JOHNSON AND JOHNSON
JOHNSON AND JOHNSON (Tallinn, Estonia)
JOHNSON AND JOHNSON
Indrek Köster (1970) and Taavi Talve (1970)
johnsonjajohnson@hotmail.com
Johnson and Johnson is made up of two artists trained as sculptors, Taavi Talve and Indrek Köster, who have been producing short films, videos, installations, sculptures, objects and context-specific actions since 2005. Their work displays a neoconceptualist criticism of institutions and media, a leftist struggle against market capitalism, as well as a melancholic fatalism. In their 2006 video “Kusagil Euroopas” (Somewhere in Europe), we find them drifting through the streets, squares and supermarkets of Tallinn, holding Andy Warhol’s Brillo Box. This symbolic object is being carried around aimlessly, purposelessly, without a clue what to do with the burden of meanings trailing along. In the 2008 action “Võimetus artikuleerida” (Inability to Articulate), however, we see them crumbling to dust among the permanent exhibits of the National Art Museum. J&J’s own comment on their latest piece: “On the one hand, this is a prank aimed at exposing the rules imposed by the public space (the institution). Although we were unaware of this while we were working on the project, looking back it is the same as the gang of thugs running through the halls of the Louvre in Jean Luc Godard’s film Bande à part, or Martin Creed’s athletes in the Tate Britain. If we were to offer an explanation that is truer to the title, the inability to accept art forms, norms or practices has always existed, as has the impossibility of ignoring them, plus the matter of patricide and the ring of guilt.” Those writing about J&J have, somewhat lightly, combined the notion of Joseph Beuys’ social sculpture with Nicolas Bourriaud’s relational aesthetics. True, the community-based project “Otsustamistahe” (The Will to Decide), for example, gives off Beuys’ everyone-isan-artist optimism and life affirmation. The tiny sea town Paldiski on the northern coast of Estonia suffers from the estrangement of its mainly Russian-speaking inhabitants from local politics and the rest of Estonia. The city government is dominated by the interests of oil companies; the town space, on the other hand, is nothing more than a decrepit Soviet-era military town. Both the local Russian and Estonian population, however, are sharply aware of the fact that the pioneer of Estonian sculpture, Amandus Adamson (1855–1929), was born here, and that his work belongs to the opening chapters of national art history. J&J decide to bring this cultural consensus to life in order to rouse the local population to take part in shaping the life of the town. In 2006 they conducted a poll among the locals, asking which Adamson’s sculpture they would prefer to brighten the town space. Participation was massive; people discussed the future of their hometown with great enthusiasm, carrying out support and awareness events. In 2008, J&J carried out the final selection – the local inhabitants are asked to choose between three sculptures that have gained the most votes. The winner is The Ship’s Last Sigh finished in 1899 – a lyrical composition of a female figure drowning in storm waves. The entire town became involved, even the city government started to cautiously support the initiative and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia allocated a substantial grant to create a largerthan-life clay model. The social change that had sprung up from the artists’ initiative was well within reach. However, by 2011 the initiative remains in clay, Paldiski is still drifting in the backwash of oil transit, and the plans have remained plans. Beuys would probably be unhappy; not so Bourriaud – the experiment gave life to a process creating new social connections, people awoke to social discussion and put their political aptitude and organisation to the test.
Is J&J’s activity merely a posthumous pastiche to a modernist art programme in the sense of Frederic Jameson, or is it the productive practice of parody as defined by Linda Hutcheon? The undersigned is more inclined towards the latter opinion – parody without ridicule. In 2006, J&J shot a short film, “Mõrv striptiisi ajal” (Striptease murder) and created an installation “Igavus ja vägivald” (Boredom and Violence). Both are characterised by ambivalence, hovering between different roles and meanings. The former begins in the spirit of investigative TV journalism, promising a murder mystery and its solution, but in the end turns out to be a farce, bantering media sensationalism. The latter looks like an ordinary dispenser for the tabloid newspaper Õhtuleht, but is revealed to be a collection of Hakim Bey’s resistance culture texts, which attempt to reach the reader by hijacking the tabloid layout. J&J’s latter works focus on left-wing social criticism, questioning matters of employment, the political role of workers and social stratification from the point of view of trade unions. Here too, the artists’ tongue in cheek sense of humour doesn’t fail them. In 2009 they conducted a competition via the Labour Exchange of the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund to hire Mrs Heli Allik, whose job was to recite Jeremy Rifkin’s The End of Work online. The reading took place in a rented office in the local WTC building, and lasted 40 days, Wednesday to Sunday, concurrent with the exhibition Blue Collar Blues (curator Anders Härm), with the online feed projected on the wall of the exhibition hall. During the interludes, the employee made cover designs for an audio book created according to J&J’s instructions. A unique 90-copy print-run was produced, which unfortunately disproves the claim of the American visionary stating the imminent arrival of the universal vacation. The space dictates of museums and galleries came under question in 2010. J&J renamed Draakon Gallery in Tallinn as Gallery Petra von Kant for the duration of their exhibition, and conjured up a butaphoric environment with allusions to Rainer Fassbinder’s film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, claustrophobic decadence, dense psychological frustration from unrealised opportunities, and from the happiness that never materialised. On the floor of the new gallery we find another newspaper casting, this time of the business paper Äripäev from 6 June 2006, sewn from cotton batting and textile, on the pages of which we read the then current fantastical Estonian stories of success. J&J: “Various sculptural objects create both the film-like melodramatic space and the connection between the fall after the economic boom and the somewhat sad after party atmosphere. The key to the entire story is a newspaper sculpture that retroactively refers to the time when everybody was dancing, because the music was playing.” Of course, even here we find a conflict of meaning between the text and the context — life in Euro-Estonia in no way confirms the media’s narration of overall happiness. Sadness and a hangover are leading the parade instead.
