Ptarmigan on nüüdseks suletud.

Riga – Tallin, March 24, 2014

I turn my face to the sun. I just stand there breathing in the sun and hearing the sounds of the cars passing by… Ten minutes pass, and ten more..It seems the problem can’t be fixed so quickly. I climb up on a little dune with big pine trees strangely located in the middle of nowhere, I breathe in the air, and suddenly I decide to find an access to my own aloneness right now.

A-project is a personal and artistic trial to access the transformative space of Aloneness.

A woman finds herself forced to face her loneliness. Entering it opens a new space and discoveries for her.

This is a multi-disciplinary performance by Dana Indāne (Latvia), a performing artist and contemporary voice improvisation student at the Estonian academy of Music and Theatre, in collaboration with sound designer Martin Hein. This performance is a part of the creative labratory work at Taavi Kerikmäe’s Experimental Music studio (emta). Texts by Dana Indāne, Haruki Murakami, Kefas Berlin. 

Note: New date, Tuesday 27 May!

Free Improvisation is a regular event which follows the simple structure of show + jam. The event takes place every fortnight (give or take a few days), and begins with a short, informal performance before the space and tools of sound making are opened up to any and all. Come along to play, listen and meet.

Tonight's performance will be by current artist-in-resident Kimmo Modig with John W. Fail.

21:00 John + Kimmo

21:30 Open Jam

For the Open Jam, we have a piano and a P.A. system available.

In May 2014, Ptarmigan/MoKS resident Kimmo Modig (selected as part of the Axis of Praxis residency programme) will host a weekly series of Sunday afternoon events, titled SUNDAYS WITH KIMMO. All events are free, start at 14:00, and include breakfast/brunch and coffee.

This week, according to Kimmo:

Non-artist talk! I will not talk about myself (well that’s new), but instead will present some of the works & artists I love a lot. So basically a screening. John and Hannah from Ptarmigan will make me suffer every time I mention myself. Drinking game might be in order, people! I think I’ll focus on artists who are based on Helsinki so we’ll get, I don’t know, cultural exchange vibez, eh? But anyway an evening of worship on the altar of great art.

 

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Opening Operations is a monthly series in 2014 that investigates the practical methods through which culture is produced.

Each month, a representative from a different Estonian culture organisation will present their activities as well as their operating budget and finances. The speaker will discuss a challenge or problem unique to their organisation, and the presentation will be followed by a group discussion. The goal is to share methodologies, open dialogues, and research creative alternatives to real-world problems involving money, labour, and collaboration. This project also seeks to democratise and demystify the act of "organising", proceeding from the belief that there is no right or wrong way to do things, and that different approaches breed more exciting and dynamic cultural forms.

This month's speaker is Triinu Aron. Triinu is the founding director of Sõltumatu Tantsu Ühendus (STÜ), which has been operating the Okasroosikese Loss (Sleeping Beauty Castle) project space in Tallinn's Old Town since 2012. Okasroosikese Loss is an open-form venue that hosts artist residencies from mutiple art backgrounds, with a focus on interdisciplinary practices.

Light snacks and refreshments will be served, and the discussion will be recorded and released afterwards online in podcast form.

Avatud Toimingud/Opening Operations is a project of Migrating Art Academies and is supported by the Estonian Ministry of Culture.

In May 2014, Ptarmigan/MoKS resident Kimmo Modig (selected as part of the Axis of Praxis residency programme) will host a weekly series of Sunday afternoon events, titled SUNDAYS WITH KIMMO. All events are free, start at 14:00, and include breakfast/brunch and coffee.

This week, according to Kimmo:

Workshop! I’ll talk about how I usually do my performances and we’ll do some practical things. We’ll talk a lot since that’s what I do, but I don’t mean like conversation, but, like, figure out how to talk in front of audience. We'll think of how to use your body/life and stuff like that. Check out my videos from my home page to grasp an idea of what I’m doing. Though of course the workshop is very much about the people who show up, I’ll be the instigator and rallyist. Actually, maybe worksohp is a wrong word. Let's just get together and I'll tell u what I know about speaking in public & performing, and you tell what u know and we'll take it from there.

