Maike Lond: “10 JOURNEYS TO A PLACE WHERE NOTHING HAPPENS”* (Estonia)
Photo: Rania Moslam/brut Wien
Monday, August 25th at 9.30 pm
Elektro Ljubljana Union Hall, entrance at the Stara mestna elektrarna – Elektro Ljubljana
Over the last few years, artists’ frequent questioning of their own position has become a canonised practice on contemporary stages. Estonian artist Maike Lond, who creates art in »white spaces« and »black cubes«, sets out to tackle this theme from a new and fresh angle. Free of angst and with no assumptions about what we can expect, she decides to explore the cultural-political trend that is pushing culture towards becoming a profitable endeavour and to employ her own survival strategies in doing so.
She takes a sincere and engaged approach to developing various strategies for economic survival and then tries them out in real-life settings. She goes on the hunt for a personal sponsor and offers herself to the wealthy as their personal »pet artist«, she works in bars to earn enough money to survive and still do art … Lond presents the results of her experiments without a trace of cynicism and almost completely restrains herself from making value judgements. And the results are tragicomic. They would have been funny if they didn’t stand as proof of insufferable systemic errors and if they didn’t blatantly unmask the ignorance of decision-makers. This is documentary theatre, based on personal experience and yet, with a mental distance towards itself. The performance has a humorous tone and doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously, but perhaps this is what makes it all the more clear that it’s for real.
Concept, performance: Maike Lond
Assistant: Kaja Kann
Co-production: Kanuti Gildi SAAL
Supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia
60 minutes
The performance is in English. A Slovene synopsis will be available.
Free tickets to all events, but you can support our festival with voluntary contributions.
More information and ticket booking: +386 51 269 906, info@bunker.si.
*The title has been taken from a Juha Valkeapää and Taito Hoffrén performance of the same name which offers the audience a cosy world: one where the artist can be, work/not work, and think, all without proposing any kind of relationship to money and finances in their piece. Despite all this, since the reality of being an artist proves to be financially stressful , Maike Lond tries to create her very own »cosy world« within the financial sector.