Johannes Saar Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia
YOU NEED IT EVERY DAY / 2007 Badges, imprinted headlines, dimensions and quantity variable Installation view
Daily headlines collected from tabloid press and imprinted as badges. Every badge is unique and numbered. Everyone is free to pick up ones favourite from the exhibition giving the headline personally shifted meaning alienated from actual events and tabloid sensationalism.
YOU NEED IT EVERY DAY (FRENCH EDITION) 2008 750 badges, imprinted headlines Installation view /.../ “You Need It Every Day” is a „take away installation“ carried out in the spirit of Relational Aesthetics. It consists of souvenir badges made out of the scoop titles of „SL Õhtuleht“, the local equivalent to „The Sun“ in Great Britain. Torn away from their initial contextual and „laundered“ from the yellow press scandalism revealed in the stories they stood for outside the press context one can clearly get their essential „sensationality“. We will see how in every a way they newspaper has tried to add up sensationalism, creating a titles which now out of their original context resemble some strange dadaesque poetics. Catalogue | Anders Härm & Hanno Soans, Johnson and Johnson, You Need It Every Day, 2006 – New Wave: Estonian artists of the 21st century (no. 1). Tallinn, 2008
MIKROPOLIITIKA MAKROPERSPEKTIIVID
Mida me toodame kui me parajasti ei mõtle?
Uus, ihaldatav ja võõrandamatu
TA R B I JA
ELU
ESMASPÄEV
Hijacked layout of local tabloid. Content is replaced with Hakim Bey’s socio-critical text “Counterculture”. Freely distributable on the streets and in the galleries
Mida üks inimene on teinud, sellest saab teise inimese tegemiste eeldus
A TIRAAŽ TÄNA
TASUT
U U DI S E D
IGAVUS JA VÄGIVALD 2012
VÄLJAKUTSE
KAKS ÜHES
Uued reeglid
Ole eriti mässuline, osta uus Toyota
Kõik ja eimidagi? Mõlemad...
SPORT
TEHNIKA
TA R B I JA
www.sloleht.ee
Vihjetelefon: 1323 Tellimine ja kojukande probleemid: 666
BOREDOM AND VIOLENCE / 2006 Newspaper, 63x42 cm, print-run 3000
2505
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ARVAMUS Vastupanukultuur Millalgi aastatuhande vahetusel ja ütleme, 2012. aasta vahel on oodata põhimõttelist muudatust - nimetagem seda globaalse vastupanukultuuri tekkimiseks. Mis see täpselt on, seda on võimatu kirjeldada, sest praegu pole seda veel olemas, kuid võib-olla on võimalik teha mõningaid oletusi. Või me võime öelda, et see on juba olemas, kuid meil pole lihtsalt õnnestunud seda vastupanukultuurina ära tunda. Mõlemal juhul, me ei tea, mis see võiks olla, kuid me võime ekstrapoleerida selle mõistuse põhjal, samuti võime võtta appi lootuse või teatud utoopilise kriitika, et konstrueerida mitmesuguseid ajatendentse, mõjutusi, võimalusi jne - see tähendab, et tulevikku postuleerides võime püüda seda oma väikesel viisil mõjutada umbes samamoodi nagu vaatleja mõnes kvantfüüsika eksperimendis. Või ma eksin. Võib-olla ei teki mitte mingisugust populaarset ja globaalset vastupanukultuuri või kultuure. Võibolla on ajaloo lõpp juba möödas ja nüüd pole jäänud enam midagi oodata peale samasuse ja lahutatuse igavesti võiduka imaginaarsuse järelnoppimisprotsessi. Või on need ahned bastardid ajanud meid juba tõepoolest mingi võika kuristiku servale või viletsa sci-fi postindustriaalsesse apokalüpsisesse. Kui asi nii on, siis unustage see.
