Artefactourism: rumours and ruins

Imagine yourself in a summer farmyard. The sun, the heat, the bees buzzing under the thatched roof. A village swing creaks in the distance. Multilingual instructions are attached to the swing, but the tourists don't really know how to use it, they awkwardly bend their knees and laugh. New image: an empty, ghostly echoing factory building. You know that the room was once filled with deafening noise and that many people have left their health here, but that many have also perceived it as a source of pride. The air is strangely heavy, though the wind rattles the broken windows; somewhere a door slams. Third image: white theater hall, empty, without decorations. The floor is a little cold. The premiere is still a long time away, but that’s also why more e-mails need to be exchanged with the team; Saturday is the best day for the meeting.

Valeria Januškevitš, Sigrid Savi, Kadri Sirel and Keity Pook are interested in the power of memory to create identities and communities and the power, ambiguity and deceitfulness of this mechanism. In what ways are people caught up in the mechanisms of memory, how are they pushed out, which loose ends remain? The production carries the echoes of three different residences. The Estonian Open Air Museum, the Kreenholm Manufactory and Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava as symbols that highlight lifestyles, dreams and ways of working typical of different eras, asking the question what kind of work needs to be put into remembering. Choreographers travel as tourists along the patchy memories, dancing on the ruins and building bridges between the past, present and future.

Choreographers and performers: Valeria Januškevitš, Keity Pook, Sigrid Savi and Kadri Sirel
Dramaturge: Kerli Ever
Sound designer: Sander Saarmets
Set designer: Laura Põld

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
We thank the Estonian Open Air Museum and the Kreenholm Manufacturing Company.

Premiere: November 8th, 2022 at Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava

https://stl.ee/en/lavastus/artefactourism-rumours-and-ruins/