What is PostsovkhoZ?
Artists from four continents: Europe, America, Asia and Australia, spent ten days in one defined territory. The creative territory / territories for participants for this years PostsovkhoZ event is the rural village of Mooste. Mooste is a rather typical post-soviet time Estonian village. The history of most of its buildings run back to soviet and pre-soviet times (houses, collective “sovkhos“ farming buildings, preserved mansion complex from the beginning of 20th c).
This years theme:
Questions and issues over TERRITORIES are timeless, along with understanding the living individual presence and its relation to greater social unities(families, towns, nations). To fulfill ones existence his/her personal matter must cover space and area. At some moment these personal spaces become TERRITORIES; thoughts are put into actions, open spaces become marked spaces, social groups become communities, nodes become networks etc. TERRITORIES are temporal boundaries within cycles of growth and decay, they involve the necessary resources for developing and sustaining life. TERRITORIES constantly shift and change and are rarely distributed evenly, giving rise to expansion and contraction of physical and virtual boundaries surrounding us. In the process, territorial limits are defined and redefined through dominant and reactive patterns(physical, social, mental). Currently we see how information becomes a commodity to be bought and sold in emerging industry service sectors. Parallel movements arise to develop open sources and distribution flows of information resources. Awareness of these and other TERRITORIES becomes vital. Overcrowding populations means competition over natural resources. Struggles over different TERRITORIES reach critical limits. Eminent TERRITORIES for solutions open up. Personal thoughts of moral and ethical TERRITORIES move into interpersonal and greater political spaces. Outward actions demand ever more critical reflection and creative inventions.
What happened?
From the 8.- 16. august creation and interpretation of territories on physical and social categories at the area of Mooste village took place. This was a full collection of sound and video performances, installations and exhibitions. The event was concluded on the 16th of August with a seminar, where territories were viewed/ divided from semiotical, economical, geographical and biological viewpoints: Raivo Mänd (Tartu University, behavioral ecology), Helen Sooväli (Tartu University, human geography,) Tiit Remm (Tartu University, semiotics, student), Andres Oopkaup (Vice-Chancellor, Estonian Agricultural Ministry)
Event History
PostsovkhoZ began in Mooste in August 2001. The event was then called PostsovkhoZ City & PostsovkhoZ Person. The event dealt multilaterally with the current past/present situation in Estonian village society. Questions arose and answers were worked through via means of a seminar, film program and visual art exhibits. In August 2002, PostsovkhoZ 2 / Strata, put more emphasis on activities involving the visual arts. 15 artists from England, Estonia, Spain and Finland lived at the Mooste club house and conducted different art evidences at place.