Vajadus või järjekordne valik? Olgu kuidas on, igal juhul ei ole meil praegu midagi, mis sarnaneks ligilähedaseltki globaalsele vastupanukultuurile - vähemalt mitte teadvustatud tasandil, aga kultuur peab olema teadvustatud, või niiviisi vähemalt tavaliselt arvatakse. See, mis meil praegu on, on killustamise ja homologiseerimise paradoksaalne kombinatsioon. Vastupanupoliitika on näiteks lõhustatud miljoniks eraldiseisvaks privilegeeritud üksuseks, sektiks, vastupanu vilja rakuks ja reaktsiooniks; sest kultuurilisel tasndil juhib valikutüdimus kõik iroonilise suhtumise libedasse voolusängi. Kultuur, mida mina ette näen, baseerub vajadusel, mitte valikul. Mina sätestaksin saatuse taaslülitamise valikuvõimaluste maailma. Teisisõnu mitte informatsioon, vaid teadmine. Informatsiooniajastu on möödas - see on surnud, aga ta ei tea seda. WWW on tema viimane seisund. Siin ei ole küsimus enam pühkmetes, siin on küsimus mitte milleski. Mitte midagi sisse, mitte midagi välja. Küberruum kui kummituslik vare. Digitaalne ektoplasma.
Kapital - domineeriv võimuoperatsioon Mistahes kuju kapitalism endale ka ei võtaks, pole Kapital ratsionaalne vaid hegemoniaalne. Ta ei harmoniseeri sotsiaalseid formatsioone vaid sunnib neile peale ebavõrdsust. Enne olemist kasumioperatsiooni on ta võimuoperatsioon, mida ei ole võimalik tuletada kasumi põhimehhanismist, surudes end peale ülalt. Olles varem midagi, mida Marx nimetas „riigi totaalseks sotsiaalseks Kapitaliks”, on täna tegu Ülemaailmse Integreeritud Kapitaliga. Kapital on alati lootnud majanduse kõigi sektorite deterritorialisatsioonile, teadusele ja tehnoloogiale. Tema semiootiline eksistents on süstemaatiliselt siirdatud kõikidesse tehnilistesse ja sotsiaalsetesse mutatsioonidesse, mida ta diagrammistab ja reterritorialiseerib domineerivateks võimuoperatsioonideks.
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ELU
Tagaukse trumbid Tegelikult annab kapitalismi areng käesoleval hetkel mittenõustujatele kaks jokkerit. Üheks pn vaba aeg, mis tuleneb nii töötusest kui ka bossi otsese jälgimise alt pääsenud vaba graafilu alusel töötaja suhtelisest vabadusest, ning teiseks üldhariduse küllaltki kõrgest tasemest, mis võimaldab keeruliste diskursuste kontrollimatut teket. Paljude jaoks on selle olukorra ligitõmbavaim osa võimalus osaleda õõnestustöös ehk siis pilduda semantilisi kaikaid kapitalistlike väärtuste õrnadesse ja kergesti naeruvääristavatesse kodaratesse.
Vastupanukultuur Selline kultuur on olemas, kuid meil pole lihtsalt õnnestunud seda vastupanukultuurina ära tunda. Vastupanukultuur on rajatud erinevusele ja ühtsusele, mis on samasuse ja lahutatuse dialektilised vastandid. Endisaegne vasakpoolne positsioon rajanes sarnasusel ja ühtsusel, see tähendab solidaarsusega kombineeritud valgustusajastu ratsionalismi ja proletaarsete väärtuste lihtsal ja homogeniseeritud maailmkultuuril. Endisaegne parempoolne positsioon oli rajatud erinevusele ja lahutatusele, see tähendab hierarhiale ja hegemooniale. Globaalne Kapital (ehk neoliberalism) võttis nii paremalt kui vasakult selle, mida ta vajalikuks pidas - samasuse ja lahutatuse. Seega võib öelda, et Kapital on väljunud vasakpoolsuse ja parempoolsuse piiridest (see seletab, miks mõlemad positsioonid näivad nii vanamoelised, nii ebahuvitavad). Seetõttu ei saa vastus tulla ei vasakult ega paremalt. See peab tulema samuti “väljastpoolt”. Vasakpoolsuse riismed kipuvad arust ära minema, kui nad seda kuulevad, sest äärmusliku parempoolsuse riismed püüavad erinevuse ideed koopteerida ja avaldada Globaalsele Kapitalile (ja selle loodud staatilisele ikoonkultuurile) vastupanu ning transformeerida need tagasi rassismiks ja hegemooniaks. Vasakpoolsusele, või sellele, mis sellest on järele on jäänud, on kogu erinevuse idee tervikuna äärmiselt problemaatiline. Seetõttu pean ma eriti vajalikuks toonitada, et kui ma kasutan sõna “erinevus”, siis teen seda ühtsuse kontekstis - või kui soovite solidaarsuse kontekstis.