(photo: Hertta Kiiski)

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Liminal Images returns after a long hiatus, again bringing a regular programme of experimental cinema classics and obscurities, all dating from before the age in which the moving image was all-pervasive.

This month's screening looks at the idea of the human presence in film. These films, in various ways, question identity, performance, and reality in the filmic illusion. We'll see approaches to personal expression, the body, performance and truth as well as some game-playing.

The films:

Fragment of Seeking 
Directed by Curtis Harrington
USA, 1946
14 mins

Legendary Hollywood director Curtis Harrington starred in his own film, his first. This explores in a fairly narrative manner issues of sexuality, desire and identity.
​

Production Stills
Directed by Morgan Fisher
USA, 1975
11 mins

The quintessential Fisher film ... In Fisher’s film, the making and presentation of the production stills is the end, and moments of motion picture illusion–the hands entering the image, the apparent use of sync sound, the making of the film itself-are means for getting the stills mounted so that we can examine them. The film also challenges conventional cinematic categories and terminology. (…) It is an unedited film which, however, provides us with eight different views of the action taking place.

 - Scott MacDonald

Manual of Arms
Directed by Hollis Frampton
USA, 1966
17 mins

"Courtly dances with friends and lovers, in the form of a 14 part drill for the camera, incorporating physiognomic & locomotor evidence related to the lens by 13 artists and an historian, namely: C. Andre, B. Brown, R. Castoro, L. Childs, B. Goldensohn, R. Huot, E. Lloyd, L. Lozano, L. Meyer, L. Poons, M. Snow, M. Steinbrechner, T. Tharp, J. Wieland."

-- Hollis Frampton

** intermission **

Clockshower
Directed by Gordon Matta-Clark
USA, 1973
14 mins

A documentation of one of Matta-Clark's legendary performances, where he climbed to the top of the Clocktower in New York and washed, shaved and brushed his teeth while hanging over the streets in front of the huge clockface.

Observeillance
Directed by Tyler Turkle
USA, 1975
4 mins

A lyrical tour guide takes the viewer on a trip down the Wakulla River in North Florida. Although the camera remains relentlessly fixed on him, his vivid, near-musical descriptions of Southern flora, fauna and wildlife gives a better view of things than total visual mobility could ever allow.

Footsteps
Directed by Marilyn Halford
UK, 1975
7 mins

The use of a game works the memory, anticipation is set, positive film stands to resemble a three-dimensional sense of time in past/future. Then negative holds out film itself as the image is one stage further abstracted and a disquiet is set up in the point that the sound track ends, whilst the picture track continues."

- Marilyn Halford, Perspectives on British Avant-Garde Film exhibition catalogue, 1977

A Tale of Labyrinth
Directed by Shuji Terayama
Japan, 1975
17 mins

This film is about door, which is a metaphor of screen. I cannot help thinking that a screen is not a white square cloth but a door, which opens to a space where spectator could participate in. It’s founded upon a premise that projection is a total act constructed with the projector itself, the distance from the projector to screen and the screen itself.

- Shuji Terayama

In May 2014, Ptarmigan/MoKS resident Kimmo Modig (selected as part of the Axis of Praxis residency programme) will host a weekly series of Sunday afternoon events, titled SUNDAYS WITH KIMMO. All events are free, start at 14:00, and include breakfast/brunch and coffee.

This week, according to Kimmo:

Music! I’m playing with my dear friend Juhani Liimatainen who has worked with the big names of Finnish classical music (Kaija Saariaho, Mangus Lindberg et al), as well as with contemporary theatre, Free Improv and Jazz musicians, and pretty much done everything a sound artist can do here. We’ll be both playing electronics, most likely very concrete stuff like bird sounds and fun stuff like that. I’m sure you’d like it! And if not, well, there’s coffee and the view from the balcony at Ptarmigan is pretty stunning. It’ll be like maybe 2 hours, and there will be other guests as well. I'll let you know if there'll be other artists as well, I think there will. Check Ptarmigan facebook when we're closer to the date for more info. Please be on time!

