Ptarmigan is now closed.

Ptarmigan operated in Tallinn from 2011-2014. We no longer maintain any presence in Tallinn, but this website will continue to serve as an archive of the activities produced at Ptarmigan during these years.

Archive / In the past

video : screening : discussion
30 November, 2011 00:00 20:15
part of project: Liminal Images

Ptarmigan's Liminal Images series, in conjunction with the ongoing Workshop in Architecture and Vitality, will be screening Dusan Makavajev's 1971 classic, WR: Mysteries of the Organism.  

WR - Misterije Organizma (WR - Mysteries of the Organism)

Directed by Dusan Makavejev
Yuvoslavia, 1971
84 minutes
English, Serbian, Russian and German with English subtitiles (imdb)

This feature-length film is described by Amos Vogel in Film as a Subversive Art as:

... unquestionably one of the most important subversive masterpieces of the 1970s; a hilarious, highly erotic, political comedy which quite seriously proposes sex as the ideological imperative for revolution and advances a plea for Erotic Socialism.  Only the revolutionary cubist Makavejev ... could have pulled together this mélange of Wilhelm Reich; excerpts from a monstrous Soviet film, The Vow (1946), starring Stalin; a transvestite of the Warhol factory; A.S. Neill of Summerhill; several beautiful young Yugoslavs fucking merrily throughout ... It is an outrageous, exhuberant, marvellous work of a new breed of international revolutionary, strangely spawns by cross-fertilization between the original radical ideologies of the East, Consciousness III in America, and the sexual-political radicalism of the early Wilhelm Reich ...

... Beneath the film's light-hearted frivolity and marvellous humour lurks a more serious ideological intent: opposition to all oppressive social systems, East or West, the removal of prurience from sex and a final squaring of accounts by the new radicals with the now reactionary Russian regime ... Makavejev is quite accurate in describing his film as 'a black comedy, a political circus, a fantasy on the fascism and communism of human bodies, the political life of human genitals, a proclamation of the pornographic essence of any system of authority and power over others.'  ... The film is also a tribute to the ultimate power of ideas over institutions.

talk : lecture : symposium
29 November, 2011 00:00 20:15

On Tuesday, 29 November 2011 at 8.15 pm at Ptarmigan Toom-kooli 13 Daniel Vaarik is going to present a thought evoking topic that has a special significance to many of us: Can one person change the world?

All are welcome to listen, reflect and discuss!

The brief presentation and discussion will be held in English if there are any English speaking attendees among us (if not, in Estonian).

artist talk : arutelu : dj : snäks
28 November, 2011 00:00 20:30
Featuring artist: Lori Felker and Adam Strohm
part of project: Labyrinths and Rings

November's Labyrinths and Rings programme continues our interest in experimental film and video work and also features a past and current resident discussing his latest project.   As always we'll have refreshments and music, with DJ Adam Strohm tonight serving up the tunes.

Lori Felker
Lori Felker is a film/videomaker, programmer, projectionist, performer and collaborator based in Chicago.  Her work employs multiple formats, styles, and structures, all attempting to make sense of the simultaneous simplicity and chaos of human behavior.   She is enamored with awkwardness, ineloquence, frustration, searching, trying and falling.  Lori is currently faculty and staff at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA 2007) and the Festival Coordinator for the Chicago Underground Film Festival.  Her work has screened at festivals such as the Rotterdam International Film Festival; NYFF: Views from the Avant-Garde; VideoEx, Zurich; Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Montreal; and Curtas Vila do Conde Film Festival, Portugal.
www.felkercommalori.com

Scott Andrew Elliott
Scott Andrew Elliott is a Canadian artist and teacher in the Environmental Art department of the Aalto University School of Art and Design.  His work is focused primarily on environmental installations in the form of large site specific architectural works. Each work demands active participation from visitors.  The projects examine the relationship between person and architectural environment.  Elliott has presented his work in Canada, Finland, and France.  He is currently at Ptarmigan Tallinn to conduct the Workshop in Architecture and Vitality with Pia Ednie-Brown and Jondi Keane. 
scottandrewelliott.blogspot.com

music : voice : piano : cello
19 November, 2011 00:00 22:00
Featuring artist: Peter Nicholson