Esimese maailma marginaalsus Erinevusel ei ole mingeid hegemooniataotlusi, kui ta loob iseendast ja iseenda tarbeks vastupanukultuuri. Minu erinevuse mõistet võib võrrelda sama mõistega zapatistide juures, mis tähendab, et see võib sisaldada nii hõimkondlikku kokkukuuluvust kui molekulaarsust. Üldisemas plaanis usun, et vastupanukultuuri tekkimise üheks peamiseks allikaks ongi pärismaalaste ja suguharude liikumine; on see ju nende maa, kus toimuvad praegu kõige tähtsamad võitlused - hõlmates maailmapanka/IMF-i, NAFTA-t ja GATT-i, TRIPS-i, biotehnoloogiat ja eluvormide patenteerimist, ühismaade lõplikku tarastamist jne. Olgu võrdluseks öeldud, et Esimeses Maailmas ei toimu
midagi tähtsat. Kõik “juhtumid” on pettekujutlused ja radikaalsetes ringkondades ei toimu õieti midagi peale verepilastuslikes nääklustes üksteise virtuaalseid imidzheid hävitavate tühiste ja ilma võimuta poliitikute jagelemise, ning ajast ja arust avangardi kunstiliikumiste ja ideoloogiate lõputu korduvkasutamise.
Ihaldatav ja võõrandamatu Erinevus hakkab toimima, meeldib see vasakpoolsusele või mitte. Täpselt samamoodi nagu rahvusriikide lagunemine on loomulikuks vastuseks Globaalse Kapitali imperatiividele, nõnda on erinevus loomulikuks vastuseks ja vastupanuks universaalse Malli samasusetaotlusele. Kui vasakpoolsus suudaks ainult üle saada ideest, et pääsemine sõltub maailmas üksnes kõigist nendest, kellest on saanud ateistlikud ja materialistlikud tehasetöölised, siis ta võiks üllatusega avastada, et maailm vajab ikka veel vasakpoolsuse kontseptsioone sotsiaalsest õigusest ja solidaarsusest. Ajutiselt autonoomne tsoon ei ole enam fiktsioon või ideoloogiline konstruktsioon - see on midagi, mis toimib. Iga kord kui mingil hulgal inimestel õnnestub
soofiline imperatiiv. Erinevusest ilmajäämist tajutakse otsekui sisu kaotust. Erinevuse puudumine mõjub ängistavalt. Aga meid võib meelitada pettusega uskuma, et erinevus võib olla kaubaartikkel, et “autentset elukogemust” võib omandada vahetamise teel. Samas ei saa olemuslikult erinevat muidugi mõista sel viisil võõrandada, sest kui see on võõrandatud, siis lakkab ta olemast erinevus ja tema olemasolul on lõpp. See tõsiasi seletab sügavat rahulolematust meelelahutuskultuuriga, autentsuse pinnapealsust ja kõiki neid mitmesuguseid paanilisi erinevuse otsijaid ülemaailmses turismis või muudel kommertsmeedia aladel. Globaalne Kapital projitseerib globaalse ikooni, globaalse kultuuri. Kuigi see näib sisaldavat suurt mitmekesisust ja mobiilsust, võime ometi võrrelda seda üksnes Browni liikumise pinnavirvendusega ja kirjeldada ikooni ennast tegelikult staatilisena. Seesama ikoon määratlebki õigupoolest staatilise tasakaalu kriisi. Kriisi piires lõppevad kõik liikumised mittehindamise paralüüsiga (see tähendab täieliku skisofreenilise segadusega hinna
BOREDOM AND VIOLENCE / 2006 Newspaper, 63x42 cm, print-run 3000
Millest see tuleb, et vaatamata ülemaailmsele informatsioonitsivilisatsioonile tunneb iga grupp või üksikisik end end Kapitali poolt käivitatud väljaradeerimisprotsessis isoleerituna, äralõigatuna infopuuduses, inspiratsioonivaeguses, võidetuna? Viiruslik samasus, mis uuristab ruumi ja aega - globaalse töö allutamine rangele korrale (rohkem tööd, vähem raha, sotsiaalvõrgu kokkuvarisemine jne.) - pistikupesaga ühendatud keha üksindus (tahtmine tegeleda üksnes virtuaalsete objektidega) - inimeste vastu pöördunud tehnoloogia väga suur ja laiemalt teadvustamata mõju - haridus kui kibe töö ja lootusetuse pedagoogika - igapäevaelu kadumine ja selle asendamine vahetamisega (infovahetus, rahavahetus, võimuvahetus) - personifitseeritud aja ja ühisruumi kadumine - need on mõned peamised võõrandumifaktorid, mis on kõige tähelepanuväärsemad endises Esimeses Maailmas, kaasaarvamistsoonis. Endises Teises Maailmas lisandub sellele alles hiljaaegu revolutsioonilise alternatiivina tundunud “vaba maailma” reetmistrauma pluss enamjagu endise Kolmanda Maailma kriisidest. Mis puutub endisesse Kolmandasse Maailma “arengumaadesse”, siis see on määratud jääma suures osas väljaarvamistsoonidesse. Isegi Kagu-Aasia “tiigritele”, kes uskusid, et nad võetakse klubisse vastu, tehti hiljaaegu selgeks, et nad on teinud oma