(photo: Olli Leppänen)

​

Free Improvisation is a regular event which follows the simple structure of show + jam. The event takes place every fortnight (give or take a few days), and begins with a short, informal performance before the space and tools of sound making are opened up to any and all. Come along to play, listen and meet.

Tonight's performer is Anna-Liisa Eller.

20:00 Anna-Liisa Eller

20:30 Open Jam

For the Open Jam, we have a piano and a P.A. system available.

Laura Remmel, Ivi Rausi ja Roomet Jakapi on moodustanud vokaaltrio, mis esitab vabaimprovisatsioonilist muusikat, kasutades lisaks inimhäältele ka hulka naturaalseid ja elektroonilisi vidinaid.

Meet to Delete!

You are invited to Kalamaja beach on the evening of Sunday, 4 May to take part in The Weight of Information by Julian Priest.

Meet to Delete is a series of parallel events happening around the world in conjunction with The Weight of Information. At Kalarand we will sit around a fire and enjoy conversation, food and drink while collectively deleting information. Bring something to eat and drink and some information to destroy: hard drives, USB keys, bank statements, books, SMS messages, phone contacts.

About The Weight of Information:
​On the 19th of April, a pico-satellite was launched into Low Earth Orbit from Cape Canaveral on CRS-3 as part of the Kicksat programme. From there it will begin to descend in a slow spiral trajectory before burning up on re-entry about 3 weeks later.

As it orbits the earth the Satellite collects information from it’s on- board sensors filling its memory banks with data. When its memory is full, it resets its registers to zero and starts collecting again, repeating this process thousands of times a second. The satellite counts how much information it has deleted and transmits the measurement to Earth by radio where it is collected and displayed on the web.

The satellite believes that information has weight, and it is trying to escape its inevitable burn-up by deleting information, becoming lighter and ascending to a higher orbit by forgetting.

Meet to Delete
You are invited to Meet to Delete in solidarity with the satellite. Come together around a bonfire for a bucolic evening on the beach, to delete information. Bring food, drink, friends and some personal information to delete around the fire. Burn old bank statements, remove old contacts from your phone, clean out your spam folder, put out of focus photos in the trash, clear out your media libraries. Delete something, remove the cruft, take control of your information, and feel a little lighter.

From Julian:

Sitting around a fire is emblematic of a kind of archetypal perfect sociality from the past – the kind of sociality that the net culture has always harked back to. The fire is a symbol of the romantic ideals of the counter culture and the back to the land movement that were embraced and extended by net culture – the idea was that the network would create a perfectly fluid social space where we could form communities. In the piece this is contrasted with the Weight of Information, the current reality of the information out of our control in the network, our information used and abused by many other actors in society for commercial and political ends.

I am hoping that the process of deleting information in a bucolic setting will represent a re-taking control of information for individuals. I’m not aiming for anti-informatic luditeism – we shouldn’t turn back the clock, especially not such a useful one, but more of a thoughtful assertion of information sovereignty and a feeling that we might be part of a wider community with the same aims. The mood should not be apocalyptic like the bonfire at the end of a dance party, and there is no burning books connotation or idea of re-writing history or refusing or destroying the infosphere. Instead it is about asserting control over our information rather than being controlled by it.

Please remember to delete more information than you create!

In May 2014, Ptarmigan/MoKS resident Kimmo Modig (selected as part of the Axis of Praxis residency programme) will host a weekly series of Sunday afternoon events, titled SUNDAYS WITH KIMMO. All events are free, start at 14:00, and include breakfast/brunch and coffee.

This week is the inaugural SUNDAYS WITH KIMMO session.

From Kimmo:

the artist is present as they say. If you wanna meet me for a coffee, drop by. There’s another Ptarmigan event taking place at 9pm. I have a skype meeting at some point during the day, but other than that I’m free. my number is +358 44 3630640, or just pop by and see if I’m there.