Sans Provinces is French-Finnish duo Nathalie Aubret (vocals) and Jugi Kaartinen (piano). Their acoustic journeys follow the meanders of a cinematic piano & delicate voice. They move somewhere between minimal piano music, chanson française, and singer-songwriter vulnerability, drawing influences from the likes of Yann Tiersen, Clint Mansell, Antony & the Johnsons etc.  The duo formed in Helsinki in the autumn 2010.
http://soundcloud.com/sansprovinces

Peter Nicholson, on residency at Ptarmigan Tallinn, will perform material from his recent album Shutters Drawn, comprised of songs and multi-instrumental compositions.
http://peternicholsoncello.bandcamp.com/

 

 

workshop : improvisation : music : sound
19 November, 2011 00:00 14:30 - 17:00
Featuring artist: Peter Nicholson

After a short hiatus, the Svamp workshop/workgroup returns to Tallinn.  This month we are thrilled to have Peter Nicholson as guest-facilitator.  Peter is on a short residency in Tallinn and will bring his skills at collective improvisation to Estonia. Peter has been a member of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra and has performed in numerous open-form musical collaborations.

As always, we encourage both trained musicians and "non-musicians" to attend.  Please bring something to make sound with - an instrument or other object.  Amplification will be quite limited so please prepare accordingly (ie: don't bring a laptop). 

In the evening after the workshop, Peter will perform a free concert in Kodu Baar.

dance : movement : improvisation : music
17 November, 2011 00:00 19:00 - 21:00

Movement  offers an opportunity to take part in free improvisational dance - dance for dance's sake.

There will be live improvisational music by Ööo and possibly others.

Movement is faciliated by Pire Sova.

performance : screening : video : live art
16 November, 2011 00:00 20:00
Featuring artist: Kristīne Želve

Wire Frames brings together film and video with performance art for a night of mixed-format, mixed-media mixings.

Kristīne Želve (LAT)
Kristine Zelve is a filmmaker, writer and curator of cultural events from Riga.  She is en route to a Ptarmigan residency in Helsinki, where she will continue research on her film about Finnish/Latvian filmmaker Teuvo Tulio.  Tonight she will screen some footage and talk about her project and Tulio's work.

Giles Bailey (UK) : All Whirlwind, Heat, and Flash (Undertone) 
All Whirlwind, Heat, and Flash (Undertone)  is a performance with an extract of Vito Acconci’s video Undertone (1972) that has been widely circulated on the internet. In the original video Acconci details a masturbation fantasy while apparently caressing himself under the table. He punctuates this periodically by withdrawing his hands from beneath the table and addressing the camera and the audience directly before returning his hands out of view and continuing to touch himself, thus building to a predicable conclusion. In Giles Bailey’s performance the sound of Acconci's fantasy is faded out and he delivers a monologue that constructs an alternative narrative,  a counterpoint redolent with the clichés of a cinematic love story and replete with car chases and betrayal. Bailey becomes a vicarious counterpart to Acconci's narcissism, living a fantasy through the structure of his video rather than the vivid sexual act he describes.

+ performative video work by Camilla Wills and Ed Clive (UK)

15 November, 2011 00:00 20:00

Hasso Krull is going to discuss this mythological and anthropological topic that transcends into the spheres of philosophy, psychology and theology.
The symposium is held in Estonian. 

talk : music : discussion
03 November, 2011 00:00 19:15

Melomaania will take place on Thursday, 3 November 2011 at 7.15 pm at Ptarmigan, Toom-kooli 13, Tallinn

Our first presenter, young music critic Niilo Leppik with very wide taste in music, will play us "an hipster's (in a good sense of the word) picks and finds from 2011. Fresh stuff and crème de la crème."
Hence we may say Niilo will give us an early recap of the year 2011.

