Culture.ee’s weekly recommendations: 4–10 Mar 2019

Rhizopia2 is a constantly developing and changing multidisciplinary environment, which is activated by the people that enter it. Rhizotopia i.e. a rhizomatic utopia is a living organism, a speculative narrative where meaning is created in an infinite number of junctions. Stories of pasts, presents and futures keep the organism alive, feed it and maintain it. Rhizotopia is a tactile playground, which everyone can join and come listen to stories. Blurring the borders sparks connections.

Kadri Liis Rääk is currently graduating from the contemporary arts masters course at the Estonian Academy of Arts, where she also obtained a BA in scenography. She also graduated the masters programme of autonomous design at KASK University in Gent, Belgium.

Mihkel Tomberg is currently studying audiovisual composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. He is known for the projects Algorütmid and Heaven’s Trumpet and had contributed various sound designs for many audiovisual projects.

Barbara Miller’s full-length documentary #Female Pleasure portrays five brave, smart and confident women who do not accept the silent role imposed on them by the archaic-patriarchal society and the religious community.

Deborah Feldman, Leyla Hussein, Rokudenashiko, Doris Wagner and Vithika Yadav are fighting for women’s sexual freedom and autonomy with unbelievable power and positive energy, defying religious rules and cultural barriers. But the victory does not come easily to them: they have all experienced public slander, threats and accusations; they have been expelled from their community, and religious leaders and fanatics have threatened them even with death.

#Female Pleasure shows what kind of universal mechanisms define the position of women in different cultures, religions and continents even today: from Japan, India and the Diaspora of Somali Muslims to the Brooklyn Hassidic Community and the Catholic clergy of Europe. All the protagonists of the film have come to the same conclusion: the woman’s body is subordinated to the desire of men and is primarily intended for reproducing, and the sexual pleasure and autonomy of women is not worth anything.

March is a Month of Francophonie, and for several weeks there are many nice events related to the French language. Join the global French-speaking community and celebrate the richness of this language with excitingly varied events.

The Month of Francophonie must be celebrated! The French Institute in Estonia with its good friends from the embassies of Canada, Romania, Belgium and Switzerland has put together an exciting program where everyone can find something interesting for them.

Gordon Matta-Clark (1943–1978) was an American artist who fundamentally changed the understanding of architecture in contemporary society.

He introduced an anarchistic perspective on our built environment through many site-specific installations in New York and elsewhere. The film creates a portrait of Matta-Clark through interviews with his friends and companions.

Crossed Words: Matta-Clark’s Friends 
Director: Matias Cardone
Country: Chile
Year: 2014
Length: 70′
Language: In English

Free of charge!

Center for Contemporary Art, Estonia invites you to a screening Timelines. They’re Multiplying which presents recent works by contemporary artists from the past decade.

Curated by Monika Lipšic
Artists: Laura Garbštienė and Arturas Bumšteinas, Antanas Gerlikas, Max Grau, Gerda Paliušytė, Tanel Rander
Duration: 67 minutes

The connecting line between the works in the screening runs through the liquid role of film and pop culture in shaping history. Multiple cultural times and different timelines of cultural imagination coexist in the videos both reflecting the historical context of their making and the ahistorical condition of images and atmospheres inspired by pop narratives – be it hip hop songs or institutional language, sci-fi logic or American teen romantic drama. The aim of this particular composition of artists’ work is to picture the constantly multiplying variety of historical timelines. Some pasts are more recent than others; in a way this screening brings forth how certain artworks managed to stay the course.

Entrance is free of charge!

Edward Larry Gordon started as a street musician in the 1960s in New York. In addition to music, he was also interested in stand-up comedy, Eastern philosophy and meditation. Brian Eno happened to be at one of the sessions in 1979, and picked up Laraaji from the street and invited him to a studio. The third part of the Eno’s ambient series Ambient 3: Day of Radiance was recorded together, which is considered to be one of the most important albums of Laraaji even today.

Laraaji’s discography is long, with nearly fifty works and diverse collaborative projects (Bill Laswell, Sun Araw, Blues Control, etc.). Several albums released decades ago have been re-released over the last few years and have reached new audiences. In addition to music, Laraaji is still active as a laughter therapist.

The film night presents the so-called lost art shows, which were made in the 1990s for commercial channels or that were not broadcasted on TV at all.

The program also includes some video recordings of rare exhibitions. A short introduction to the art shows that were broadcasted at the time will be made by the exhibition curator Anders Härm.

Presenting the duo of musicians and artificial intelligence.

A drum, specially constructed for this concert, will be played by artificial intelligence. The video displayed on the drumhead will also be created by AI. The theme of the concert is emotions – the part of our reality that is (yet) beyond the robot’s reach. It is fascinating to observe how AI depicts the feelings of the human world in its video. The video and music come in a four-part cycle.

On March 7, at 7 p.m., the documentary Stop Acting Now (2016) by Wunderbaum Theatre from Rotterdam will be shown.

At one point, theatre troupe Wunderbaum decided to stop play-acting and start acting for real. Director Mijke de Jong follows the actors in their frantic efforts to radically change the world. Their idealist projects range from developing an app for urban gardeners to creating a space for sad stories, the ‘Bar of Tears’. But their ideas are not as easily realised as they initially thought. What kind of society do we want to live in? And what are the consequences of our actions?

The film evening will be introduced by Kristjan Suits, the main artist of Tallinn City Theatre.

Free admission. The film is in Dutch with English subtitles.

The short ballets of Tiit Helimets, Eve Mutso and Jevgeni Grib will be performed.

Echo

Echo is Eve Mutso’s new dance production that she has created for the dancers of the Estonian National Ballet.

Keep a Light in the Window

There are a lot of apartments in a house. All windows seem alike when looking at them from a distance, but at a closer look, we can see that every one of them contains a room full of life. There is love, loneliness, happy and sad moments, hope and hopelessness – every light in the window burns differently. There are problems in life that seem unsolvable at first, but there is a solution to every situation. Sometimes you just need to turn on the light…

Thread

In his short ballet, the choreographer draws parallels between the life of a human being and a thread.