Body Space(d): Rene Köster and Mark Raidpere
Between 27 and 30 November Tallinn Art Hall and Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava presented joint project “Body Space(d)”, which brought together three pairs of artists from the Estonian visual art and performance scenes. Each pair collaborated on a unique, one-night-only performance. Curator Evelyn Raudsepp invited three artist duos to create performative works: Edith Karlson and Sigrid Savi, Rene Köster and Mark Raidpere, and Flo Kasearu and Renate Keerd. On three consecutive nights the results of these collaborations were presented and then concluded on the fourth night with a diverse programme, featuring discussion, music, and the creation of shared space.
On 28th of Nov at 20 choreographer and drag queen Rene Köster and photo and video artist Mark Raidpere presented their collaboration, where they used camera to bring forth the expressiveness of identities.
“For one night only three characters appear and disappear: Chloé (whose age you don’t ask), Rene (30) and Mark (44). Contact is established, distance is maintained. They are still inventing themselves. Everyone pretends in front of the camera and the audience: unintentionally, diligently, willingly, when the situation requires, out of self-interest… Who dissolves into the night, who passes you by in the street the next day, who never really existed?”
In their first ever collaboration, the choreographer and drag queen Rene Köster and photo and video artist Mark Raidpere show mastery in their crafts. By making the fleeting nature of roles and masks the focal point of the camera, the expressive nature of the body is revealed in live space.
Artists: Rene Köster and Mark Raidpere
Curator: Evelyn Raudsepp
Camera and editing: Jüri-Illimar Reinberg-Shestakov
Technical team Villem Säre, Aleksander Meresaar, Hendrik Põlluste, Rommi Ruttas
Light design Rommi Ruttas
Exhibition team Siim Preiman, Sirli Oot, Kersti Sõõrumaa, Katrin Maimik, Kaisa Kattai
Graphic design Ott Kagovere, Indrek Sirkel
Photos (documentation) Kris Moor
Video (documentation): camera Alis Mäesalu, Piibe Kolka; editing Piibe Kolka; colour correction: Alis Mäesalu
Production Tallinn Art Hall and Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava (STL)
Supported by Estonian Cultural Endowment (Endowment of Dramatic Art, Endowment of Visual and Applied Arts), Estonian Ministry of Culture, Estonian Artists Association, AkzoNobel, Radisson Blu
A special thank you to Radisson Sky Blu Hotel, Anu Lensment, Andres Teiss
Rene Köster (1989) has been an active part of the Estonian dance and cultural scene since the age of 15 (2005), when he started teaching dance classes and became part of the creative direction behind the Prodance Dance Studio. In 2006, he and Carmel Köster created the Twisted Dance Company, which was one of the leading street dance oriented companies in Estonia and has since presented several performances that combine street dance with the worlds of contemporary dance, fashion, nightlife and theatre. Köster is also one of the driving forces in the Estonian drag culture and exotic nightlife.
Mark Raidpere (1975) is a photographer and video artist who lives and works in Tallinn. He represented Estonia at the 51st Venice Art Biennale in 2005. Raidpere’s works have been shown in numerous international group and solo exhibitions, and he has received many prestigious awards both in Estonia and abroad. Raidpere’s photographic and video work explores with great sensitivity and astuteness the dilemmas and anxieties of the human soul, its inevitable loneliness and tragic fate. His research often takes its cue from his own family’s universe but sometimes has social connotations, focusing on marginalised people, urban violence and street life. (text by Eugenio Viola).
“Body Space(d)” is a collaboration between Tallinn Art Hall and Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava, where curator Evelyn Raudsepp, who is working at the intersection of performing and visual arts, continues the research into the symbolic spaces – the white cube and the black box. This time placing the body into the mix as well. With her performative curation she creates unique formats in which the audience is also welcomed to activate their perceptional horizon in order to meet unexpected artistic situations. In Tallinn Art Hall the combination of the invited artists’ practices and the thematic framing allows experimentation to take place within the clinical white cube with theatrical means. It also enables the artists to look into connections between embodied performance and the richness of artistic expression in visual art.
