Art is in the Air!

Pick an ordinary day, a random situation, a certain moment. What do you hear? What do you hear right now? Exactly now I hear a man on the radio telling about the weather, the clock ticking on the wall, the tapping sound my fingers make when I type in these words. Is there art in there? What’s for sure is that there are also several sounds around me and in the air that I’m not noticing or paying attention to. But if I’d start to pay attention, I’d discover a world full of sounds. 

There is a chance to dive into the world of sounds and sound arts in Tartu, in Helikoosolek sound gatherings once a month (http://helikoosolek.blogspot.com/). The event is always an experience, an unexpected surprise –you could never imagine the scenes and views that sounds can reveal to you! You want to give it a try? Imagine a world of underwater sounds...done it? Now go to listen to underwater recordings of a French sound artist Thomas Tilly: http://thomas.tilly.free.fr/todisco.html. Did it meet your image?

Sitting with your eyes closed and letting sound arts fill your ears can really be what they call an experience. I think that you’re having an experience when you forget your awareness, possibly also your surroundings, and your senses and imagination just play together –whatever the result may be.  One recommended chance to try such experiences in the world of sound arts is a two day event called Topofon, taking place at Y-galerii in the beginning of May (http://ygalerii.blogspot.com/). You might want to taste some sound poetry for example?

Topofon audience

So yes, there is art in there, more art around us than we even realise, or sense to that matter. A clock ticking on the wall is not that far away from being a piece of art when you combine it with some creativity. It may be even singing instead of ticking, right? Maybe singing with countless delicate tunes that can turn even silence into a concert, air filled with art.

Wanted: a Good Home for Good Art

I completely understand anyone who finds it hard to start purchasing art. First you should somehow define your taste of art –what pleases me, what do I rate being good enough to buy, how to compare different works? After that you should recognise people and places that sell art, find the courage to step into different galleries and shops. And still it might be that when you find a calling piece of art, say a nice painting, the price tag makes you run away and stick to posters available in any market for the rest of your life. Sounds familiar?

I also completely understand any artist who finds it hard to start selling their art. An artist might face exactly the same challenges as a potential art buyer, get confused when trying to find the right people and right places, and end up running away when seeing the price tag -this time it being the price tag of the gallery rent. And end up sticking to painting in the basement with no sales or publicity approach in their mind.

Luckily there is Tartu Loomemajanduskeskus to help! Two times a year the centre is calling for young and unknown artists to bring their works to be introduced in an exhibition that will culminate in to an auction that brings these art makers and art purchasers together. This time the exhibition is called Best Of... and it’s introducing 48 pieces of artwork from 35 different young artists. The amount is great, and it should be said that it is only a fraction of all the works that were offered for exhibition and sales. 

opening the exhibition at LMK

So get your coat, walk to Kalevi street and find a house full of art! Go around, find your favourite(s), show up in Cafe Newton in the new science centre AHHAA on May the 13^th at 4 p.m. and get ready to bid! Or if you already feel like you can’t wait a second more to get to see the artwork, you can taste it also here: http://www.lmk.ee/bestof. 

The auction itself was slightly rehearsed in the opening of the exhibition with the lead of Georg Poslawski and already there the house was filled with excitement and the crowd on the edge of going wild. I take it as a sign that you really don’t want to miss the a(u)ction in Cafe Newton 13^th of May! Come and give a good home for good art!

Georg leading the example auction

Drinks Gone Green

After having a discussion with some friends about how important is changing opinions I entered an event that is perfect for that – the first Green Drinks session in Tartu. Green Drinks (www.greendrinks.org) is a concept that makes people interested in ecological and environmental issues get together, meet new people and share thoughts and opinions over a drink. As the concept introduces itself: it’s an organic, self-organising network. It has existed since 1989 and becoming growingly popular with a speed of five new cities around the world a week just now. It’s open to be established where ever will and interest exist, open for anyone to participate and open for any ideas and discussion, and an open road for all of us to take a step towards a greener direction!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: finding such a concept taking place here in Tartu is surprising me only positively. It’s about people being active by their own, not needing big organisations or waiting for public decisions before acting –just doing it, making it happen! I find it amusing, exemplary and very Estonian. I think it’s easy to find this do_it_yourself_attitude around here –and that’s just enjoyable!

Environmental awareness is needed and important, and in creating this awareness I see similarities with introducing arts and creativity to people: should be easy to approach, accessible and fun. People should think of acting environmentally friendly as something entertaining and beneficiary instead of it being inconvenient extra work. Having a green drink might make you feel like that. The next chance to try if it is so is in Tartu May the 14^th. Green Cheers!

Tourism Thoughts

It is always fascinating when cultures confront. Be it different nations, people in different positions and situations, or different personalities. Think about this from the viewpoint of tourism: born from the interest that people have towards discovering new matters and from the possibilities and market that are seen being related to that interest.

To plan and organise tourism so that it would be sustainable and responsible is not easy, or self- evident. Some places have lost their identity and local, special features when they have started to serve tourism to the extreme, and some left totally abandoned and empty when the tourist masses have lost their interest and moved to another place. But luckily there are also different stories!

Have you heard of the Road of Onions –Sibulatee (www.sibulatee.ee )? It is a non- governmental organisation and a network of different enterprises that can offer services to tourists around the area of Lake Peipus. Using the network instead of looking for services one by one is attractive in the eyes of the tourists, and promoting such a network also brings tourists to the area that might otherwise be more forgotten. This is what I mean by a different story: tourism can also lead to a survival of a culture, maintaining employment and possibilities to live where you were born –and creating cultural awareness. 