Vahetamise tühistamine
Globaalse Kapitali kriis
ja väärtuse osas). See kirjeldab hästi praegust olukorda. Situatsionismil - filosoofial, mis rajaneb kapitalismiks ja kommunismiks jagatud maailma spektaaklil, pole enam seda asjakohasust, mis tal oli 1968. aastal või isegi veel 1989. aastal. Ühiskond on muutunud. Olen nõus Baudrillard`ga, et seda “spektaaklit” võib nüüd interpreteerida tühipalja simulatsioonina. Aga ma ei nõustu temaga selles osas, et see tähendab ajaloo lõppu (või nagu ta ütleb, “isegi hullemat”, et see tähendab isegi ajaloo pateetilise läbikukkumise lõppu). Ma usun, et nimetatud kriis jõuab õige pea murdepunkti. Midagi nihkub, ja sellest nihkest kerkib esile uus vastupanukultuur.
Informatsiooniühiskonna ühendatud kehade üksindus
jultunud ootustes vea; Aafrika on lihtsalt maha kantud; ning “riikliku” organisatsioonita suguharude ja sugukondlike maaharijate niinimetatud Neljas Maailm on määratud röövimise ja neokoloniseerimise tsooniks.
Ma kordan oma oletust, et kui tõeline vastupanukultuur lõpuks kuju võtab, siis ilmub see välja just seal, sellessamas “neljandas maailmas”, ning sel juhul võib see kanda mitte ohvrite meeleheite pitserit, vaid üha edasi kestvate vaimsete väärtuste pitserit. See tähendab, et vastupanukultuur ei hõlma mitte ainult majanduslikku ja poliitilist võitlust “tyerra y libertad” pärast, vaid ka - kultuurina - väärtusi, mis seda võitlust toidavad. Seesama vaimne dimensioon on vasakpoolsusele veel üheks komistuskiviks, ning see on juba niisugune, millest ei saa üle ega ümber. Sest vaimsus on viimse vahetamispildi seisukohalt mõttetu, ning on täiesti loomulik, et vaimsus leiab oma sobiva koha, olles selle pildiga opositsioonis. Ma ei räägi siinkohal organiseeritud religioonidest. Siberi shamanism või maiade väärtuste taaselustamine näib kätkevat endas palju suuremat potentsiaali. Kuid maailmareligioone ei saa objektiivselt pidada kapitalismi tugisammasteks de facto. Kapital ei vaja enam religiooni (kui jätta kõrvale religioon reklaamiimaginaarsuse kullakaevandus), ning nõnda on religioon sunnitud õige pea pöörama oma pilgu mõjuvõimu ja toetuse otsimiseks kusagile mujale. Eriti just islamit peetakse teoreetiliselt globaalse monokultuuriga ühitamatuks jõuks ja võiks olla sellega ära teeninud, et talle pakutaks vähemalt taktikalist tuge (tema mittefundamentalistlikes ja hegemooniat mittetaotlevates vastupanuviisides). Isegi paavst, Kapitali poolt ära võrgutatud ja seejärel hüljatud, olles oma rolli ammendanud ja elanud üle isegi Kurjuseimpeeriumi enda, isegi tema on hakanud neoliberalismi hüvede suhtes kahtlusi avaldama.
Ma usun, et nimetatud kriis jõuab õige pea murdepunkti. Midagi nihkub, ja sellest nihkest kerkib esile uus vastupanukultuur. end vahetamise ja representeerimise sfäärist lahti rebida, ning seda piisavalt kauaks, et saavutada teatud tüüpi kollektiivset tippkogemust. See jätkab toimimist ikka ja alati, sest see on ihaldusväärne ja inimesed soovivad seda. Seda ei saa võõrandada, sest kui see on võõrandatud, siis seda lihtsalt enam ei eksisteeri. Analoogiliselt on ka erinevus midagi niisugust, mis toimib. Inimesed soovivad seda - kui mitte millegi muuna, siis vähemasti elu vürtsina. Kuid veelgi enam kollektiivsuses väljenduva individualiseerumise ühe aspektina. Identideediuhkus ei ole mitte niivõrd inimlik väärtus, vaid pigem psühholoogiline ja filo-
Kapitalism ei eksisteeri seetõttu, et me lõime ta 19ndal või 18ndal sajandil. Kapitalism on täna olemas vaid seetõttu, et me lõime ta täna. Kui me teda homme ei loo, siis teda homme ei ole.
