Call for Action: Key Moments in Estonian Performance Art Wed Nov
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Call for Action: Key Moments in Estonian Performance Art Wed Nov. 8, 5:00pm Performa 17 Biennial Hub Duration: 2 hours Organized by Maaike Gouwenberg, with Estonian Curatorial Fellow Evelyn Raudsepp. Co-presented by Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center. Supported by Performa Commissioning Fund, Estonian Ministry of Culture, Estonian Contemporary Art Credits & Acknowledgements Credits Development Center, Art Museum of Estonia, and Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia (CCA). This lecture and screening, presented by curators Anu Allas and Maria Arusoo, on Estonian performance takes place within Pavilion without Walls: Estonia, providing a context for Performa commissions and projects from the country through a survey of key moments in the history of performance art About the Program taking place there since the late 1960s. The focus of the presentation will be on the relationship between artistic practices and their social contexts, with regard to the broader cultural scene in post-Soviet and post- socialist societies. The discussion will touch upon the emergence of early happenings that took place on the border of art and everyday life in Soviet Estonia, the professionalization and pluralisation of performance art from the early 1990s onward, and the relation between contemporary Estonian performative art and the global cultural environment. The program is followed by a discussion with Anu Allas, program manager and curator at the Kumu, the Art Museum of Estonia, in Tallinn; Maria Arusoo, director of the Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia (CCA); and Ksenia Nouril, independent art historian and curator based in New York. Anu Allas is an art historian and a curator in the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn. Her main research interests include post-war art in socialist Eastern Panelists Europe and neo-avant- garde artistic practices from the late 1950s until the early 1970s. She received her PhD at the Free University Berlin in 2013 with a thesis on experimental practices in Estonian art and theatre of the 1960s (Spiel der Unsicherheit / Unsicherheit des Spiels: Experimentelle Praktiken in der estnischen Kunst und im estnischen Theater der 1960er Jahre, Bielefeld: transcript, 2015). She has published articles on Estonian and Eastern European art of the socialist era and on contemporary art, and has curated exhibitions on Estonian art of the Soviet period (among others, the permanent exhibition “Conflicts and Adaptations: Estonian Art of the Soviet Era (1940–1991)” in the Kumu Art Museum in 2016). Maria Arusoo is an Estonian curator and director of the Center for Contemporary Arts Estonia. Since 2013 she has been the Commissioner for the Estonian Pavilion at Venice Biennial, executing large-scale commissions by Dénes Farkas and Adam Budak (2013), Jaanus Samma and Eugenio Viola (2015) and Katja Novitskova and Kati Ilves (2017). Recent independent curatorial projects include: CORPORATE OCCULT, let’s talk about the body baby, NU Performance Festival (2016), which presented works by international artists that dealt with contemporary issues surrounding gender and the body; WINTER IS COMING Panelists (Homage to the Future) (2016) an exhibition at the Georg Kargl Fine Arts Vienna, which focused on the changing state of Europe; Art in the Era of Digital Capitalism (2016), co-curated with Rebeka Põldsam, a conference considering the tendencies of acceleration and post-2011 institutional alternatives, which included Franco Bifo Beradi as its keynote speaker; and numerous others. Ongoing project is exhibition Soft Scrub, Hard Body, Liquid Presence, an international collaboration project between Center for Contemporary Arts Estonia and Art in General New York, featuring artwork and performances by artists Merike Estna and Maria Metsalu (November 17- January 13. 2018). Ksenia Nouril is a New York-based independent art historian and curator, specializing in Central and Eastern European art. From January 2015 to September 2017, she was the Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives (C- MAP) Fellow for Central and Eastern Europe at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where she conducted research, planned programs, and served as co-editor of post. Prior to her fellowship, Ksenia was the Research and Editorial Assistant for the Thomas Walther Collection in the Department of Photography at MoMA, where she co- organized the exhibition Production-Reproduction: The Circulation of Photographic Modernism, 1900- Panelists 1950. A PhD candidate at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Ksenia is writing her dissertation on the work of contemporary Eastern European artists who actively question and engage with history and historical representations of communism since 1989. From 2011 to 2016, Ksenia held a Dodge Fellowship at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers, where she assisted in the organization of numerous exhibitions of the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union, including Leonid Sokov: Ironic Objects and Putting a Face to the Name: Artist Portraits from the Dodge Collection. In March 2016, she curated the exhibition Dreamworlds and Catastrophes: Intersections of Art and Technology in the Dodge Collection, which examines the consequences of innovations in science, technology, mathematics, communications, and design on unofficial Soviet art. In February 2018, it will open in an expanded version at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut. Ksenia has published in The Calvert Journal and Art Margins. Jüri Okas, Water Man, 1971 Raoul Kurvitz, When Lord Zarathustra Was Young and Polite, 1989 Film Screening Raoul Kurvitz, Ararat, 1991 Jaan Toomik, Dancing Home, 1995 Jaan Toomik, Dancing with Dad, 2003 Valie Export Society, From the Portfolio of Doggedness, 2000 Hanno Soans, Backdoor Performance, 1998 Kristina Norman, After-War, 2009 Ene-Liis Semper, Stairs, 2000 Ene-Liis Semper, Licked Room, 2000 Ene-Liis Semper, Seven, 2003 Flo Kasearu, Creative Estonia, 2012 Flo Kasearu, Multi Travels, 2007 Kris Lemsalu, The Birth of Venus, 2011 Kris Lemsalu, In Heaven Everything Is Fine, 2017 Maria Metsalu, Madmoiselle X, 2017 Flo Kasearu Ainult liikmetele (Members Only) Fri, Nov. 10, 5:30pm — 8:30pm Estonian House, $20 / $15 Kris Lemsalu in collaboration with Kyp Malone Going, Going Sat, Nov. 11, 9:00pm Sun, Nov. 12, 7:00pm Harlem Parish, $15 / $10 Other Week Events This Tracey Rose THE TRACEY ROSE SHOW IN COLLABORATION WITH PERFORMA17 AND AFROGLOSSIA PRESENTS: THE GOOD SHIP JESUS VS THE BLACK STAR LINE HITCHING A RIDE WITH DIE ALIBAMA [WORKING TITLE] Thu, Nov. 9, Part 1 at 2:00pm & Part 2 at 7:30pm Fri, Nov. 10, Part 1 at 2:00pm & Part 2 at 7:30pm Sat, Nov. 11, Part 1 at 2:00pm & Part 2 at 7:30pm The Black Lady Theatre, Part 1: Free, Part 2: $25 / $15 Kelly Nipper Terre Mécanique Thu, Nov. 9, 7:00pm Fri, Nov. 10, 7:00pm Sat, Nov. 11, 7:00pm 371 Broadway, $25 / $15 Visit the Performa 17 hub 427 Broadway, Soho New York, NY 10013 Noon – 8Pm daily JoiN the conversatioN PerformaNYc PerformaBiennial # PerformaNYc # Performa17 17.performa-arts.org 212 – 366 – 5700.