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.
Art upcycling is a process to change art pieces into new products of better quality to prevent the waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" art exposition.
Are you tired of art filling your room, cellar or attic? Has the collection of your gallery or museum outgrown the size of your walls or storage rooms? Do you think that art is much larger than its conventional representation? Or maybe you simply started to doubt about art itself while being asked repeatedly if you are an artist or not?
We invite everyone having this kind of dilemma to Waste workshop II on 1 February at 12:00. Participants are asked to bring existing art pieces, and through the use of fantasy and/or frustration, upcycle them to some other form (or eventually turn it into recyclable waste).
Minimum entry fee: one art piece.
Ptarmigan presents an evening of music by Antti Tolvi. Antti has been a friend of Ptarmigan for years and will be performing in Tallinn after his Helikooselek performance in Tartu. His latest release is Pianoketo, on the Fonal label, a record of piano music.
This concert will start AFTER the Improtest concert at Kanuti Gildi Saal (which is Raul Keller, Hello Upan and Ekke Västrik, so you don't want to miss that!). Improtest concertgoers can bring their ticket stub to Ptarmigan and receive a heavily discounted ticket here. After Antti's performance there will be records played in a psychedelic/experimental vein.
From Fonal:
Antti Tolvi is a self-taught, multi-talented musician. He has played in numerous bands including Lau Nau, Rauhan Orkesteri, and Lauhkeat Lampaat. Born in ’77 in Panelia on the west coast of Finland, he began making music with his brothers, untutored. From 2000-2001 he studied classical Indian music in Varanasi, and this marked a turning point in his perception of music. On returning to his native Finland, he became embroiled in Free Jazz for a number of years, until a recent relocation to the countryside pushed him ever more towards solo improvisation – deriving inspiration from, in Antti’s own words, “harmonies, overtones, going into sound, no ends, no starts, from nothing comes something, just perfect, peace”.
‘Pianoketo’ can be seen as a culmination of Antti’s musical experiences to date. Featuring three extended meditations on a theme, all played on solo piano, it is a sound that defies categorisation, with nods towards classical, avant-garde, improvisation, psych, free jazz and Indian music. A shimmering flux of tones and harmonies, each of Pianoketo’s pieces seem to collect notes as they gather momentum, expanding and shifting form as Antti breathes life into them. At times, it is almost as if there are two instruments, the overtones working like feedback, playing counter-melodies as notes weave through each other. Antti’s technique combines neatly with the personality of the instrument to convey an evocative, psychedelic nostalgia.
Come to our experimental workshop of anthropological diary writing and bending words and memories with art practices!
Use this chance to access different levels of your creative consciousness!
Have you ever wondered how we can understand and express sensory experiences in words?
How do we rewrite memories by jotting them down?
How do the modes of sensing translate into each other?
How words transform into sound and pictures, smells into taste and touch into emotion?
The workshop will consist of three parts:
I The Event
II Note Taking
III Diary Writing
What to remember:
Time: 18.01.2014 / 10:00-19:00 (with lunch break and snacks and coffee)
Keep your eyes open (and your ears, and nose).
Be prepared to improvise,
You will simultaneously become the researcher and the researched
Bring along something to take notes, something you are most familiar with (like a notebook or the photo camera on your phone)
Plug in!
People of Plug and Sputink!
17.01.14 at Ptarmigan will take place
a seminar on
Future Semiotic Technologies
Logo: Recollect your brain!
Topic: the results of the local cultural activity in the past and perspectives for the future
Format: brainstorm, discussion – 5-10 min.
Participants: free, keynote speakers are not determined
Introduction and conclusion: Grigorjeva
Keynote questions: strategies of surviving and evolving
Languages: Russian, English, Estonian (translation is provided)
We start at 7pm
free entrance
The Fictiocratic operation no. 27C opens its doors to you, publics and privates of Estonia. We cordially invite you to stop by and engage with the redesigning and redesignation of entities at this apex between "2013" and "2014".
Ptarmigan doors will be open from 21:00 EET and we promise nothing except some combination of what is pictured in this photo.
No bricks or juice, palun.
I won’t be able to play a full piece. There were people there...and I knew that they were going to listen. The idea of someone listening to what I am playing...it creates...a lot of nervousness, because I know, that I can’t play, but if I’m alone I’m just, rediscovering the sounds…kind of...re...membering...how the archive within my body can remember the movements, and how the fingers should be placed...how they moved on the keys.