Tolerantsi kultuur IGAVUS JA VÄGIVALD: Kui kapitalismiks nimetatav masin käima läheb vaheldab ta lakkamatult kaht töökäiku, mis moodustavad ta reziimi. Igavuse ja vägivalla reziimi.
Ma ei arva, et tulevane vastupanukultuur oleks katoliiklik või islamiusuline. Erinevuse kultuurina ilmutab see juba olemuslikult tõelist tolerantsi. Aga mul on suuri kahtlusi, kas sellest tuleb kultuur, mida iseloomutavad vaimsed väärtused, sest ausalt öeldes ei oska ma ette kujutada, et me suudaksime suhtuda sellesse kultuuri lubamata endale teatud...joovastust. “Entusiasmi”, nagu Ranterid ja Levellerid seda nimetasid.
SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE / 2006 Video installation
STRIPTEASE MURDER / 2006 DVD-video, 17 min
STRIPTEASE MURDER is a documentary based on a news chosen from „SL Õhtuleht“ with a title “Murder During the Striptease”, according to which the snake of a male stripper Marko was claimed to be killed during a private performance to a group of ladies in the countryside. The artists take with them the paper responsible for the news, and the stripper Marko and drive to the place where it all happed to reconstruct the event as it really was. The absurdity of the situation, the stripper more than seriously acting out with a belt the whole routine and the moment when the snake went missing, meanwhile seriously criticising the girls partnering him in the strip act was based on a contradiction with the testimony of an old lady also living in the house. By observing the stripper so very much enjoying the camera time it seems more and more to be the case that the whole story is a fiction from the very beginning, strippers helpless and pitysome attempt to get some media attention.
ORCHESTRAL REHEARSAL / 2006 DVD-video, 4 min
Opening ceremony of newly renovated street with parade of car dealers attacked by green activists. Suprisingly those are confronted with elder people who hardly can afford a car for themselves. Social antagonisms are mixed with the presence of tabloid media, police orchestra, political leaders and promises of violence.
PROMISES / AVERAGE SALARY, 2006 Populist promises and their sculptural equivalent
Plywood 510 x 61 x 232 cm
VOLITION TO PARTICIPATE / 2007 Video on 8 screens, total length 53 min
VOLITION TO PARTICIPATE is a series of videos portrayng independent candidates from the parliamentary elections in 2007. It presents 8 pictures from political allegory of animals to fancyful conspiracy theories, from a farmer’s problem to the key to Pandora’s box. Is this a demonstrative micro-resistance, naive-political idealism or unique chance for people to change Estonia?
VOLITION TO PARTICIPATE / 2007 Video on 8 screens, installation view
SOUNDCHECK / 2007 Painted plastic, 1,5 x 1,7 x 2,0 m both
TOP 5 STATE EMPLOYEES / 2009 Installation
TOP 5 STATE EMPLOYEES / 2009
END OF WORK / 2009 Live webcast The task for the temporary employee, selected among 69 applicants, was to record Jeremy Rifkin’s “The End of Work - The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era” as an audiobook. The entire job was to be completed in the course of exhibition in a rented office at WTC Tallinn, in front of a webcam, with the person spending her working hours reading and recording the text and making envelopes for the CD. The picture from a web camera was transmitted to the exhibition hall.
FAILING TO ARTICULATE / 2009 Series of digital prints on aluminium 120 x 91 cm
Corinna Kirsch about Untitled.
