“Held in Human” is a performative installation where one tiny idea is made to sprout and can be fed with everything that one freshly born should know and experience. This growing idea is safe and warm in the gallery, like in a mother’s womb. The audience can manipulate the concept during its growing period, visit it at EKA Gallery, participate in the tours and virtual ultrasound examinations, and see traces of other people’s interventions.
The authors delve into how meaning is created, and responsibilities are assumed within a transient community, exemplified by a collective art project. The team constructs a metaphorical tunnel, likened to an umbilical cord, bridging the gap between the virtual and the tangible realms. Once the mist of artistic creation clears, this conduit enables everyone, irrespective of their geographic position or connection to ‘reality,’ to interact and connect with each other.
You enter the exhibition hall like a body cave; the actions only express treachery. One and all-determining meaning is sought in the entrails. (Ene Mihkelson)
Liis Vares is a choreographer and artist. At the center of her practice is the contemporary body. Attention is her ‘dancer’ with whom she dances in the black box, white cube, and on the grayscale online platform. She plays with borderlines between physical and mental, between personal and social. By following her research question: how does it feel/what does it mean to be in a body, she is diving more and more into transmedial spheres of art and being.
Taavet Jansen is an innovative artist and creative researcher specializing in digital and experimental performing arts. He co-founded the art collective e⁻lektron, is a lecturer at the UT Viljandi Culture Academy, and is a doctoral student at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Traditionally working within the confines of black box theater, Jansen’s recent work has expanded into diverse digital platforms, reflecting his evolving interest in the intersection of art and technology.
Events:
24.08 “Curator’s tour”
How to participate in the creation of a 25-day durational artwork? On the introductory “curator’s tour,” we will introduce the audience to the physical environment, the online space, and the connections that bind them.
Curators: Taavet Jansen and Liis Vares
25.08 “Making Sense”
In the initial four days, “something” takes shape within the artwork – an idea, a thought, a hope. Young performance artists dive into the artwork, offering their bodies to encourage this growing “something,” playing with scattered thoughts in the room.
Performers: Liisbeth Kala and Germo Toonikus
30.08 “Bodystorming”
On the tenth day, directors, performers, and the audience meet within the artwork to participate in a bodystorming session. Together we explore what the work is becoming and collectively experience its transformative potential.
Present: Liisbeth Kala, Germo Toonikus, Taavet Jansen and Liis Vares