Our second presenter will be Raimond Mägi, introducing us the role of bass guitar in many styles of music.
All are welcome!
symposium : talk : lecture
01 November, 2011 00:00 20:00
presented by Eesti Humanitaarinstituudi Üliõpilasnõukogu

 

 

The Symposion series of philosophical discussions, organised in the past by the Philosophy Department of the Estonian Institute of Humanities, which has been resurrected and will be launched again. However, the event has moved out from the bohemian Kuku club and advanced its way up to the Toompea Hill to be closer to the ley lines of power. You will find us in Ptarmigan, Toom-Kooli 13, Tallinn.

 

Therefore, hearken all who have ears: Symposium will return, based on sheer enthusiasm, powerfully and persistently, once every fortnight with new and old individuals, a wider scope of topics, and a vivid fantasy. The team behind the events unites people in different EHI study programmes and Ptarmigan.

 

So, let’s all join hands and go together to take a friendly stroll along the fruitful landscapes of human mind and try to find some precious 'ahhaa'-moments. Our guide each time will be a knowledgable specialist well-versed in the their field or just an interesting person, who will make a casual presentation, followed by an open discussion.

 

All are welcome!

 

http://tinyurl.com/6yojvpl

 

This event will take place, starting on 1.11 then every 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month — 15.11 / 29.11 / 13.12 ...

artist talk : discussion : dj : food
31 October, 2011 00:00 20:00
part of project: Labyrinths and Rings

Join us for another installment of Labyrinths and Rings, a platform for artists, filmmakers, and other creative practitioners to present their work in a friendly, fun atmosphere.  L&R events always feature food and refreshments and a DJ.  

Tonight we're pleased to welcome two Helsinki-based artists, Bita Razavi & Jaakko Karhunen.

Bita Razavi
Bita Razavi is an Iranian contemporary artist based in Helsinki. She studied bachelor of music performance in Tehran Art University and master of fine arts in Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. She mostly works with video, installation and photography. Socio-political criticism, art history, collaboration and collective memory are the essential elements in her works.  Razavi had her first solo exhibition in Israel under the name of an Israeli artist, which was a manifestation against political games between Iran and Israel.  She has shown works in Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Third New Art Biennial of Tehran, first Trondheim biennial and Thessaloniki biennial.

Jaakko Karhunen
Jaakko Karhunen has made his master degree in Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. He is the founding member of the artist-run gallery and collective Oksasenkatu 11. After graduation he has mostly exhibited his work under pseudonyms and heteronyms, and worked extensively in collaboration with other artists and in collectives. His primary medium is installation, as that is the generic medium that can accommodate all other media. The thematic focal point of his artistic practice is the subject, the formation of subjecthood through ideology. Karhunen has exhibited in museums in Finland and abroad. He also curates shows for Oksasenkatu 11, and has been to several international residency programs.

As always, each artist will give a brief presentation of their work followed by a moderated question-and-answer forum.  

culture : variety : party
29 October, 2011 00:00 20:00
part of project: GFYP

This months Ptarmigan GFYP culture variety evening (29.10 - 20:00) will be on the subject of 'miniatures'. Come and visit us to enjoy and experience all manner of small things. From small yet strong drinks to pocket sized cameras, from minute films to electronic music made with tiny buttons, we have it all at Tallinn's guaranteed* premiere and only media and performance culture variety party evening.

Programme:

Layered Shot Workshop
Ever wondered how to make tiny layered drinks? After his overwhelmingly successful cocktail class at Septembers GFYP, Lewis McGuffie will begin the evening with a short informal class on how to make layered shots with a variety of liquors and spirits. Each person who takes part will get a free layered shot of their choice to enjoy!