(photo: Hertta Kiiski)

Den Arkaiska Rösten (The Archaic Voice) is Per Åhlund and Girilal Baars of Uppsala, Sweden, experimental sound artists that since long have used their voice as source and tool in their music. In 2010 they started working together and quickly formed their own sound world; with sacred chanting, floating melodies or guttural droning, loopers, delayes and distortion.

Also performing will be Estonian-based American improvising musician Ted Parker.

Free Improvisation is a regular event which follows the simple structure of show + jam. The event takes place every fortnight (give or take a few days), and begins with a short, informal performance before the space and tools of sound making are opened up to any and all. Come along to play, listen and meet.

This time round we have Hara Ash performing.

20:00 Hara Ash

20:30 Open Jam

For the Open Jam, we have a piano and a P.A system available.

ASTEPBACK are Gaëlle Cavalieri and Andrea Saggiomo.

Two super-8 film projectors and a slide projector are used as light sources on stage. Super8 films and slides are prepared by scratching and patching, piercing and ink and wax drawing to be used in a multiple projection at different speeds. The projectors, the film and the images are then used as instruments to produce and modify in real time the light and, using some self-made photosensitive sound devices, the sound-space of the performance, interacting with the motion of bodies. The audio signal so generated and manipulated feeds a feedback loop that interacts and changes with the stage movement. 

In 2007 the two founded their own theater company in Naples. In 2008 they won Nuove Sensibitità Award with the show “Canti di Maldoror” (“Songs of Maldoror”). In 2009 they won “Cantieri Teatrali per Fabbrica Europa” Award with the show “I fiori d’Arancio” (“Orange Flowers”). Both shows have been represented in different Italian cities at national and international festivals. Their last show, “Villon: il Romanzo del Peto del Diavolo” (“Villon: The Romance of the Devil’s Fart”) premiered in Naples in November 2011. Since 2010 they collaborate organizing the festival “ALTERA: pratiche non convenzionali” where they have been working together with different musicians and artists (SEC_, Aspec (t), Dario Sanfilippo, Asp, Tiziana Salvati, etc.). Andrea Saggiomo alongside the theatrical performance art works in the expanded cinema project 70fps in the context of which he improvised and collaborated with musicians and international artists including Andy Guhl and Seppo Renvall. The first DVD of 70fps, entitled “But You Are” was released in 2013 for the independent label VIANDE. 

Plucié des Andes are Marek Pluciennik and James Andean of Helsinki.

Plucié/Des Andes are film artist Marek Pluciennik and sound artist James Andean. Together they have developed a unique audiovisual performance practice, drawing on the diverse background each has in their respective fields, seamlessly blending film, sound art, and performance art.
Marek Pluciennik emphasises the tactile qualities of film, not just as a vessel for content, but as a material medium, by treating and transforming the film during the act of projection, most commonly by melting and burning the film as it is projected on the screen, as well as through the digital capture and transformation of both materials and process. The visual results are thus a combination of the film content, and the beautiful, strangely transfixing display of colour and texture as the film bubbles, melts, and dissolves. The results capture the transitory, ephemeral nature of experience, art, and performance, as images, scenes, narratives, and people melt away on the screen. Pluciennik's live treatment of the film extends into the digital – as these physical metamorphoses are recaptured, digitally treated and transformed, and projected anew – and also into the realm of performance art, as his methods are played out in front of, within, and around the audience, sometimes requiring the participation of audience members, and often extending into broader metaphors of performance action.
James Andean creates live soundscapes to accompany and dialogue with the projected visuals. These soundscapes are often centred on live, site-specific sound, using the sound artefacts of the venue, the space, the audience, or the film projection as primary sound materials, to be further developed and extended live in the spontaneity of performance, creating a soundworld which once again stresses the fleeting impermanence of the experience of live art. Once again, these live, physical elements are captured, digitally extended and transformed, and projected as fantastic constructs moving out from their foundation in the here-and-now and out into broader realms of sound.
These two layers – the sonic and the visual – combine and react, to create a unique, beautiful experience of shifting images, scenes, colours and textures, from both screen and loudspeakers.

