Volunteering/добровольцы

I decided to take on volunteering one day and joined my friend at Maidla, near Rapla, in central Eesti. The work was supposed to be with kids but it turned out they were almost my age... 

The orphanage where kids live

Our team's house

As well it was time to visit Viljandi Folk Festival for the first time.

Lonely sailboat on the lake near Viljandi

Honestly most of the program was boring, except some variations from our Georgian and Jamaican friends. Me and my volunteer team arrived to Viljandi on the last day of the festival..That could have been the reason other performers did not have that "something" that these guys had:

My team member waiting for something:

Another festival was happening in another village called Maidla in Ida-Virumaa (North-Eastern Estonia). This festival is organised once a year for all Maidla villages (5 of them in total) from across Eesti. It included a long boring speech, during which I felt I was on a Communist Party meeting:

However, the dances that followed the speech, mixed with some local home beer, cheered up the audience:

Korean toilet paper:

Korean noodles:

Korean sauce(?):

Another Korean sauce:

Korean chewing gum:

Korean sauce again. Very spicy and goes well with chicken:

Korean spices:

Daily routine of playing Uno:

On the way to the local shop in Maidla, Rapla vald:

My work:

My team members and orphanage staff enjoying the last dinner together. Of course it included a ceremonial speech at the beginning.

If you want to donate anything to the Maidla orphanage, visit http://www.maidlalastekodu.ee/kontakt

Poetic night

A performance/party organised behind the former ArtCafe in Tallinn.

Hope you understand Russian, but if you don't, 

one of the most important parts of the performance was presentation and acting anyway...

At first, came an exercise.

Then, some poems.

And more poems.

The crowd.

Sir reading poems from the window.

Sir still reading poems out loud.

There was very nice music after the performance, but I did not take any pictures or videos worth showing here, since the night was becoming messy and blurry.

Some works by local artists:

Prague

Sky in the Czech Republic is very different from the Estonian sky:

Working hard...

to obtain this...

You do not go to a bar stand to order beers in Prague's pubs. 

Waiters just write down how much you order and you pay in the end.

One line represents one beer. Don't worry - I wasn't alone.

gateways. Art and Networked Culture

Facebook tells us:  

The exhibition “gateways. Art and Networked Culture” introduces a young generation of artists whose work deals with the changing conditions of a networked world – a world increasingly transmitted through media. The artistic works presented here use various means to tackle the theme of gateways that lead to realms of action and experience in our digitally interconnected culture. 

You can enter a message on the computer. It is sent then to the chip located on snail's back. Once the snail reaches another receiver, located in this little garden, your message will be safely transported. Unless the snail decides to move in the opposite direction.

Another piece: you type in the word and then it is generated by falling water.

Lenin and others

The others. Not part of the Gateways exhibition.

Women taking care of a man.

Women taking care of a child. It was screaming loudly and was annoying.

Exhibition is open until 25th September, Kumu Art Museum Tallinn

www.gateways.ee

blablabla

The last live performance in EAST: Ilya Belorukov with his saxophone

For a quality recording visit his Myspace page. At the first glance he reminded me of Sergey Kuryohin, a well-known Russian experimental artist, both in his looks and in his style of music. After I mentioned him about this, he gave me a smirk that I did not know how to interpret. I hope he was delighted... 


RIP EAST!

Why?

A lot of people have asked me what I am going to write about after the closing of the EAST Gallery. Another friend asked me why I am posting on my blog at all. Well, I answered I do not know why. From now on I will post less, since I will be covering events that are worth writing about. 

And no, my blog is not about the EAST Gallery, it is about any event that happens around me that is worth our attention. 

Amen.

night time

Night-time singing in the Old Town. 

Song is "Teine Kadriorg" by Dago