Travelling on Sibulatee allows you to participate and get involved with the local culture. In my opinion this is sustainable tourism. Instead of just consuming the culture and leaving it for good when you’ve had enough you start to appreciate the culture and want to make sure that it will bloom on with its specialities, which you have once become a part of. Genuine, real experiences are more memorable, and the local community benefits from your experience at the same time.

When cultures confront, cultural exchange is also always involved. So it is not only the tourists visiting different places and experiencing the cultures, it is also the local people experiencing and learning from the tourists. So we observe and adapt, sense and develop.  That is a good motive for one to travel, for one to welcome visitors, and a mutual reason for both to support and enrich the daily life of each other.

Traditional Bombs

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about natural cosmetics? In my opinion it is something that used to be a way of us people taking care of, treating and pampering  ourselves  already generations ago, an old tradition that is to say. This tradition we almost lost when the beauty industry started to offer us artificial products and means of beauty treatment, but luckily it survived.

Estonians transferring this tradition through generations doesn’t come as a surprise. I have met so many people practising different skills that they have learnt from their parents and grandparents that I have started to think that such a habit, such a message should spread everywhere.  And thinking of it from the viewpoint of natural cosmetics, it is probably the most natural a natural can get if you find the ingredients from your nearest food store and your own garden. Just as your grandmother did.

I got to see how transferring the tradition turns also into a creative business when I participated a workshop about natural cosmetics with my colleagues.  We were learning how to make bath bombs from daily ingredients, and it was just great fun! Mixing soda and citric acid with some oils and scents such as herbs or spices gives you limitless possibilities to prepare yourself a unique treatment as you wish. At a low cost, environmentally and especially bodily friendly!

in the middle of bomb making

Consider these claims and compare them with industrial cosmetics: Are they as affordable? Or do they have the same spirit of being ecological and supporting sustainable development?  Natural, self made cosmetics have many advantages that the industrial ones don’t.  They can be suitable for allergic persons who otherwise wouldn’t be able to use cosmetics, and they can bring the joy of body treatment also to places where no classy spas or specialized beauty boutiques can be found. I see that as an adequate evidence of the importance of transferring the tradition.

choosing the herbs

For sure you can also end up making a mess when you get carried away by scooping funny feeling pulp with your hands and imagining all the different combinations of ingredients you could possibly have in your bombs and pastes –but do it together, share and change the cosmetics you have created (and clean up together)! Share the habit, transfer the tradition!

There is one danger with natural cosmetics, though. You might just end up eating the things you were supposed to treat yourself with. 

Secret Garden

A gallery and an arts shop LOOV (http://www.lmk.ee/loov) from Tartu Loomemajanduskeskus was participating an event called Salaaed in Tallinn on Friday the 11^{th of March}. The event was a combination of handicrafts market and a trade fair of creative businesses spiced up with a fashion show, and it gathered exhibitors from Estonia, Finland and Latvia to Viru Keskus shopping centre. The brilliant purpose of the organisers was to bring the products and services of the creative enterprises into sight of the big audience, so that they would reach also the common man.  They wanted to express how the acts of creativity and art are often perceived in the minds of people –and named the event Salaaed –Secret Garden.

LOOV Galerii

What a name, what a metaphor it is! It’s fascinating, it describes the liveliness nature of the field of culture perfectly and for sure wakes your attention. Who wouldn’t be interested in secrets and revealing them? Bringing this garden of creativeness in the middle of people opens the gate for anyone to step in and have a piece of fairytale called culture and art. And maybe even step out from that garden with fruits from it in your pocket found on the path.

And that garden needs to be visited. It is being watered and fertilized with interest, admiration and irritation, with all the emotions and experiences that art and culture can wake in us. If art and culture are left alone in the studios and halls where the big audience doesn’t know to look them from, the spell of the garden might fade away and the garden grow shut and forgotten.

So when you see a gate to a secret garden like this, go and try it. Step in, start exploring and experiencing! There might be something to mesmerize you so that you want to return to the garden again and again. Maybe share the secret with your friends and beloved ones, too. Become a gardener for life.

Salaaed in Viru Keskus

...btw, check what I found from the secret garden: www.artbag.lv !

Have a Laugh!

There’s nothing like a good laugh. Laughing cheers you up, freshens up your thoughts and feels good also physically. At its best it reboots you.  Comedy Estonia (http://comedyestonia.wordpress.com/) just served this reboot to me with its open mic stand up show. An international  group of comedians gave their best to the audience crowding the place, making it laugh until it cried, and giving a chance for those brave enough to take the mic to also tell their craziest, rudest, most surprising and the best jokes and stories public. Would you have the courage to do that?

Andrei Tuch performing

Experiencing a show like that is about creativity and culture at its best: bringing together people with different backgrounds, making them share a moment of joy, laugh together and to each other.  In my opinion stand up is also an art that exists only in the moment, because you couldn’t fully plan it forehanded or save the laughter for later. At the same time it leaves its mark – a smile – to the faces of those enjoying it. 

Comedy Estonia is a great cultural act and a creative business. It is a service that you can pay for and have a laugh with a price but they are also willing to offer it to everyone with no price, and thus they are truly doing their part in making culture easy to approach and accessible to all of us. This example should be followed by any cultural institution, and again I am finding myself thinking how great it is to find this happening in Estonia, and in Tartu!

The next time Comedy Estonia is performing in Tartu is March the 15^th. To guarantee the daily portion of joy I would highly recommend anyone to participate the event.  We need to look after ourselves to make sure we get the reasonable amount of laughter every day, but it’s a great advantage to have creative operators such as Comedy Estonia to make it easy for us to get this laughter. For these purposes I could recommend some laughter yoga also, but that is a whole another story...