Matchbox Camera Artists Talk
UK/EE artist Daniel Allen will present some of the photography taken by the participants in his upcoming matchbox camera workshop. Daniel will have taught a group of intrepid experimental photographers how to make their own pocket-sized cameras from simple household items and their work will be on show for all. 

Cha-Cha clip-minutes
It's a small festival of tiny compositions of sound and image. 
Maximum minute long clips of something. Already in the beginning about to end. A minute minute of intense giving -
composed unit or loose associations,
just a small sting, pain will be over in a moment.
But impact, impact can be eternal.
And if not, it's over already. 

Vil Lem
Big sound with small buttons. A musical exposition by Tallinn's one and only Vil Lem. A man of few words and many talents, Vil Lem will perform his unique brand of tiny impulses on microchips made into all-embracing loud electronica and absorbing images. And all developed specially for our evening.

special musical guest
A special surprise musical guest will play in the Ptarmigan bar after the performances. 


Come, come, all welcome!

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workshop : diy : photography
28 October, 2011 00:00 14:00 - 19:00

In this workshop, participants will build a pinhole camera out of a matchbox and use it to take photographs.  The photographs will be exhibited in the monthly variety show Gherkin Frenzy Youth Passport, happening the following evening (29 October).

The workshop is led by Daniel Allen, who descibes it: 

The point of the camera for me is it's unashamedly low-fi and very much fits in with that aesthetic. The fact that there's no viewfinder, for example, means that people are forced to look at the scene and identify what interests them, and to be inventive about photographing it, rather than immediately getting their camera to tell them what they see. So the matchbox camera strips people of some common props and forces them to re-evaluate photography a little. It reintroduces an element of serendipity and reinstates some kind of artistic investigation ...

I will guide the group through making the camera to ensure people get reasonably close to what is required for photographs, although the process is a little random and depends to some extent on participants' craft skills. The good thing is that each camera is an individual work of, if not art, then at least craft. Each person's camera is their own and the results, whatever they are, are enhanced by this. The resulting cameras shoot one roll of film and then basically have to be destroyed (to get the film out). The film is then developed at a 1 hour place. The negatives can then be scanned or digitally photographed so that the images can be manipulated on computer. Viewing as a slide show is the most effective way to present the photographs to everyone in the workshop.

The workshop will last approximately five hours depending on how much time is spent photographing. Places in the workshop are limited to 10 and there will be a 6€ fee for materials, so please register here.

dance : movement : improvisation
26 October, 2011 00:00 19:30 - 22:00

Movement  offers an opportunity to take part in free improvisational dance - dance for dance's sake.

There will be live improvisational music by Ööo and possibly others.   Movement is faciliated by Pire Sova.
video : film : screening
13 October, 2011 00:00 Doors open at 20:00. Programme will start at 20:15 sharp.
part of project: Liminal Images

In tribute to the great underground filmmaker George Kuchar, who passed away last month at the age of 69, this month's Liminal Images programme will screen several of Kuchar's short films.

 

Hold Me While I'm Naked
Directed by George Kuchar
USA, 1966
17 minutes. (imdb)

“A very direct and subtle, very sad and funny look at nothing more or less than sexual frustration and aloneness. In its economy and cogency of imaging, HOLD ME surpasses any of Kuchar’s previous work. The odd blend of Hollywood glamour and drama with all-too-real life creates and inspires counterpoint of unattainable desire against unbearable actuality.”    — Ken Kelman

“This film could cheer an arthritic gorilla, and audiences, apparently sensitized by its blithely accurate representation of feelings few among them can have escaped, rise from their general stupor to cheer it back.”   — James Stoller, The Village Voice

