February 4th was a special event at MoKS celebrating 10 years of creative activity and the reopening of the newly renovated building. 10 years of operation of the organization also means a decade of dedicated effort by Evelyn Müürsepp who has worked tirelessly to make MoKS into what it is.

[caption id="attachment_727" align="alignnone" width="522" caption="Evelyn and the board"][/caption]

A number of officials and past figures came out to show their appreciation.

[caption id="attachment_728" align="alignnone" width="522" caption="Piret Lindpere from the Ministry of Culture speaks"][/caption]

Two excellent artistic performance were given in the new 'common' space on the second floor.

[caption id="attachment_729" align="alignnone" width="522" caption="Patrick McGinley aka 'murmer' creates a live feedback performance with audience participation"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_730" align="alignnone" width="324" caption="Mari Kalkun charms the space with voice and kantele"][/caption]

The event also opened and exhibition of works by artists involved with MoKS.

[caption id="attachment_736" align="alignnone" width="522" caption="Mari Jõgiste exhibits her visual works in the cellar gallery"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_737" align="alignnone" width="289" caption="large scale drawing works on display by Evelyn Müürsepp"][/caption]

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Here is a photo gallery of the various spaces at MoKS (studios, kitchen, cellar, sauna).

Apart from hosting Natalia Borissova this September in the residency, MoKS has been relatively quiet this Autumn as far as artistic activity goes. The reason was because of major efforts of Evelyn, Mooste wald and the various building contractors to complete the final phase of renovation work on the building we rent. The process started in Autumn of 2007 when first phase started (or even earlier if you consider our many years of cleaning efforts). The process rarely seemed to go smoothly and their were plenty of surprises and lessons to be learned. Despite some misunderstandings and inconsistencies in the quality of the work, the building now is upgraded and usable from its former life. So, we are looking forward to starting up a full program schedule in 2011 including new residency opportunities and flexibility for hosting regular workshops. Thanks to everyone for their patience and understanding during this sometimes messy and complicated period over the last few years and especially to those who have helped clean and make the spaces usable again.

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MoKS annual summer art symposium AVAMAA took place from August 16-21. The biggest challenge this year was to conduct the symposium almost without being able to use MOKS. With the exception of using the basement for 2 of the workshops, the building was pretty much unusable because of the current state of intensive renovation. The same could be said for the final concert event, Mesi Kõrvadele which was supposed to be held in the new Mooste concert hall (folgikoda), but was held in the Kultuurimaja instead also because of renovation work. Given these conditions we still managed to pull everything off, hosting and feeding all 37+ participants for a week creative endeavors in the Mooste schoolhouse. Details of the workshops, projects and week long program can be found on the MOKS website.

We would like to thank the MOKS team and all the participants for their creative energy this year: John W Fail, Giles Bailey, Natalia Borissova, Selda Asal, Cem, Marko Kosnik, Monica Glahn, Lara Tau Viera, Michael Saup, Di Clay, Nick Clay, Goncalo Leite Velho, Andrus Kallastu, Hans Gunter Lock, Leonora Palu, Indrek Palu, Kai Kallastu, John Grzinich, Evelyn Müürsepp, Maarin Ektermann, Mari Jõgiste, Patrick McGinley, Jaanika Jaanits, Piibe Kolka, Tom Grzinich, Leela Elison, Toomas Thetloff, Siim Tiirik, Mari Kalkun, Taavi Tatsi, Kaisa Sammelselg, Grigori Lotman, Caleb Waldorf, Piret K, Maria Rõhu, Kurt Korthals, Andreas Leo Findeisen

The X-OP festival 'Time and Technique' was held in Abrantes and Tomar Portugal from April 30th to May 7th and was hosted by Instituto Politecnico de Tomar. MoKS members were part of 2 events and 1 research project.

After Curatorial Dinner exhibition

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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

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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.

[vimeo width="550" height="305"]http://www.vimeo.com/12204564[/vimeo]

Its been nearly 3 years since the renovation work of MOKS began. When you're trying to run a program at the same time this starts to feel like a long time. The light at the end of the tunnel is starting to appear however. We have now entered phase III which will be the largest part of the work to date. The majority of the the work will be done on the second floor, under the roof. It is quite a large amount of space and will essentially double what is available on the ground floor. This, the main kitchen, and the last studio in the rear corner of the ground floor is what is left. All of this is supposed to be finished by October of this year.

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