Free Improvisation is a regular event which follows the simple structure of show + jam. The event takes place every fortnight (give or take a few days), and begins with a short, informal performance before the space and tools of sound making are opened up to any and all. Come along to play, listen and meet.

This time round we have Villem Jahu performing.

20:00 Villem Jahu

20:30 Open Jam

For the Open Jam, we have a piano and a P.A system available.

​This is a special event in connection with our regular free improvisation shows+jams. Listeners and performers are welcome to join us! The format is a brief show followed by an open jam. (For the open jam, we have a piano and a P.A system available.)

20:00 Ekke Västrik

20:30 Open Jam

Väsinud kuulmast ümbritsevat iga päev samade kõrvadega? Meie ka!

Ptarmigan pakub vaheldust, vähemalt üheks tunniks 15. märtsi õhtupoolikul. Tule kohale ning me vahetame su kõrvad ära kellegi teise omadega. Lisaks ühendame teid omavahel 4 meetrise kaabliga. Niimoodi varustatult, asume grupis teele auditiivsele retkele unisesse laupäevasesse Tallinna kesklinna lähiümbrusesse. Teel kasutame erinevaid ühistranspordiliike, tunnetame kaubanduskeskuse rikast(:P) helimaailma, satume paljude uudishimulike kaaslinnlaste pilgete ohvriteks.

Kaabli pikkus teeb omad korrektuurid isiklikku mugavusdistantsi oma paarilise vahel. Tehnika tõlkemehhanismide eba(?)täiuslikkus omakorda lõhub senist tuttavat helipilti meie igapäevalinnast. Tasub olla ettevaatlik oma röhatuste, nohinate ja tobedate kommentaaridega, sest keegi teine kuuleb iga su väikest krõpsu ülivaljusti (või samas – äkki just tuleks olla vabam kui igal argipäeval?)

Lõpuks jõuame tagasi Toompeale ning toimub kõrvade nende esialgsetele omanikele tagastamine (soovi korral) vaikuse nautimine ning muljete jagamine (yeah...)

~3 € oleks oodatud igalt osavõtjalt, et katta väike protsent töötoa tehniliseks ettevalmistamiseks kulunud materjalide maksumusest. Aga loomulikult, kui sul pole sentigi taskus ja tahaksid ikka tulla, siis tule muidugi!

Kuna korraga saavad reisida 6 inimest, siis palun registreeri end (ja tule sel juhul ka kindlasti kohale!). Kui soovijaid on rohkem, siis toimuvad lisaväljumised kokkulepitud ajal.

giidid on H. Harkes ja V. Jahu

This is a special event in connection with our regular free improvisation shows+jams. Listeners and performers are welcome to join us! The format is a brief show followed by an open jam. (For the open jam, we have a piano and a P.A system available.)

20:00 Roomet Jakapi (EST, vocals and electronics) and Jonas Vandenbossche (BEL, guitar)

20:30 Open Jam

Free Improvisation is a regular event which follows the simple structure of show + jam. The event takes place every fortnight (give or take a few days), and begins with a short, informal performance before the space and tools of sound making are opened up to any and all. Come along to play, listen and meet. This time round we have Mart Soo performing.

20:00 Mart Soo

20:30 Open Jam

For the Open Jam, we have a piano and a P.A system available.

We request that all attendees bring a small contribution either for Ptarmigan or for the group in attendance that night. The contribution can be of any size, and can be anything for the event (snacks, drinks, etc) or any form of direct donation.

Behind the velvet curtains of the Ungravity Kiosk lie four portraits. Each portrait occupies its own separate but intrinsically linked temporal and physical space. These seemingly unrelated poses await your purikura adornments – pick from a selection designed by the artists or make your very own. The portraits wait patiently for your special touch.