Pause
By sharing the process of rediscovering, the act of copying, repeating and adapting is tossed back and forth between two piano players. A fragmented narrative begins to take shape: singular elements are taken out, misplaced and overlapped. The hesitating fingers touches the piano keys, one by one, and eventually produces a new way of listening.
Anne-Liis Kogan was born in 1984 in Tartu, Estonia. She grew up in Tartu and moved to Bergen in 1997. In the process of moving she lost her piano, which she had been playing from the age of six to the age of eleven. Anne-Liis most often works with video installations based on relational and performative strategies, as well as exploring the notions of identity and community. Her work has been shown in Gävle Konstcentrum, Landmark Bergen Kunsthall and she holds a MFA from Konstfack in Stockholm.
Ellakajsa Nordström was born in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1979, and lived in the UK between 1998 and 2009. She played the piano from the age of nine to the age of fourteen. Her work explores the grey zones of language and consists of close observations of everyday settings, where reenactment, copying and translation produces multilayered, site-specific installations. Ellakajsa holds a BA in Art from Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design and is currently completing an MFA at Oslo Art Academy. Her work has been shown at The Courthauld Institute (UK) and Townhouse Gallery (EG).
Anne-Liis and Ellakajsa also occasionally collaborate in AtwoB, a group consisting of four artists originating from Denmark, Sweden, Estonia/Norway and Japan. The group draws inspiration from their individual, cultural and linguistic backgrounds in order to examine issues surrounding text, vocality, multilingualism and translation, which is often presented as performance.
Anne-Liis's residency at Ptarmigan is part of the Axis of Praxis residency programme (in conjunction with MoKS), supported by Kulturkontakt Nord.
A media performance on our inner and outer animals,
“My mom is a wolf, my dad…” is a talk about healing processes. What do our inner animals tell us? How can we enter into a dialogue with them? Current Ptarmigan artist-in-residence Camilla Graff Junior, aka former punk-rock musician Mona Motel, shares her experience based on autobiographical material, photos, video clips, a collection of plastic animals and family stories.
Created and performed by: Camilla Graff Junior (DK)
Media collaborator: Paolo Podrescu / XLT (US)
Lighting design and technical consultant: Tobias Stål (SE)
The project is supported by: the Danish Arts Council, Copenhagen Performing Arts Committee and Fonden Harmonien.
Co-production: Giraff Graff, XLterrestrials (US), Gaia Museum Outsider Art (DK) and Warehouse 9 (DK).
Residencies: Month of Performance Art – Berlin, Ponderosa Dance, Stolzenhagen (DE), Studenterhytta in Nordmarka, Oslo (NO), Ptarmigan, Tallinn (EE) and MoKS, Mooste (EE).
Camilla's residency is supported by Kulturkontakt Nord and the Nordic-Baltic mobility programme and the Danish Arts Council Committee for Performing Arts.
Improvisation in its meaning describes a state of creating without pre-planning. That's why the only sure thing about Free Impro @ Ptarmigan is that around 20:30 Tom Blancarte & Theodore Parker and then around 21:15 Louise D.E. Jensen & Roomet Jakapi will perform. Evertything else is uncertain.
During his two month residency at Ptarmigan, Karl Larsson collected not only unique items of trash from all around Tallinn but also captured (with his camera) various points of view on local waste management.
Karl's two day workshop contains both practical and theoretical parts. Participants will have an opportunity to creatively re-use the extraordinary pieces of waste collected by Karl, discuss issues and information gathered by him, and figure out if waste is an art (or maybe art is a waste).
All you need to participate is to prepare yourself to face three containers of trash (so wear working clothes and gloves) and to reserve time between 10:00 and 18:00 on 16 - 17 November.
A media performance on our inner and outer animals
“My mom is a wolf, my dad…” is a talk about healing processes. What do our inner animals tell us? How can we enter into a dialogue with them? Current Ptarmigan artist-in-residence Camilla Graff Junior, aka former punk-rock musician Mona Motel, shares her experience based on autobiographical material, photos, video clips, a collection of plastic animals and family stories.
Created and performed by: Camilla Graff Junior (DK)
Media collaborator: Paolo Podrescu / XLT (US)
Lighting design and technical consultant: Tobias Stål (SE)
The project is supported by: the Danish Arts Council, Copenhagen Performing Arts Committee and Fonden Harmonien.
