NUP 2020: Hanna-Liisa Lavonen, Jaanika Arum, Helen Västrik, Katrin Enni, Helle Ly Tomberg, Ellen Vene, Andre Joosep Arming, Kleer Keret Tali “Shimmering Sine”

NU Performance Festival 2020: Voice of Taking Care

Hanna-Liisa Lavonen, Jaanika Arum, Helen Västrik, Katrin Enni, Helle Ly Tomberg, Ellen Vene, Andre Joosep Arming, Kleer Keret Tali
SHIMMERING SINE
ca 60 min

Perhaps it is safe to say that we are living in an age of anxiety? We can skilfully navigate the overabundance of information, bad news and dubious new knowledge. The brain is synthesising new information at unprecedented speeds. There is no choice but to be alert like an animal, heart pounding.
Many living organisms choose hibernation to survive the hard times. Bats are the top predators of their food chain; no other animal has specialised in eating bats. When the weather turns cold, the northern bats living in Estonia hibernate for up to eight months depending on the year. Using their energy storage, they hibernate through the winter, and while their organisms switch to an energy-saving regime, their hearts will slow down by up to 60 times. After the hibernation, they start with a clean slate.
The life that keeps us swaying like sinusoids consists of rhythms and sounds. A group of artists will come together for one night to dedicate some sounds to all of us feeling like there is just too much of everything. It is difficult to relax and go on. Trying to lull us into a cosy and soft state, perhaps a rest or even sleep. By trying to save energy, operating with minimal energy waste, we are ready for a restart. It is often not that easy. Every end is disconcerting in a way, so we tend to postpone even the good things. However, before that, we will try to relax.
The group has been formed especially for the NU Performance festival.
All participants have met in one way or another through the contemporary art curriculum at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Future curator Kleer Keret Tali wants to harmonise various author positions and ideas in the Shimmering Sine performance. Combining language, music and emotional coping mechanisms, Hanna-Liisa Lavonen strives to highlight the cosmological essence of the Karelian lament. Freelance actor Jaanika Arum and sound artists Helen Västrik and Katrin Enni start decoding the essence of nervous rhythm motilities. Helle Ly Tomberg and Ellen Vene explore the vocal range of an artist in a world that fetishizes the gig economy and look for alternative comfort from the words of wisdom of self-help gurus. The honest and irresponsible Andre Joosep Arming will introduce a poetic game on the subject of the flow of time.

Contributing singers: Maria Kurm, Marleen Nurm