The Ungravity Kiosk takes the familiar Japanese photo booth experience and stretches it out to a strained speed. It takes the idea of the sequence and the still frames that occupy a progressive narrative, and questions the nature of these simultaneously still and active images. The additional interactive elements serve to reveal this conflict between stillness and movement, whilst also providing the simple joy of trying to fit one thing inside another.

Unlike the purikura booth, however, the figures in the portraits do not demand to be made cuter; they can also just as well be made ugly, angry or horrifying. They welcome you to change their appearance and alter their characters.

Hannah Harkes (1989) and Tessa Androutsopoulos (1981) met at Gray’s School of Art in Scotland, where they studied together in the Printmaking department from 2007-2010. They have since developed their own separate practices and continue to share strong interests in the narrative sequence, the creation of characters and the printmakerly process of layering, disassembling and playing with images. 

Projekt Red Riding Hoods, "Euroopa Noored" programmi abil, korraldab veel ühe töötoa noortele. 
Kohtume 22 veebruaril projekti ruumis Ptarmigan (http://www.ptarmigan.ee/events?locale=et ), et meie uues töötoas koos teha õunamoosi ja pannkooke, räägime meie projektist ja teistest võimalustest mida saab Euroopa Noored programmi abil ellu viia -http://euroopa.noored.ee/Erasmuspluss ​

Kas kaks kassahitti mahuvad korraga ühele ekraanile? Kumma haare on magusam? Kumma nupuvõte nobedam? Tule vaata kahe filmi omavahelist agressiivset embust! 

Rahva kätte antakse vana hea külmasõjaaegne punane nupp, millega kaasa elada ja gladiaatoritele pöidlaid näidata.

PS. Kihlveokontor suletud.

It is time to wash your favorite woolen sweater, cleanse those wool socks and show care to those special mittens that will be ruined in the washing machine. Join us for the wool care workshop; bring a bucket and some towels, we provide the soap. 

Live music, social intercourse, wool washing and repair.

Cash bar and light refreshments, live audio, we provide the soap.

To cover costs of water, electricity and snacks, 3€ donations are appreciated.

Me liigume ja tantsime prantsuse režissöör Louis Malle’i 1975. aastal valminud filmimuusika järgi. Filmi ennast ei näe, kuna ekraani oleme täielikult välja lülitanud.

Too endaga mälupulgal kaasa erinevat muusikat, mis inspireerib sind tantsima ja mida tahaksid teistega jagada. Päev algab lühikese juhendatud soojenduskavaga keha ja vaimu äratamiseks, millele järgneb kollektiivne tantsimine üksteise toodud muusikaga. Peale seda me käivitame Black Moon’i, mille tantsime terves ulatuses läbi, kuulates ainult filmis olevat heli.

Töötuba algab kell üks päeval ja kestab umbes kuni kella kuueni õhtul. Tunne ennast vabalt, et osaleda, jälgida vahetult toimuvat, iga hetk lahkuda või siis uuesti ühineda.

Töötuba viivad läbi koreograaf Kaspar Aus ja kunstnik Hannah Harkes. 

Figuurikirjutamise õhtune aktsioon. Aktimodelliga. Aktsiooni käigus toimuvad esmalt lühikesed, 10-minutilised kirjutamisehood, et tint jooksma saada. Seejärel mõned pikemad kirjutamisehood, mil kirjutajad saavad juba süvenenumalt eksperimenteerida eelistatud kirjatehnikaga.

Õhtu jooksul proovime figuurikirjutamist läbi mitme erineva tehnika: mustvalgelt kirjutamine, tonaalne kirjutamine, värviline kirjutamine, valguse ja varjuga kontrastne kirjutamine, proovime kirjutada figuuri koos tema keskkonnaga ning emotsioonidega.

Osalejad võtku kaasa kirjutamisevahendid omal valikul (pastakas, tintekas, sulepea ja paber, kirjutusmasin, kompuuter...). Kellel väga vaja, siis pastakaid ja paberit leidub laenuks siiski.