UNTITLED at 2nd Artishok Biennale / Tartu 2010
Writing an exhibition essay about artists to whom I was previously unaware, unexposed, highlights an unexpected role of the curator - the curator (in this case, Kati Ilves) acts as a mediator between artists and critics in this exhibition by providing the resources for a studio visit, however mediated in Artishok because the studio visit consists entirely online where the artists’ website functions as the “studio”. The studio visit, an integral practice for curators and critics who want to keep abreast of current art practice, allows for a conversation between artists and their invited guests. A lesser known yet just as important aspect of the studio visit relationship is that it lets the curator see much of an artist’s practice all at once with the very real consequence that he or she will be able to whether or not they would like to exhibit or write about that artist’s work. Even without a potential exhibition in mind, a curator usually has a handful of exhibitions he or she is thinking about organizing at any one time. The studio visit is a moment of show-and-tell where artists unpack physically their work while waiting for their studio visitors to reply in turn. I prefer not to have conversations with myself and I think that the studio visit must, whether performed online or in-person, consist of a dialogue about the work. What I can say at this moment is that Johnson and Johnson’s socially engaged practice is engaging, but problematic. “Problematic,” is a term that should be embraced in contemporary art practice because it challenges rather than assumes a complacent position. In Untitled, the duo provides a metaphor for art criticism in terms of architecture. Most likely, you are not reading this in the gallery space, but in the catalogue. The gallery is not a space for reading. The gallery is a vertically oriented space that facilitates a physical engagement with the space through movement of the eyes and body while any sort of bound volume requires a sedentary, seated orientation. I know, many exhibitions include wall labels and press releases, as well as entire reading rooms devoted to catalogues and contextual materials, but this is a forced interaction that fights against how a body moves through physical space.
Opening of the Untitled 08.09.2010
Symmetrically situated wing-rooms (rooms 2 and 3) are for texts written by critics about Untitled.
Doorways leading to these rooms are closed and made indicernible from the wall of central whitecube space (room 1) opened to the public.
All texts about Untitled are later published in the exhibition catalogue.
What Johnson and Johnson proposed with their project was a remedy for the disappearance of the critics’ text, hiding it in the wings away from the white-walled exhibition space. The function of this space that I find problematic is that the texts in the gallery do not have a specific referent in the gallery space. The referent-in-general is the whitewalled gallery space without any two- or three-dimensional work. What is left is the architecture of the space and its many histories, minus the art. The emergence of the gallery was due a desire for visual works to be beheld in a specific context. Even the ritual of walking down a nave to a central apse, the architectural foundation of the Christian Church, served a specific physical purpose for the body to proceed towards the altar and the icons painted alongside its walls. There are too many histories of the white-walled gallery and this is why the - I hesitate to say, “white cube” - remains a generalized referent, one which the critics’ texts will ultimately fail to describe with any specific rigor. Did I expect my essay to turn into a studio visit? Not exactly, but I would love to hear Johnson and Johnson’s response.
SHIPYARD WORKERS DIDN’T SUCCEED TO REACH THE MANIFESTO, HOWEVER CERTAIN DECISION WAS MADE 2010
Cardboard 435 x 160 x 140 cm
Detail
NOTHING LEFT TO SAVE Hobusepea Gallery, Tallinn / 2010
No one can take away the things you learn in life. 2010
Folded poster Digital print on paper 120 x 85 cm
NOTHING LEFT TO SAVE / 2010 NOTHING LEFT TO SAVE is a conceptually consistent environment that take as its point of departure the classic movie “Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant” (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, 1972) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The exhibition offers the opportunity to reexamine its melodramatic space in parallel with the current global post-economic crisis.
He was a handsome man, but obsessed. He thought he was immortal. But he wasn’t. 2010
Cardboard 435 x 160 x 140 cm
You see...everyone has its own theory of the world. 2010
Digital print on canvas 235 x 155 x 15 cm
At times it was so beautiful, that there are moments when you forget everything. 2010
Building blocks, aluminium 140 x 160 cm
ESTONIAN RHAPSODY / 2010 Audio installation
Paul KRUGMAN / economist Since Estonia has suddenly become the poster child for austerity defenders — they’re on the euro and they’re booming! — I thought it might be useful to have a picture of what we’re talking about. (Here’s real GDP, from Eurostat) So, a terrible — Depressionlevel — slump, followed by a significant but still incomplete recovery. Better than no recovery at all, obviously — but this is what passes for economic triumph? --krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/est
Toomas Hendrik ILVES / President of Estonia
Let’s write about something we know nothing about & be smug, overbearing & patronizing: after all, they’re just wogs: krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/est… --Guess a Nobel in trade means you can pontificate on fiscal matters & declare my country a “wasteland”. Must be a Princeton vs Columbia thing --But yes, what do we know? We’re just dumb & silly East Europeans. Unenlightened. Someday we too will understand. Nostra culpa. --Let’s sh*t on East Europeans: their English is bad, won’t respond & actually do what they’ve agreed to & reelect govts that are responsible. --Sorry, not conserv. or leftist. Just can’t fathom why following agreed upon EU fiscal rules justifies smug & snide gloating re: my country. --Chill. Just because my country’s policy runs against the Received Wisdom & I object doesn’t mean y’all gotta follow me.