  Eclipse of the Sun Virgin
Directed by George Kuchar
USA, 1967
17 minutes (imdb)   "I dedicate this film poem to the behemoths of yesteryear that perished in Siberia along with the horned pachyderms of the pre-glacial epoch. This chilling montage of crimson repression must be seen. Painstakingly filmed and edited, it will be painful to watch, too." — George Kuchar   Pagan Rhapsody
Directed by George Kuchar
USA, 1970 25 minutes (imdb)   "Since this was Jane and Lloyd's first big acting roles, I made the music very loud so it would sweep them to stardom. She once hurt Bob Cowan's back by sitting on it so this time I had her laying on his stomach. Donna Kerness was pregnant during her scenes but her stomach was kept pretty much in shadow and it's not noticeable. My stomach was the same as always except it contained more mocha cake than usual since that type of cake was usually around when I filmed in Brooklyn Heights. Being that the picture was made in the winter, there are no outdoor scenes because it's too cold and when the characters have to suddenly flee a tense situation, it's too time consuming to have them put on a coat and gloves.

Originally not scheduled as a tragedy, things swiftly changed as the months made me more and more sour as I plummet down that incinerator shaft I call my life."  -- George Kuchar

 

* intermission *

 

A Reason to Live
Directed by George Kuchar
USA, 1976
25 minutes (imdb)

"Co-directed with Marion Eaton (who also stars), George Kuchar’s A Reason to Live is a hilarious and wonderfully evocative noir — not quite an homage, a pastiche, or a parody — in opulent, silvery black and white. Kuchar also follows Jack Smith (and, of course, many others) with beautiful, ersatz Von Sternberg lensing (with lots of foreground distraction and soft focus). Kuchar even references JVS’s Anatahan with the tactic of using silver-painted foliage, maximizing the shimmering cinematic gawdiness." -- KG

I, An Actress
Directed by George Kuchar
USA, 1977
10 minutes (imdb)

"This film was shot in ten minutes with four or five students of mine at the San Francisco Art Institute. It was to be a screen-test for a girl in the class. She wanted something to show producers of theatrical productions, as the girl was interested in an acting career. By the time all the heavy equipment was set up the class was just about over; all we had was ten minutes. Since 400 feet of film takes ten minutes to run through the camera … that was the answer: Just start it and don’t stop till it runs out. I had to get into the act to speed things up so, in a way, this film gives an insight into my directing techniques while under pressure." -- KG

 

Forever and Always
Directed by George Kuchar
USA, 1978
19 minutes (imdb)

"This is a great little short by the man that brought us "Hold me while im naked" and "Thundercrack". It's two film's in one for the most part but it works. He was approached by the "Horray for Kids" (oh dear) people to film a convention, needless to say what they got was hardly suitable for children. With great sound bytes from 50's romance records , as his quirky technique he produced a film more about the break up of marriage and the death of his children and wife in a car crash (not based on fact) , the car being driven by a shop dummy "A motor car has too big eyes too see where it is going and if you dont use your own big eyes you know where you'l be going" is sung heartily as the threesome become roadkill , done with a great slow mo of a kiddies three wheeler falling to the ground. There is so much compacted into the twenty or so minutes that I cant do it justice so track it down and have a look at what im going on about." -- a random IMDB user comment

 

Mongreloid
Directed by George Kuchar
USA, 1978
9 minutes (imdb)

"A nice look at George and his dog Bocko. Bocko starred in several of George's films and here is seen cavorting outdoors with the film maker Curt McDowell. He is also seen indoors with George. George shows Bocko some of the outdoor footage and comments on it, reminding him of the places they had visited. A wonderful film in beautiful color." -- KG

 

Afterwards, if anyone wants to stay, we'll put on the 1983 documentary George Kuchar: Comedy of the Underground (imdb), directed by David Hallinger (1 hour).

 

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dance : movement : improvisation
12 October, 2011 00:00 19:30 - 22:00

Movement  offers an opportunity to take part in free improvisational dance - dance for dance's sake.

There will be live improvisational music by Ööo and Ann Kuut.
Movement is faciliated by Pire Sova.
dance : movement : improvisation
05 October, 2011 00:00 19:30 - 22:00

Movement offers an opportunity to take part in free improvisational dance - dance for dance's sake.