Co-production: Giraff Graff, XLterrestrials (US), Gaia Museum Outsider Art (DK) and Warehouse 9 (DK).
Residencies: Month of Performance Art – Berlin, Ponderosa Dance, Stolzenhagen (DE), Studenterhytta in Nordmarka, Oslo (NO), Ptarmigan, Tallinn (EE) and MoKS, Mooste (EE).
The PLUG magazine invites faithful readers, smart-looking authors, crazed illustrators and all the friends to spend an evening on what we can call a modern salotto letterario. This literature-musical event will be graced by the presence of Serguei Kounych, Andrei Ivanon, P.I.Filimonov (writers); Flip Point and Dmitri Titov (music performers) and labeled by the famous brand Plug In! Tallinn.
During the event Serguei Koumych, a young writer from St. Petersburg but naturally bonded with Estonia (his family lived here for 6 years) will present his short stories titled Like children. He is published in such magazines as Zvezda and Pioneer. He also won Russian Pioneer 2012 literature prize and has been short-listed for the V.P Astafjev Foundation prize. Nowadays Serguei works as a columnist in the Moscow News newspaper. We are looking not only for a presentation of his book but also some readings, Q and A session and of course a book signing. Book details can be found here.
Furthermore P.I Filimonov and Andrei Ivanov, well known Estonian writers and regular PLUG contributors will read excerpts from their works, present their published and unpublished books and answer any emerging questions about meaning of life and maybe even sign bodyparts of the guests.
At the end there will be also an acoustic performance by beloved Flip Point band and Dmitri Titov.
The event program is not final and may change and/or be completely eliminated by the forces of The Galactic Empire. We wait for your input.
collaboration is an ongoing series of performances by Jasmin Schaitl (AT) and William “Bilwa” Costa (US) that explores the correlation between, and the potentials of; transformation, alteration, duration and ephemerality. It combines two practices that incorporate movement, sound, action, materials, objects, the body, and composition.
| resonance | is a workshop for performance, movement, sound, theatre, and other performing artists. To reverberate mindfully with one another during duet and ensemble improvisation, we practice listening, observing, sensing, and acting from sound, movement, language, and memory impulses. By reapplying terms and processes typically used to describe the physical behaviors of sound and movement, such as: input, filtering, output, sending, panning, wavelength, particle, and molecule, we engage with expansions and contractions of energy and sound in our bodies and in the spaces where we work. We experiment with deprivation, isolation, and heightening of our various senses to bring new understandings of the potentials lying dormant in our bodies and the spaces they inhabit. Participants will actively engage in various improvisation exercises.
This workshop explores questions like: How do we transmit material that perpetuates in different forms throughout a space? How does material travel from one body to another? How do we translate or morph material into different media? How do sound and movement inhabit different areas of the body, and different places in a space? How can we use practices of vibration, reflection, speaking, sounding, panning, resounding, writing, drawing, imagining, and remembering to cultivate a resonating body?
Join us for a warm up event for the festival Dimanche Rouge Estonia-Finland-France!
The programme of the evening will include video projects produced by Artists' Association MUU - Performance Voyage 3 and Performance Portfolio 2013. The night will also include artist talks and performance actions coordinated by Sari Kivinen (Ptarmigan ry) with artists Janet Meaney (Australia), Raul Rajangu (Estonia), Sandra Jogeva (Estonia), Nicole Rechsteiner (Switzerland), and Karl Larsson (Sweden).
PERFORMANCE VOYAGE 3 presents video performances by 12 artists and collectives. The compilation was selected from among works submitted in response to an open international call for artists. The members of the jury were artist Helinä Hukkataival, Timo Soppela and exhibition coordinator Marketta Tuomainen (Artists’ Association of Finland). Performance Voyage 3 artists are Annette Arlander (Finland), Filippo Berta (Italy), Trine Hylander Friis (Norway), Essi Kausalainen (Finland), Mikey McParlane & Michael Mallis (USA), Maria Nikiforaki (Greece), Anna Nykyri (Finland), Andreas Pashias (Cyprus), Dana Sederowsky (Sweden), Surya Tüchler (Germany), Tracy Valcarcel (Canada) and Eero Yli-Vakkuri (Finland).
