Sigrid Viir together with Līga Spunde on the riverboat Lonny, Taevaskoja
Project “ArCo3 – Artists in Collections, Communities and Collectives” presents: artists Sigrid Viir (EST) & Līga Spunde (LV) spark the creative process in visitors in order to create new legends about Taevaskoja!
The beautiful nature of Taevaskoja is full of legends and legendary characters: virgins, devils, forest spirits, and Agnes and Gabriel from the film The Last Relic, as well as the kingfishers whom you may meet on a boat trip, the women who built an artificial lake on the island of Saesaar in the Ahja River during the difficult post-World War II years, and, of course, Lonny itself.
Lonny, allow us to present, is a riverboat, sturdy and strong, performing trips on the artificial lake at a steady pace. Since Lonny uses solar energy, its movement is so quiet that attention can be directed to the stories. On Lonny, legends meet the people who tell them, people who pass along folklore, people who honour the power of nature, fans of cult films, inquisitive tourists and people doing remote work (Lonny is a member of the South-Estonian remote work network Kupland). Welcome aboard!
This summer, however, Lonny’s “nature cinema” will travel around with upgrades by the artists Sigrid Viir and Līga Spunde. They spent the summer of 2023 at an artist residency in Taevaskoja, participating in countless trips, getting to know the local legends and secret pathways and coming to the conclusion that the arts of survival are hidden here in the power of story telling. We need stories which talk about us, to us and with us, stories that offer continuity but also open up new perspectives. Every story depends on its teller: a personal touch can create a connection with listeners or influence them negatively. The artists use legends and stories associated with Taevaskoja from different eras, offering visitors the opportunity to create new contemporary folklore based on the old traditions and mixing together various elements. The riverboat will also become one of the characters, hosting the guests and functioning as a starting point for the stories. Who are these characters invented by the collective mind of the visitors, stepping ashore after another ride on Lonny and maybe settling down as natives in the surrounding area?
The project “ArCo3” has grown out of the initiative “Artists in Collections (ArCo)”, which has been mixing together contemporary art and cultural heritage since 2018. The other participants in the project “ArCo3” are the Tartu Observatory of the University of Tartu in Tõravere (artist: Karel Koplimets), the Järvselja Training and Experimental Forestry District Foundation in Kastre County (artist: Uku Sepsivart) and the Räpina Paper Factory (artist: Ingrid Allik, with colleagues from Estonia and Finland).
"ArCo3" is a part of the European Capital of Capital Tartu 2024.
Curators and project managers are Maarin Ektermann and Mary-Ann Talvistu.
Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia