between me and the fish I once was

omailma äärealal

Britt Kõrsmaa

Estonia

Performances
6 | 7 | 8* | 9 | 10 | June 18.00
*with Artist Talk

The performance takes place in the Pirita River Valley Landscape Conservation Area.
The exact coordinates of the meeting place will be sent via e-mail.

Author-director BRITT KÕRSMAA (EST)
Visual artist MIKK-MAIT KIVI (EST)
Sound designer HENDRIK KALJUJÄRV (EST)
Scenographer NATALI MÄLLO (EST)
Co-creators and performers MAARJA TOSIN (EST), MARKUS IAN MONAK (EST), SHION YOKOO-RUTTAS (JAP/EST), TRIIN KAUBER (EST)

Production CPPM Manifestal and Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre

Supported by Estonian Cultural Endowment

”between me and the fish I once was” is a response to the piece “(dis)appearance: a swan song” that has never taken place. Britt’s final project, “(dis)appearance: a swan song,” was supposed to premiere at the empty pool of Pirita TOP. The performance description read:

Pirita TOP’s hotel and spa facilities have stood empty for the last few years as it is waiting for construction work to renew the indoor spaces. At first, the existing rooms need to be demolished. Demolishment is to be started from the swimming pool. The swimming pool is frozen in time, standing emptied of water, having lost its function, its life’s meaning, waiting for its death. It’s in a borderline state already decomposing but still existing in its current state. It’s a long, stretched-out farewell. This sense of impending doom has put the empty pool in an absurdly tragic existentialistic situation. “(dis)appearance: a swan song” is a send-off, a dedication, a lament, a rite, an invitation, a bathing in absence, an embrace of emptiness.

Ironically, the actual life course of the space has embodied Britt’s artistic concept. Over the winter, as the building was left at the mercy of natural forces, when spring came, it wasn’t anymore able to be the host of a performance project. Much more pragmatic processes have taken over: decay, toxic mold, and the structures of the building becoming unstable and dangerous. The piece “between me and the fish I once was” is Britt Kõrsmaa’s final project 1.2, the process of which has reflected its artistic content: decomposition and regeneration, grief and relief, and being in constant change and flow. “between me and the fish I once was” is a site-specific performance that explores transience, impermanence, and flux. It’s a body-based, place-oriented meditative journey that contemplates on the paradox of time. Humans interact with flowing water, researching its agency, sensoriality and exploring the interaction with it. 

“between me and the fish I once was” is a dialogue between two places, two states of being, two worlds, two points in time and countless beings. Impermanence and constant transformation are the essential qualities of all that lives and exists. How do we adjust to places that become unfunctional, uninhabitable, and even dangerous? How do we come to terms with the futility of controlling the flux? How do we cope with our own transformations?

Britt Kõrsmaa (1988) is an Estonian dance and performance artist and choreographer. She is currently finishing her MA studies in Contemporary Physical Performance Making (CPPM) at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater.  She graduated from Tallinn University with a degree in Choreography, and, before embarking on studies in CPPM, has mostly worked as a dancer and choreographer in theatre productions, in various events and projects and in co-operation with music artists. For example, she has performed in Estonian Dance Agency’s revue theatre “Starlight Cabaret” for 9 years, at the Estonian Independence Day concert performance “Every Bird Has Its Own Song” (2020) and choreographed Vanemuise’s productions “Beatrice” (2017), “Persona” (2019) and “W” (2019).

Britt was brought into CPPM to deepen her creative practice, move closer to herself and find her artistic voice. Her solo piece “practice makes peculiar”/“harjutamine teeb mei… d iseäralikuks” used an extract from her personal history to explore the absurdity of operating in a hermetic environment and the use of voice in real and imaginary space. She is inspired by places, spaces, rooms and worlds and by the futility of human effort against stronger forces. Britt is interested in the authentic meeting of performer and audience in time and space and the potentialities that lie in that encounter. Her approach carries an attempt to find true presence and connection and share a sensorial and state-based experience inside a common field of perception.