After Curatorial Dinner exhibition

The artistic project ‘After curatorial dinner’ was conceived by Petra Kapš during her one month x-op residency in MOKS. She researched the artistic production of a number of artists (Riho Kall, John Grzinich, Evelyn Müürsepp, Toomas Thetloff, Patrick McGinley, Erkki Luuk, Anna Hints) through dinner conducted as a social ritual. The exhibition contained works that were produced in connection to the process of her residency.

MUTOPIA 6

The 6th edition of MUTOPIA was held during the event and was led by Tero Nauha and John Grzinich. While the group was fairly small the effort was of the participants was highly focused and concentrated. Most of the workshop took place in the public spaces around Tomar and focused on two locations in particular, the monument outside the courthouse (in the middle of a parking lot) and the main gardens under the castle. Below is a short video compilation that randomly composites some of the sound, movement and text exercises.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The MoKS summer art symposium known as AVAMAA took place for the second time and again proved to be fertile ground for the exchange of ideas and experiences between all participants. Over 30 people took part in the workshops and projects hosted by the event. Thanks to the dedication of talented and creative workshop leaders like Derek Holzer, Elffriede, Taavi Taatsi, Bruno Humberto and myself, we seemed to exceeded any expectations the volunteers and participants may have had. The contributions of “infrastructure” also cannot be understated, particularly the evening meal coordination by Patrick McGinley and the breakfast by Mari. Other interventions like the breakfast film series by Taavi Tatsi of Worldfilm and spontaneous music and artist talk evenings showed even a high how density of activity can be accommodated within the flexible organizational structure of AVAMAA. Such a structure allows opportunities not always afforded in events of this scale, particularly in that the organizers themselves were able to take part  and even give workshops. We hope this kind of organizational research (in practice) will help to scale MoKS activities in the future as we expand. For us there is a fine balance between keeping an open flexible atmosphere and defining roles that keep clear of institutional hierarchies.

We want to thank everyone for making this years Honey for the Ears concert evening a big success. Well over 100 people came out to see the variety of groups performing that evening. That does not sound like much but it was possibly the most people to come to any MoKS event. Mooste is not such a central place and the performers came from Finland, Tallinn for the night. Pastacas even had to go to Tallinn the same night to give another concert!

Pastacas + Mari Kalkun (EE)
twowho (FI)
Jüppala Kääpiö (CH/JP)
Kirtana Rasa (EE)
Pekko Käppi (FI)
Kago (EE)

One of the main themes that was explored during the residency of Emma Lipp and Matt Marble was local food production. While searching for ingredients for their meals a number of sources for local food came out with a little research (besides what we try to share from our garden in the summer). The son of an entrepreneur in Mooste manages a factory and farm for pickling which includes cucumbers, potatoes and cabbages all grown on site. We went to visit the facility to see how the production was done. Much to our surprise, we found out it is possible to cure pickles in 24 hours! These are not the usual kind of sour pickles made with vinegar, but only from salt and spices. The result, fresh and delicious!

photos by John Grzinich

Monday, January 26, 21.00
*Electropera Act 1: Parahouse_12
self-evolving participatory environment
by Egon March Institute and partner productions
Studio Martina Schumacher & Joulia Strauss in Ullsteinhaus

Monday-Thursday, 26th – 29th of January
X-OP- Conference Berlin
„True Art / Truely Merchandise“
at ConcentArt

Evelyn and John from MoKS are spending a few weeks in Dresden Germany in a residency at 7.Stock. This literally means 7th floor which is what it is. We occupy a studio on the 7th floor of an old DDR administrative building in the center of the city. The building is mostly empty with the exception of a number of artist studios on the 6th and 7th floor. While this is an almost ideal situation there are a number of ongoing problems, mostly of a political nature with different administrative departments of the city. These problems essentially keep the 7.Stock project from growing and going more official. Nonetheless this artist initiative has hosted many artists and events over the past few years in a sincere and well coordinated manner.

Our aim here is rather open, to work on continuing personal projects and to prepare for a performance in Berlin. There we will take part in the parahouse12 multimedia event organized by Marko Kosnik in cooperation with X-OP project.

Tero Nauha wrote an excellent essay AVAMAA IN MOOSTE for SIRP cultural weekly.