of the short show, a couple comes together to dance the night away before the tale fades softly into the break, and the leaves begin to blow again as the next crowd gathers.

The largest crowds circle around the musical fountain performances at Kadriorg Swan Pond. Five short songs – from Peter Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet “Waltz of the Flowers” to the operatic classic “Por ti volare” – fill the air as streams of water dance across the pond’s surface. Soft purples and blues, powerful red lighting, or simple white streams of water shoot high above the treetops of the park or spiral into various shapes along with the melodies. Fair warning: those in the front rows may even receive a sprinkle of mist across their faces (or camera lenses). There are 3–5 minute breaks in between each mini-show of one song. Plan to stay for 30–45 minutes to watch the entire selection of songs. Performances on the pond repeat from 7 p.m. until midnight with many crowds moving along after just one song, so it only takes a few minutes of patience to score a great view.

All around the pond, roughly every tenth person (myself included) held a smartphone screen turned toward the show, and this was my most difficult battle. I wanted to capture the scene to share with the readers of this blog, but I found that watching the installations through a screen completely took me out of the moment. Documenting our lives often seems second nature these days, but the moments that I remembered to stop and immerse myself in observing the light completely changed the experience. I went from concentration on framing the shot to immersing myself in the artistic experience.

I ended up spending about an hour sitting on the edge of the Swan Pond, picking and choosing the time to take photos, videos, and written notes, but then putting everything into my lap. Then I simply stared in awe at the fountains in real time as the crescendos of the music surrounded the air around my ears. Now, I’m (obviously) not against smartphones or social media, but I was struck by how powerful these moments become when they felt secondary to being there, and yet photo documentation feels almost like second nature.

The Wandering Light’s Festival continues on Thursday, September 20th with shows in both Kadriorg and Old Town, and the festival closes on Friday, September 21st with installations only in Old Town. Click here for the full schedule.

If your doctor advises you to undergo the course of treatment which includes lots of sensuous pleasures, go to I Land Sound!

We arrived on Friday afternoon, by this time, many festival goers had already experienced the first evening and night of the festival. I enjoyed the Thursday night through the waves of Raadio 2 and the only thing I would like and would recommend for the future is to find some additional frequencies for the broadcast so that you could listen to music from all the different stages of the festival in turn. The choice of music was truly wide and for different tastes but especially for the dancy taste. The performers were divided between the nine different stages. There were DJs and the representatives from Raadio 2 shows, such as Öötöö, Machine Nation, Haigla saade, Tjuun In, Estonian Funk Embassy, Tallin Express, and Majamasin. If you are a fan of Raadio 2 night programme, then this festival is an answer to all your prayers. You get it all at once and in large quantities!

Everyone was treated very well and personally. There was always someone who wanted to know how it goes, what’s in your bag and after that gave you a „hug“ too. Of course, all this was in order to make the party the best for everyone, and it was taken care of by wonderful people in yellow waistcoats.

The air was full of colours, art, sounds, pleasing vibes and all in all it was just a blessing!

If you want to spend a really enjoyable holiday in a marvelous place where you can swim, do sports, play, relax, dance in the evenings, and continue with all this again on the next day, I Land Sound is a place to be. But you have to be quick and open-eyed, otherwise you will not be able to get a ticket to the wonderland. This time, ALL the tickets were sold out by Thursday, there were a total of four thousand people plus volunteers and the team. But there was enough air and space and everything else for everyone. Maybe next year there will be an opportunity for 5,000 or 6,000 people, who knows!

As we know, the high-speed trains do not stop everywhere. That’s why, for example, many passengers of the Tartu-Tallinn route were probably unaware of the existence of Tabivere before the protests against the pulp mill began. On the imaginary Finno-Ugrian Railway, the train stops only in a few stations (fortunately, also in Estonia!) and races quickly past everything that lies between the bigger stations. The Finno-Ugrian experience shows that if you do not have your own country today, then you will be raced past, and in the worst case, you will be run over. There is a lot of noteworthy between the stations, but it cannot be seen from the window of a high-speed train.

There are small nations, but there are no small languages or cultures – all are equal. Some just have more opportunities and spread over a bigger area than others. The Finno-Ugric Film Festival (FUFF) allows our small nations who speak Finno-Ugric languages to find their place on today’s media and film landscape, giving them one more opportunity to protect and develop their culture. If there’s an opportunity, it’s possible to do astounding things! That’s what can be seen at FUFF also. The festival is managed by a Hungarian Edina Cüllög for the fifth year already. According to Seto writer and socialite, FUFF’s patron Kauksi Ülle, Edina should be thanked for her ability to revive the Finno-Ugric peoples’ movement and bring Hungarians back to the movement.

Suitably for Finno-Ugric people, the event takes place far from the centre, in Võru County, this year for the first time in Sänna. FUFF allows to take time off for those who are in a hurry, there are aromatic lindens all around, there’s no rush. The internet and mobile reception are (fortunately!) poor, the company, on the other hand, is wonderful. And the food! A body is recovering nicely because of the vegetarian diet for several days, and since the policies of the Sänna Culture Manor do not favour alcohol consumption, the liver which is tired of summer grills and chills gets its well-deserved rest. Smoke sauna and linden flowers, enjoying the birdsong on the shores of the river Pärlijõgi and on the roads of the planetarium, a beautiful, vibrant manor interior and affectionate contacts with other attendants … Solely because of all this it was worth coming here. In addition, the movie programme is also super!

Festival mornings begin with workshops of scriptwriting, animation, experimental film and music, and the outcome of these workshops will be presented on the last day. After lunch, there are various film programmes in the big hall. Only Finno-Ugric small nation’s films compete, but there are also short film programmes that include films from Turkey, Spain, Estonia, Finland and Hungary, and some longer films.

I also have personal favourites from the festival. The opening film It’s Not the Time of My Life is made by well-known Hungarian director Szabolcs Hajdú (who also supervised the experimental film workshop at FUFF). He filmed at home, actors were his family members, most of the screenings of the film have also been in the homes of people. This intimate work has multiple levels and extremely engaging dialogue that makes you think about life and makes you want to watch the movie again. The second film which addressed me deeply is Julia Mironova’s documentary The Nation, which tells the tragicomical story about Udmurtia and the Besermyans. The movie contains beautiful and lively Udmurt singer and doctoral student of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Maria Korepanova. One of the awarded films of the festival, the short documentary The Lake (by Daria Blokhina) touches the same strings of the soul, reflecting the fate of traditional culture and lifestyle.

Among other things, I would like to praise the late-night music and culture programme of the festival. At nights when you were tired after watching the movies, you weren’t expected just to fall asleep in the tent, but you had a chance to enjoy music and dance: the choice of music ranged from Finno-Ugric disco and the five-rhythm dance Pööriöö to Triinu Taul.

I reread my text and look at all these exclamation marks. The hand does not rise to delete them. Believe me, it was really a special festival, small and homely, with a special spirit. I hope that the mainstream festival goers will never find it. I have two more wishes for the future: that Edina and her volunteers would not get tired and that slow trains would not disappear!

Our Juu Jääb adventure starts on Friday evening at 5.30 p.m. at Muhu St. Catherine’s Church. It’s quiet, there are not too many people. We sit and wait, it should start right away. Villu Veski and one other man tape the piano. In the distance, there is an interesting-looking stringed instrument. Everything is nice and cozy, and finally, the performers are entering the „stage“. These are Ryota Nozaki (Japanese composer, pianist and producer known as Jazztronik) and koto player Asuka Yoshizaki. The miraculous soul-touching Japanese-style aural and musical flowing begins. It comes out that the piano was taped to add the anechoic material to make it sound as much as it is customary in Japan – soft and mellifluous.

The acoustics of the church feels enchanting, especially when the player of the ancient Japanese instrument, Asuka, presents the oldest koto piece with vocals. Koto is a special instrument that needs to be tuned and adjusted accordingly before each song, but fortunately, there was also time for an encore. The concert is all the more valuable because even in Japan, it’s quite rare to hear the koto music.

Our next stop is at Muhu Music Farm. The stage is conquered by Tenor Legacy: Baltic Stars composed of Timo Lassy from Finland, Deniss Pashkevich from Latvia, Liutauras Janusaitis from Lithuania and our own Villu Veski from Estonia. A very entertaining and brass-filled concert. The best moment is when a trumpet and three saxophones get together.