There will be live improvisational music by Ööo and Ann Kuut.

Movement is faciliated by Pire Sova.

01 October, 2011 00:00 20:00
part of project: GFYP

Ptarmigan's free monthly culture variety night strikes again! 

The evenings entertainment includes:


Erik Alalooga, Hans-Gunter Lock, Andreas W, Meeland Sepp
Fresh from brilliant performances at Art Container and the Vana-Kalamaja commune, a sound extravaganza composed of home-made devices and strange domestic debris. These three seemingly calm and collected men when combined become a musical leviathan of terrifying proportions. Surely to be weird and wonderful.

Lewis McGuffie Cocktail Class
From England, Lewis is a hugely overqualified, handsome and dashing cocktail maker. He will do a quick workshop making some cocktails and give you the chance to make your own. And all for free! Come take part in the brilliant and elaborate world of classy drinking and learn some recipes you can take home with you. 

Flo Kasearu
Flo is a hero. A burgeoning creative force of such vital power she will surely walk the Earth 200ft high controlling all within her wake. And she is a champ. And she does some things at home. She will talk about these things. And it will be great. 

Riho Kall
And stay for the experimental stylings of Riho Kall. From the vast forests of southern Estonian this dangerous prodigy of tape music will surely destroy us all. But not before we are seduced by his polite, gentle and masterfully talented nature. 

* * *

GFYP, welcomes you to enjoy the domestic and dangerous. All welcome!

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workshop : improvisation : dance : sound
27 September, 2011 00:00 14:00 - 18:00

| resonance | is based on practices that enable heightened states of sensory perception. The workshop shares methods for reverberating mindfully with other artists during duet and ensemble improvisation. We will focus on listening, sensing, and acting from sound, movement, and memory impulses. We will explore expansions and contractions of energy and sound in our bodies and in the space. We will trace the pathways that movement material takes between outside and inside: input - filtering - output - sending. Rather than reacting to other artists, we will cultivate a stance that allows us to observe, consider, and respond with as much of our selves as possible.

The group will explore questions like: How do we transmit messages that perpetuate in different forms through the space instead of dying out? How do we translate or morph messages into different media like writing, drawing, or assessing? How can we use vibration, reflection, sounding, panning, resounding, writing, and remembering to create a resonating body? 

This workshop is led by William Bilwa Costa (USA) and Kristin Orav (Estonia), and participants will perform in the evening concert on the same date.

William Bilwa Costa is a sound and visual artist/electronic musician/improviser. He has worked with movement artist Emily Sweeney as perpetual movement sound since 2006. He currently works internationally, generating research/ lab/ performance projects, actively cultivating opportunities for artists to work together on new interdisciplinary explorations. His most recent album | resonance | was released on earSnake records in 2011. Bilwa has been artist-in-residence at STEIM (Amsterdam), Gallery Titanik (Turku, Finland), PRISMA Forum (Oaxaca/Mexico City), Community Education Center, NEXUS/foundation for today’s art, and the Mascher Space Cooperative (Philadelphia). He has performed in Berlin at VeneKlasen/Werner Gallery in Spencer Sweeney’s exhibition Teatr Laboratorium; in Turku, Finland at the Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art; in Melbourne at The Substation; in Vienna at FLUTEN, a performance series in a defunct 19th-century water tower, and Raum 35. In Philadelphia he has played as part of Ensemble N_JP at the International House and presented his own work at Sought Foundation, <fidget> space, Mascher Space Cooperative, and Temple Gallery. He has been a guest lecturer at Turku University of Applied Sciences and Marlboro College. Collaboration with other musicians, dancers, and designers and use of improvisation are central to his practice. His collaborators include: Gene Coleman, Audrey Chen, Werner Moebius, Mariella Greil, Christian Schroeder, Michael McDermott, John J.H. Phillips, Maria Nurmela, J. Milo Taylor, Marina Peterson, Helena Espvall, Kimmo Modig, Martin Lanz Landazuri, Topias Tiheäsalo, Daniela Lehman, Klaus Janek, and Antje Velsinger. Bilwa works in both the performing and visual arts contexts. His electronic music and sound art often involve the abstraction of source material such as dancers’ breath and body sounds, acoustic musicians, and audio frequency feedback—sonic relics through which he pulls elements of specific spaces, times, and interactions into his work. He is interested insensory perception and subjectivity, and his work documents those acts of decipherment. He often uses multiple speakers placed throughout a space, generating a sensory environment rich in ambient, rhythmic, and spatial sound.
http://perpetualmvmtsnd.org/