In PERFORMANCE PORTFOLIO 2013 project, MUU has produced DVD portfolios for five artists in two languages, Finnish and English. In addition to presentation of the artist’s output, the DVDs also include a video interview and a generous selection of visual material and texts. A DVD-ROM folder also contains downloadable files. The DVD portfolios are available for institutions, curators and festivals, and they have been presented in 2013 at an art fair (Stockholm), a gallery (Tromsø, Norway) and a screening (Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma). The artists featured in the portfolios are Anja Helminen, Helinä Hukkataival, Varpu Lukka, Hannele Romppanen and Taina Valkonen.
PTARMIGAN is a project space that has been operating in Helsinki since July 2009. In the spring of 2011, a second location was opened in the Toompea district of Tallinn's old town. Ptarmigan exists to provide a space for various creative projects, with an emphasis on participatory practices. Things that happen at Ptarmigan might include (but are not limited to) art, sound, film, video, performance and discussion. Ptarmigan creates unique environments, support collaborative practices and focus specifically on international mobility and unusual educational forms.
DIMANCHE ROUGE is a Paris-based association dedicated to the promotion of experimental and live art. Dimanche Rouge festival will be held in Estonia, Finland and France 17-20 October 2013. Organized by Dimanche Rouge in partnership with associations Ptarmigan ry, Art Container / Culture Factory Polymer and Le Generateur / Frasq, the program will feature experimental performances in disciplines including performance art, audiovisual, multimedia, dance and sound art.
Ptarmigan: http://ptarmigan.ee
Artists' Association MUU: http://www.muu.fi
Dimanche Rouge: http://www.dimancherouge.org
Event photo credit: Helinä Hukkataival: Silvergray, performance, 2013. Photographer: Silja Urho. Courtesy of MUU.
Photo credit on Ptarmigan front page: Dana Sederowsky: Hasselblad Announcements, video, 2010. Courtesy of MUU.
This workshop looks at home-baked bread methods and serves as an introduction to the youth eco-social project Red Riding Hoods.
We will start by cooking delicious and aromatic bread using the technique (and bread starter) we got from the hands of the breadmaster in Häädemeeste village. It's siimple, tasty, and natural! We will also introduce our youth project Red Riding Hoods which began in August 2012 with an 8-day journey across villages in Ida-Viru and Pärnu Counties, where we learned about local history, traditions and rural life in general.
Here you can find more information about the project. This workshop is limited to 15 participants and is free.
This two-day workshop explores the art of making comics together, using different techniques to improve the production as well as the most playful aspects of the process. We will create comics in a collective way, dissolving the concept of an individual author. The comics will be compiled with the goal of making a publication.
The workshop will be led by Javier Lozano Jaén (Spain), artist in residence at Grafodroom during September.
All films created during Done Kino 2013 will be presented by Sleepwalkers Film Festival during the Student Night Cinema of Tallinn Student Days (Tallinna Tudengipäevad). The whole night of 26th of September will be filled with special programs from different festivals: Best of Sleepwalkers, HÕFF, Animated Dreams, Best of BFM and Done Kino as the first. More info can be found here.
Join us as guests for a cup of tea and a taste sensation on Saturday 21st September for a cosy and mixed presentation night called 'guesting'. Representatives from Nyte ry in Pori (Finland) will present their artist association and the activities of the artist-run Gallery 3H+K whilst representatives from Ptarmigan ry in Helsinki will present performative projects that they have been working on including a presentation about 'Taste Exchange' - a participatory food project.
The night is part of the project 'guesting' which is a meeting point between artist-run associations and interested creatives. The word 'guesting' can indicate: 1) appearing as a guest; 2) participating as a guest; 3) entertaining as a guest (e.g. guest conductor). For us the idea of guesting is predominately to be entertaining as guests (stepping into the role of host / entertainer in the space of another).
For this session of 'guesting' representatives from Ptarmigan ry in Helsinki, Nyte ry in Pori, and XL Art Space in Helsinki will become guests at the Ptarmigan space in Tallinn for one weekend. Join us on Saturday night for presentations and performances. We will also make a 'guesting' tour of artistic organisations around Tallinn. If you would like to join the tour please email us on: helsinki [at] ptarmigan.fi
Photo credits: avator image courtesy of NYTE RY titled Juuso + Sanko; Carousel image is courtesy Ptarmigan ry from the Taste Exchange/ Our Cuisine=Our Stories project.
Norwegian sound-art-noise legend Tore Honoré Bøe visits Tallinn to lead a workshop in the construction of 'acoustic laptops'.
