/ #Tuleviku Ajavorm (Future Tense) /
This series of five short animations were developed during my participation in the Artist in Residency program that took place at #Trükimuuseumin the Estonian town of #Tartu and it was exhibited in a private view that took place in October 2015.
The project's names derives from the fact that there's no future tense in Estonian grammar. Besides being a play with words, it taps into the notion of Estonia's #technophilia, its role in the #EU and #Nato in juxtaposition to its quest for a clear national identity grounded in its history, language and traditions.
Each film is a visual commentary on Estonian #nationalism against backdrop of historical occupations, independence struggles, digital and pop cultures, and economics.
They explore ambiguous and overlapping narratives that have informed Estonia’s national identity and the growing importance this small Baltic country plays in a globalised and digitally connected world.
The narratives pose questions about the importance of nationalism in the contemporary world and the fine [im]balance between self-preservation and isolation that has characterised nationalistic discourses around the globe.
The use of the web and algorithms allude to the pervasive invisible influence of technology and how much that can also account for a new form of colonialism.
Year: 2015
The work as based on two pieces of writing:
1 - #BenedictAnderson's Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism - Verso Books, 2006
2 -#PillePetersoo's Reconsidering otherness: constructing Estonian identity - Nations and Nationalism, 2007