Kristino Rav is a performance artist whose creation could be described as pushing her body to the extremes. Thus, the intersection of completed projects contains an element of tiredness together with physical, mental and temporal endurance. She draws inspiration from movements, silence, coincidences, as well as from the tension that lies between public and private spaces, being lately interested in the phenomenon of dance in this context. She has finished the Estonian Academy of Arts in sculpture and The university of Tartu in semiotics.

http://kristino-rav.blogspot.com/

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performance : concert : dance : sound : movement
27 September, 2011 00:00 19:00 - 21:00

This is a performance of structured improvisations developed in William Bilwa Costa's | resonance | workshop earlier in the day (co-led by Kristino Rav).  You can join the workshop here.   The performances will be made of small duet and ensemble improvisations, mixing movement/dance with sound.  Performers will explore expansions and contractions of energy and sound in their bodies and in the space; they will trace the pathways that movement material takes between outside and inside: input - filtering - output - sending. They will cultivate a stance that allows them to observe, consider, and respond with as much of theirselves as possible.

24 September, 2011 00:00 20:00
Featuring artist: Hardcore Metaphor

Celebrate the last open evening of Cafe Hardcore Metaphor with us! All contributed artworks and publications we received over the last month will be on display. Live performance by Simi The Curse-Free Rhyme Slayer, “long distance dj’ing” by Gayborhood, Rick Nichols, music by Servataguse Muusika and more to be confirmed!

talk : film : residents
23 September, 2011 00:00 19:00
Featuring artist: Hardcore Metaphor
part of project: Labyrinths and Rings

Ptarmigan's artists in residence, Hardcore Metaphor, will be giving a talk on their work here in Tallinn, their experiences of the Danish and London art worlds, why Estonia is great and how much fun they have had here. As ever, the event is free, and there may even be some free food.

The talk is the night before the Hardcore Metaphor Cafe closing party (on 24.09) so, come along and enjoy one of the last Hardcore Metaphor events in Tallinn! 

The talk will start promptly at 19:00 and will run until 20:30, so as to give time in the evening to explore the other wonderful cultural events going on in the city. 

See you there!

workshop : tattooing
17 September, 2011 00:00 14:00 - 18:00

This 4 hour workshop is a short immersion into the tattooing world. The class begins with a brief discussion on the route tattooing has traveled across cultures, through history and how that relates to the practices we know today. All tattooing during the workshop will be done on fruit; however the prevention of diseases transmitted by blood, health risks, and aftercare will be covered. During the practical portion of workshop, participants will begin by learning ‘stick & poke’. As prisons have played a large part in the imagery and development of tattooing, we will follow up 'stick & poke' with all of the workshop participants learning how to make their own "prison style" rotary tattoo machines (which they will be able to take home). For the finale of the workshop, all individuals will get to practice using a professional tattoo machine on their fruit. Participants should leave the workshop with a historical context for the practice of tattooing, basic knowledge of how to accomplish tattooing (by a variety of methods) in a safe and sterile environment, their own “prison style” rotary tattoo machine and a tattooed piece of fruit.

The fee is 10€ to cover materials, as participants will construct their own tattoo gun to take home.  After registration, you will receive instructions about pre-paying to reserve your space in the workshop.