IF I WERE A RICH MAN / 2010 DVD video, 4’10’’
THE CAR / 2015 Kilometer of Sculpture, Võru, Estonia Sound installation When Aleksander Hükk, a successful ghostwriter, agreed to finish the memoirs of the Estonian writer Friedrich Robert Faehlmann, he was convinced that it would be like a walk in the park. While on the job, Hükk discovered the unfinished manuscript of Kalevipoeg, the national epic of Estonia. After reading it, he tried to get in contact with Faehlmann but the latter’s worsened health and subsequent death left Hükk alone with the task of publishing the epic. Not wanting to embarrass Faehlmann in the eyes of the Learned Estonian Society for using a ghostwriter, Hükk threw the manuscript into the car of the village doctor Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald. Kreutzwald recorded the poet Lydia Koidula reading the text and left for Tartu shortly afterwards. The same year all traces of the original manuscript disappear. The locals say that every summer since then a ghost car appears in Võru with the voice of a woman. Johnson and Johnson
THE CAR / 2015 Kilometer of Sculpture, Võru, Estonia Sound installation
331,57 Sound installation 22.10. – 15.11. 2015 Tartu Kunstimaja Monumentaalgalerii The case with paid employment is that some people want to get more and others want to pay less. It is like the law of nature that somewhere is the limit, some kind of a reasonable balance. This limit can be compared to the minimum wage that is the conventional sum of money. It has been calculated that for some work it is impossible to pay more and many workers are unwilling to do more. It just sounds like a reasonable pay, a golden mean. Let’s try to understand each other. The minimum wage of a full-time worker in 2015 is 331,57 (net wages).
OKAY, I LOVE YOU TOO / 2015 Every Letter is A Love Letters, Tallinn Art Hall Curated by Marge Monko
PALDISKI PROJECT 2006 - 2013
POLL / 2009 DVD-video / 10.15
ELECTIONS / 2009 DVD-video / 20.40
CONCERT / 2009 DVD-video / 08.00
PROJECT FOR PALDISKI / 2007 Installation view, KUMU, Tallinn
CALLING THE MASTER HOBUSEPEA GALLERY, TALLINN / 2009 While (re)assigning Paldiski to the Republic of Estonia on September 26, 1995, president Lennart Meri stated in his speech: “ ... Today we are not talking about the victims of the past nor the farms that sank under the concrete of the military base. Today let’s talk about future, and discuss Paldiski as an opportunity; as a nature’s gift; as a town that is looking forward to the architectural competition in order to enter the 8th century of its existence as a industrious, beautiful, clean and friendly Estonian town, a welcoming port to ships from all over the world. Republic of Estonia, I congratulate you for your son having returned ...”. In 2009, besides unemployment and the lack of integration policy, one of the biggest problems for the residents of Paldiski is the stinky oil and transit business. However, the success of the explosive industries and Paldiski port that has been blocking residents’ access to the sea does not reflect in the host’s life and being. Yet, Paldiski’s residents still have energy left to worry about the future of Amandus Adamson Studio Museum. When Johnson and Johnson first arrived in Paldiski in 2006, they had to admit that the studio museum and Adamson’s person formed the main centre of identity and an essential intersection for the diverse residents. Adamson’s work was and still is well known and respected both among Estonian and Russian speaking residents. Current exhibition serves as a resume of the project of erecting Amandus Adamson’s sculpture in Paldiski that would “create the multicultural and multinational common identity and produce motivated participants for the decision making process; widen the negotiation space between individuals and society; and create the platform for discussion and dialogues. The selected and erected Adamson’s sculpture would not only be an aesthetic object and the final purpose of the project, but also as a city sculpture charged with social connotation.”
Elin Kard, press release “Calling the Master” at Hobusepea Gallery 15.04–25.05.2009
CALLING THE MASTER I / 2009 DVD-video / loop Dance improvisation on themes of Adamson’s sculpture “The Last Sigh of the Ship” at Kumu Art Museum.
CALLING THE MASTER III 2009 DVD-video / 01.10 Albina S. reciting her poetry by the Paldiski Bay
CALLING THE MASTER IV 2009 DVD-video / 6.15
CALLING THE MASTER II 2009
Concert “Calling the Master” in Paldiski. Children’s Orchestra accompanied by Women’s Choir performing Satie’s Gymnopedies with lyrics in estonian and in russian
DVD-video / 02.40 Local Children’s Orchestra rehearsing for the concert.
CALLING THE MASTER V 2009 DVD-video / 7.50 Presentation of special dishes at local restaurant
2000 polyresine statues graphite on paper documentation
EASTERN BREEZE / 2012
The installation is a further development of the Paldiski Project. 2,000 small polyresin souvenir copies of the Ship’s Last Sigh (a sculpture by Amandus Adamson) were ordered from Nanwei Factory, China. The Paldiski Project is pulled into the network of global capitalism. The whole production is first exhibited as an installation, and thereafter marketed in order to produce resources for the erection of real sculpture in the city of Paldiski
OPENING OF THE SCULPTURE IN PALDISKI 20.10.2013
And a month later...