Last days of Tallinn #1

It was raining in Tallinn...




but the art performance went ahead...




I'm not sure what it was about but the performer was carrying a (stuffed and dirty) swan and had plastic lobsters hanging off his dacks. He was leading us to an exhibition opening and on the way asked passers by if they could wipe the rain from his glasses.




The exhibition was a group show of artists who had taken part in a 'conceptual drawing' workshop. Needless to say, there was little drawing. It was very interesting and it was exhibited in a squat near to my apartment. This particular building had apparently been used by the KGB during soviet times as a place to 'interview' certain persons and afterwards became a squat inhabited by artists. It's now to be demolished or renovated by a developer and the artists (some of whom lived in the building) all responded to aspects of the building's history.




Unfortunately I couldn't find the names of the artists (or the performer) and the invite is in Estonian so if any of my Estonian readers want to contact me with details I'll add them here.

The image above was of a work exhibited in the roof of the building. I was nervous entering the roof as it was dark and it stank and the beams were all charred! but it was worth it. The images below are also part of the work but I had to use flash which destroys the atmosphere created by the darkness of the space.






This was in one of the rooms downstairs...



It would occassionally emit low thunderous sounds which were appropriate for the rainy day and it created quite an ominous atmosphere which seemed appropriate for the future of the building.

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