Justin Tyler Tate was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and grew up in Florida USA. He relocated back to Halifax to attend the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and has since migrated to Tallinn. Graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts his solo practice incorporates a variety of media; primarily sculpture, installation and performance. Over the past few years, he has exhibited his work across Canada and internationally. Tate's work investigates the relationship between the viewer and the object questioning the weight of viewership and creation alike.

16 September, 2011 00:00 21:30

Core of the Coalman (US/CZ), the solo project of sound artist Jorge Boehringer, consists of continuity and discontinuity for viola, voice and circuits on the border between order and chaos. Sonically diverse and at times explosive in texture, Core of the Coalman emphasizes the physicality of sound in its synesthetic relationships between ear, brain, and environment.

Performances including feedback-driven yodel triggers,descending tympanic pressures implying sexual interface, and extended upwardly-mobile Carnasitic arrays, with ornaments, have been featured on all kinds of concert programs. This project has comfortably shared programs with everything from power electronics and noise (such as Deathroes, D Yellow Swans and Dead Machines), to rock bands (from Deerhoof to Caroliner Rainbow to Skullflower) and famed avant-garde figures (like Ikue Mori, Pauline Oliveros, and Ghedalia Tazartes), and been presented on several international festivals such as Impakt Festival (presented by Kraak) and Colour Out of Space (presented by Chocolate Monk).

Boehringer and his solo project accidentally moved from Oakland, California to Prague, Czech Republic four years ago, and since then he has released several recordings among them: Aggregate and Crackle (Chocolate Monk, UK), Symmetrical Cavepeople (Insect, CZ), You'll Need A Catapult (KlangundKrach, CZ), Box of the Last Help (Zum, US), Affinity Groups (self-released), Precambrian Figures (Unverified, UK) and numerous tapes and other items. He teaches sound, experimental and interactive media, and runs a visual art studio at Prague College, where he also moderates the Experimental Arts Reseach Lab (EARL) a clearinghouse for crazy people with soldering irons and noisy ideas.

videos:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcem6y_core-of-the-coalman-live-at-k4-prah_music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS4GlfKWNvY

stream anything from several new-ish records here:

http://coreofthecoalman.bandcamp.com/track/kills-iv


websites with sounds:

http://www.last.fm/music/JorgeBoehringer
http://soundcloud.com/core-of-the-coalman

 

Shawn Pinchbeck (Kan/Est) for the last 10 years has split his time between his home town of Edmonton, Canada and Estonia.  Active as an sound artist since the mid-80's, his recent work centres on interactive sound and video installations, computer vision, dance performances, electroacoustic music composition, and improvised live acousmatic/soundcape/noise experiments. He is currently a PhD research student at the University of Birmingham, UK, and has taught sound and interactive art related courses at many institutions in Estonia and Latvia


Shawn has five solo CD releases, and his music has appeared on numerous compilations. His music has been used in many films, most notably in the multi-award winning documentary The Corporation (2004), which has played in cinemas and on TV around the world. His work with interactivity and dance with Estonian Fine 5 Dance Theatre won 2008 Best Dance Performance in Estonia. Shawn’s music and installations have been performed and presented at numerous festivals internationally. He has collaborated with many artists and has releases with Rose McDowall (Strawberry Switchblade, Sorrow, Spell), David Tibet (Current 93/Nurse with Wound), Ken Gregory, Steve Heimbecker, and Marion Garver.

1 resource
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15 September, 2011 00:00 20:00
Featuring artist: Hardcore Metaphor

A live spoken word meditation with accompanying ambient music, taking place at Cafe Hardcore Metaphor, based on London art 'mirrorist' Glamorra Concern's 2009 self help tape "How to relax around circles: An art makers guide". The focus of the meditation is on the experience of being a contemporary artist and how to stay calm when confronted by art and other artists. Relaxation and reflection provided!

Homemade Kimchi will be served at the event, courtesy of Ursula Wild.

Please wear loose, comfortable clothing and come with an open mind!