False falling

The metal frame feels cold, under my palm. My right hand touches the lower pole and I press it to find the right grip. The left follows, just one level higher. I blink my eyes open, but somehow I fail at / If the clouds moved, the beam of light would blind me. I touch my nose instead. I can no longer balance on the edge of this structure, weak as a thought only living in / The task was to climb up and look at them in the eyes. From here, everything seems small but big simultaneously. I taste the grey dust moving in the air – I don’t even know what it is – what is it?/ I was thinking about this exercise. Am I doing it right? Am I saying what I am thinking or am I thinking only because I need to speak my / The extremely loud sound has made my head silent. There is nothing to hear here. I’m here, all done. I guess it’s over. Game / The metal frame feels cold, under my palm

Surrounded by a landscape of fragile plaster and stiff metal structures, 5 delicate bodies perform cycles of gestures on the border between functionality and uselessness. By placing/fitting themselves inside these constructions that at times allude to an absurd gym, or perhaps an oversized playground, the performers constantly search for the ephemeral moment that precedes exhaustion and success, and test the (im)possibility of reaching the ultimate goal. A game of building and failing expectations, a play between tangible and invisible realities. 

“False falling” is a performance that stretches time. Through daring and listening, it looks at the similarities and gaps between mental and physical endurance, embraces failure and wonders between its possible/multiple definitions.

____________________

Keithy Kuuspu (1994) is a young performance and dance artist from Tallinn, Estonia. She has graduated from Tallinn University Baltic Film, Media and Arts School in dance and will soon conclude the Masters in Contemporary Physical Performance Making – CPPM (Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre).

In her practice, she questions the definition and the boundaries of reality by looking at (primitive) human behaviours, mundane structures and at the influences that society has on individuals. She is particularly interested in what precedes and follows the processes of creation and in the shaping of the self within these.

Recently she performed in Peader Kirk and Simona Gonella „KUHU MINEK. Where do we go from here“ 99 hour piece (CPPM, Kanuti Gildi Saal, Elektron.live) and in Jarkko Partanen and Anni Klein “Fluids” performance (WAUHAUS, STL). In February 2020 she was awarded the Püha Vaimu SAAL residency in Kanuti Gildi SAAL where she researched together with Martina Georgina the process of image creation and the power structures involved in/ arising from it.

Liisa Saaremäel (1992) is an Estonian actor and performance artist. After graduating from the Drama School of Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in acting, she joined Estonian Drama Theatre, where she worked between 2016-2020 as a member of the ensemble. She is currently studying in the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in the Contemporary Physical Performance Making (CPPM) MA program. Her artistic practice focuses on societal co-existence from the perspective of an individual. Working with urban discourse she is inspired by surrounding spaces as a constitutive force.

Agnes Ihoma (1993) is a dance artist based in Tallinn, whose work and practice are largely inspired by street dances. She currently works as a dance teacher at Free Flow Studio. She has repeatedly organized and directed concert performances for the same studio, focusing on working with narrative. She entered performing arts scenery as a performer for the first time in 2018, Keithy Kuuspuu’s bachelor’s thesis “LUST”. Keywords of interest in movement are relaxation, authenticity, flow, breathing.

Martina Georgina (1989)  is a maltese artist currently studying in the Masters in Contemporary Physical Performance Making – CPPM (2019 – 2021) in Tallinn, Estonia; where she has premiered her first solo research project “Night_club Narciss_us” (2020). Prior to her studies, she initiated the project Teatru Santwarju (2015) of which she is founder, director and performer; where she has collaborated with diverse individuals to make original intimate works as an attempt to explore the complexity and possibilities of the human condition. In her current solo research, she continues to draw attention to identity, interweaving the auto ethnographic and the fictional.

Anumai Raska (1997) is a performance artist, dancer at the beginning of her creative career currently studying acting at the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy. Anumai works mainly through the technical body, of which physical experiences and  personal memories are an integral part. She is interested in the influences that the environment has on individuals and the loneliness that can be found in it. Anumai Raska has been curating the dance and performance art event Battlejämm for 2 years and her latest creation “raska/unt/unt/raska” was performed at Draama Festival 2020. As a performer, she has contributed to several works of both estonian and international artists, such as “Performance STL-is” by Ruslan Stepanov and Artjom Asrtov and  “SHRINK 01995” by Lawrence Malstaf.

Arolin Raudva (1990) is a performance artist, dancer and a choreographer. Since graduating from Tartu University Viljandi Culture Academy in 2013, she has followed her curiosity of diving into new experiences and collectives in order to keep her identity evolving and dynamic. She is one of the creators and performers of the Olmeulmad collective (2014-…). At the heart of their surreal world and expressions is movement that affirms the bodily experience, imaginative everyday elements and place-specific experiments with bodies, space and materials. She is also one of the founders and creative members of The Biofilm Sisters (formed in 2017).The performance group is interested in observing their own actions and perception through language and text building.

Mihkel Maripuu (1987) is an artist whose practice is characterized by a multidisciplinary approach, involving various media and containing a physical and aural platform besides the visual and sonic one. His research-related topics have been the nature of Post–Internet in contemporary art, neo-materialism and other subcultural manifestations, and the idiosyncrasies of the digital age that have influenced the development of contemporary visual language. The artist experiments with the variational differences between synthetic and natural peculiarities and also with the overlapping principles of their potential common areas. He has graduated from Tartu University, Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of art and cultural science, Chair of Painting (B.A.), and Estonian Academy of Arts, Department of Fine Arts (M.A.).