AT YOU SERVICE

Anna mulle end

Kirte Jõesaar

Estonia

Performances
2 | 3 | 4* | 6 | 7 May 19:30
Kanuti Gildi SAAL Pikk 20 Tallinn
*followed by Artist Talk

Author-director KIRTE JÕESAAR (EST)
Sound artists KÄRT MÄNNA (EST) and KYMBALI WILLIAMS (EST/GHA/UK)
Scenographers NATALI MÄLLO (EST) and KAROLIN POSKA (EST)
Lighting Designer KÄRT KARRO (EST)
Performers SOFIA FILIPPOU (GR), REBECCA GREEN (USA), LIISAMARI VIIK (EST)
Co-production of Kanuti Gildi SAAL and Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre
Supported by Estonian Cultural Endowment

rest your head on my lap

I want to file your nails
and sing you to sleep

feed you vegetable soup
peel off the wallpaper in your living room
help you put your coat on
and bend over to
take off your shoes 

I will fix your leaking tap
pierce your ears
sort your trash
count your steps
rinse your laundry

I want to iron your socks

scrub your bathtub with bleach 

find your keys

let me serve you

I think you want it, too

“At Your Service” is a delicate participatory performance that explores the act of service in a performative context, forming a fusion of installation, performing arts and one-to-one encounters between the spectators and performers. 

The concept of the production stems from a longing for closeness, care and nurturing. The desire to lay one’s head on another’s lap, to forget everyday worries for a moment. The desire to have someone else make difficult decisions for us. To be able to surrender, even for a moment, to someone or something that might offer some solace or support. 

We turn to services when we are unable or unwilling to serve ourselves. We pay a fee and receive something we (think we) need in exchange. Services fill gaps. But which gaps remain unfilled? Which gaps cannot be filled by services? Which services act as substitutes to fill another longing?

Kirte Jõesaar (1996) is a dance and performance artist from Estonia, currently based in Tallinn. She graduated from the Tartu University Viljandi Culture Academy in 2021 and studied as an exchange student at the Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT). Currently, she is completing her MA studies in Contemporary Physical Performance Making at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.

Drawing inspiration mostly from everyday observations, she seeks to capture what makes life so tragic, absurd and beautiful by expanding the familiar and generalising the particular. More recently, she has been practising serving and comforting, exploring (im-)possibilities of intimacy and unfolding power dynamics. She is fascinated by the friction between the clinical, capitalist, professional, artificial and the caring, sincere and empathetic. She likes to imagine herself as an expert and cultivate expertise in unfamiliar fields. 

Recent work includes the performance ‘Olmeoopus neljale kehale’, a solo work ‘private negotiations’ and one-to-one encounters at the ‘Office of Consolation’.