Bøe's 'acoustic laptops' are wood boxes with various tiny objects attached; springs, stones, metal, rubber, string, needles, memorabilia - amplified by contact mikes (piezos).
They are musical instruments with which you can explore a soundworld that usually pass unnoticed and thus connect with unfiltered reality in a pleasurable way.
The materials fee coveres the piezos and speakers; participants are asked to bring a small wooden box and any objects they wish to put inside. The workshop will explore collective listening as well as the construction of the box.
For more information, see Tore's website.
Overview
Aeolian artifacts is a collaborative workshop/working group to build wind-driven sonic artifacts.
This event aims to create an installation of sonic objects which respond to wind force to produce sound. These sonic objects will combine electronic and mechanical techniques, each offering different possibilities of expression and dynamics to consider.
The sonic intervention will occur in an open space in Tallinn, as a performance/installation where the participants will present their resulting instruments to create an improvised soundscape driven by wind.
The foundation of the workshop is based on the Pulsar Kite project by current Ptarmigan artist-in-residence Juan Duarte, which combines physical computing and real-time sound processing. In order to explore innovative ways to develop this idea, it is encouraged to deconstruct this working principle to find alternative methods of interaction with the networks of sensors and objects that can integrate to the Aeolian instruments context.
Objective
The result aims to combine both instruments in a intervention / performance based on the sound sources: two kinds of kites, both 1) physical modulators (hardware/software means), and 2) mechanical sound generators (whistling or rattling mechanisms).
Participants:
5-10 persons
What you need to know:
Some coding and or hardware hacking experience can be useful, though not necessary - Juan can give tutoring to learn the basics of combining Arduino (and xbee's) with Pure Data.
If you are not into electronics, but you are skilled at building objects or instruments using strings, wood and plastic (or other materials of your choice), you are also welcome to collaborate and share your expertise for the intervention.
If you are interested in keeping some of the electronics after the workshop, you'll have to pay the cost of them accordingly for what you need for your own instrument project.
We will be working with the following structure and materials. If you would like to try some specific sensor let Juan know before hand:
Schedule
Materials:
We will provide what we can, but we encourage participants to bring their own materials. It is also helpful if you bring your own laptop computer.
This is the third screening from Done Kino, which will showcase films produced during the final 33-hour session (13-14 August). This event is free and open to the public and will be the closing event of Done Kino.
This screening takes place at Cabaret Rhizome on Kaarli pst.
More information, including descriptions of the films and videos, can be found on the Done Kino website closer to the event.
This is the second screening from Done Kino, which will showcase films produced during the first 33-hour session (12-13 August). This event is free and open to the public and will be immediately followed by the start of the second Kino session.
This screening will take place at the Koogel Moogel cafe (Piip ja Tuut Mängumaja), located immediately next door to Ptarmigan
More information, including descriptions of the films and videos, can be found on the Done Kino website closer to the event.
This is the first screening from Done Kino, which will showcase films produced during the first 33-hour session (10-11 August). This event is free and open to the public and will be immediately followed by the start of the second Kino session.
This screening takes place at Kultuurikatel's Katla Aed garden space, located near EKKM/Kalasadama.
More information, including descriptions of the films and videos, can be found on the Done Kino website closer to the event.
Done Kino is a filmmaking lab based on the Kino Kabaret concept where directors, actors, musicians and other cinematic artisans of various experiences, nationalities, ages, etc. gather for several days to create short low-budget (or no-budget) films. Done Kino is a 99-hour collaborative film production workshop/project/party, broken into three segments, with public screenings every 33 hours. Each of these three segments contains three main parts: a production meeting where everyone introduces themselves and the film they want to create; shooting; and editing.
The Done Kino film workshop is limited to twenty participants. To apply, fill out the registration form below and we will contact you for further information. The Done Kino screenings are open to the public and can be found as separate events.
Please see donekino.ptarmigan.ee for news, the programme, and participant information.
On Friday, 9 August 2013 18.00, Done Lab will be screening raw video footage collected from our open call and submissions of Done Kino participants. Unfinished Screenings 4 (Open Screen) is also a warm-up event opening Done Kino itself.
If you are bored by fancy post-production, tired of trendy special effects, and/or uninterested in obvious plots, then come and enjoy this nonlinear, rugged experience.
A detailed program will be published soon after the raw footage submission deadline on 29 July 2013.
documents/resources