After that, probably the most famous and notable musician of the day, Ann Shirley, and her band with great co-vocalists, a pianist, a drummer and two guitar players right from Paris step on the stage. What a vibrant bunch! They truly engage everyone and fascinate the audience with their amazing and colorful voice scale. It is a soul-funk-rock-jazz if you would try to define the genre. Really powerful and, in fact, rather indescribable concert and artist.

With a little delay, Estonians are back on the stage. This time, it’s a fresh collective Gram-of-Fun led by a girl from Saaremaa, Kristel Aaslaid, whose vocal skills are again really powerful. A very funky and danceable group, although their music does not always sound as fun as the band’s name would promise – serious musicians tend to incline toward deeper subjects.

The night continues at the jamming tent and that may even be the most enjoyable and immediate part of the day. The musicians in their own element enjoying themselves and each other, while the audience is enjoying themselves and the musicians. Everything is nice and chill. Those who are going to sleep can fall into their dreams accompanied by smooth sounds, and quietly think, what kind of mesmeric adventures the next day of Juu Jään might bring.

Saturday, 2 p.m, St. Catherine’s Church, Espen Berg Trio. I do not know what to expect, but Norway sounds good in itself. And it comes out that it’s something unprecedented.

Undoubtedly, my best experience at this festival. A totally enjoyable and organic, probably largely free-improvisational performance. Unfortunately, it’s somehow impossible to explain what makes the performance so special, but it’s certain that it was the first time I saw such use of drums. The drummer used at least six different items to quickly alternate sounds on drums. Gently tapping, scratching, bumping, touching, brushing the drums, the plates, the wooden box, his knee … and all these transformations are done fast, gently, enjoyably, with feeling, while bringing everything together with a double bass and an open piano. Everything flows and murmurs, rustles and crackles, like rain on the rooftop or a lone car that glides along the street at night. There was one track, I associated with the weather of Saaremaa, where the quiet enjoyable moment transforms into a frenzied sea breeze and a storm, which, again, vanishes into the silence. I also bought the album and the album cover suitably depicted sea waves.

The following act was the dinosaur parade – Estonian legends: Mati Vaarman and Elmu Värk Organ Trio. My second favourite after the Norwegians. If the old masters themselves start doing something, then there’s really nothing to say. You are listening to the live sounds that have accompanied you since your childhood and you actually see people who are behind all this good music, who have created it. The heart fills with a great deal of well-being and gratitude, which in this case is mixed with pity and sadness as there are many people who would enjoy it very much, who would have been able to offer worthy applause and praise to our truly great grandmasters. It’s really sad if, at the end of the concert, the organizer must literally ask the audience to applaud. Embarrassing. Which also makes me think, what may be the reason that the audience is so small, and those who are there, are quite passive. At the same time, it seems that these GEMS are good enough to accompany drinking and eating.

Next ones in the programme are Laura Põldvere and Villu Veski (Laura and W) who present their newly released „Crazy Enough“ album which largely contains songs that are born in the Muhu Music Farm. As the title implies, the performance is daring and interesting, theatrical and experimenting.

At 11 p.m., the DJ set of a long-awaited and much-advertised Japanese megastar Jazztronic begins. A truly enjoyable and danceable show. Everybody is having fun. Of course, the DJ is adorable and nice, interacting with people and lighting the flame of love and desire to dance in everybody. The show ends with an impromptu idea – koto player Asuka wants to perform one song with Laura, and that song comes to life right there, causing a lot of excitement and the now-and-wow effect.

You could think that the party is over now, but NO. The party moves from the stage to the jamming tent, where the disco continues with DJ Tõnu Kõrvits. I am also on the dance floor – retro is cool.

The whole festival is best summarized by one of the festival guests who said: „This festival collapses under its own weight!“ It could not be said much better. The festival has evolved into a big and expensive event, but there’s not much audience and those who are there, are quite dull. The next year, perhaps it would be a good idea to give a free entry to at least ten young music enthusiasts who could applaud when the time is right and keep the festival vibe lively.

By the end of the two festival days, however, it can be said that I can go to sleep full of joy and happiness, having had the chance to take a journey to the depths of my soul guided by the best musicians and mesmerizing sounds.