Part of ProtoZone18: Unfamiliar Evermore, 14.03.2025-11.05.2025

Hi-Intensity: performance with Gregor Kulla, 14.03.2025, 20h

Lo-Intensity: screening of “Old Piano”, 16.03.-11.05.2025

“Old Piano” (2024) is a collaborative art project born out of the creative partnership of two longstanding friends, Kris Lemsalu and Johanna Ulfsak. The project is an exploration on where one’s ideas originate, an elusive territory that has long been contemplated.

Acting as both the cinematographer and director, the film shows Ulfsak documenting Kris Lemsalu, an artist renowned for her surreal sculptures and eclectic visual approaches. The documentation takes place throughout 2023 across locales such as Tallinn, New York, Vilnius, Bucharest and Mexico City. Drawing from her background as a textile artist, Ulfsak infused the project with a fresh cinematic language. Playful experimentation, intricate interweaving, and rhythmic resonance, Ulfsak’s style results in a video work that defies simple categorization. Blending various stylistic and thematic elements of film, documentary, mockumentary, and music video, the project unfolds as a rich exploration, inviting viewers to ponder the essence of intuition.

At the heart of the video narrative lies Lemsalu’s alter ego, the superhero and guardian of privacy, Donatella Privada. Privada’s journey commences against the backdrop of a panel house on the outskirts of an Eastern European capital. Through a series of surreal and introspective encounters, Privada assumes various roles – from a fountain to a silent observer – ultimately serving as a conduit between disparate worlds, the mundane and the poetic.

In its visual and auditory tapestry, the film seeks to capture the essence of artistic genesis, probing the fundamental question of where inspiration resides. Guided by a diverse ensemble of collaborators – including musicians, artists, and friends – each spontaneous interaction unfolds as a singular episode, captured in raw authenticity. Audiovisual elements are produced using an array of recording devices, ranging from smartphones to 8mm cameras to a GoPro.

The title, “Old Piano,” s serves as a homage to a bygone era. Amidst the silence of a pre-digital world, an aging piano stood as a silent sentinel, adorned with a doily. Is it sentimental, ironic, or something else entirely?

“Old Piano” features contributions from an array of talented individuals – including musicians Florian Wahl, Kyp Malone and Lizzy Bougatsos, artist Edith Karlson, Duke Riley, performance artist Maria Metsalu, among others – the project’s cohesive soundtrack, composed by Gregor Kulla, gives the old piano a voice.

BIOS

Kris Lemsalu

Kris Lemsalu (b. 1985) is an artist based in New York and Tallinn. She studied at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn; Danmarks Designskole, Copenhagen; and Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.

Having studied ceramics, Lemsalu often experiments with traditional techniques to create multilayered works. Her staged installations combine delicate porcelain sculptures cast as animal and human body parts or objects of clothing with found natural materials like fur, leather or wool. These can act as self-sufficient narratives, or alternatively as a stage for Lemsalu’s performances, the sculptures sometimes becoming a part of her costumes and props. For her recent works, the artist collaborated with musicians adding a further element to her performances (“Going, going”, with Kyp Malone, curated by Esa Nickle and Maaike Gouwenberg, Performa 17 Biennial, New York; and a performance with Glasser, DRAF performance night, KOKO, London, both 2017).

Lemsalu’s recent exhibitions include “On the Absurd Drama That is Also Life”, Moderna Museet (2024), Stockholm, Sweden, “Holly Hell Ooo”, Magazin 4, Bregenz, Austria (2024); “One foot in gravy”, Margot Samel, New York (2024); “Chará”, Belvedere 21, Museum of Contemporary Art, Vienna, Austria (2024); “Donatella”, Tartu Art Museum, Tartu, Estonia (2024); “Rinky Dink Babe”, Kendall Koppe, Glasgow, UK (2022); “Angels Gone Pissing”, Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, Tallinn (2022), Vienna; “Peace @ 295 Church Street”, Margot Samel Gallery, New York (2022); “Love Stories”, Meyer Kainer, Vienna (2022); “A Snail’s Tale” with Kyp Malone, High Line Art, New York (2021); “It’s a Family Affair” with Kyp Malone, Hunt Kastner, Prague (2021); “Going Going” with Kyp Malone, Den Frie, Copenhagen (2020); “Love Song Sing-Along”, with Kyp Malone, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2020); Estonian Pavilion, 58th Venice Biennial (2019); “Keys Open Doors”, Secession, Vienna (2018); “4LIFE”, Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London ( 2018); “There and Back Again”, group show curated by Kati Kivinen and Saara Hacklin, Kiasma, Helsinki (2018); “The Wild Ones”, Koppe Astner, Glasgow (2017–2018); “Steps to Aeration”, group show curated by Sarah McCrory, Tanya Leighton, Berlin; CONDO London, with Josh Faught, Koppe Astner hosted at Sadie Coles (2017); “The Hierophant”, group show curated by Aaron Moulton, Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest (2017); “Metamorphosis”, group show curated by Zdenek Felix, KAI 10 / Arthena Foundation, Düsseldorf, Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin, and Galerie SVIT, Prague (2017); “Aftermieter”, group show curated by Veit Loers, Haus Mödrath – Räume für Kunst, Kerpen (2017); “Afternoon Tear Drinker”, curated by Hemma Schmutz, Kunstraum Lakeside, Klagenfurt (2016); “Beauty and the Beast”, with Tiit Pääsuke, curated by Tamara Luuk, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn (2016).

Gregor Kulla

Gregor Kulla is a composer, performance artist, writer, and critic born in Põlva, Estonia. They majored in composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater (cum laude), and in oboe and composition at the Heino Eller Music School. They studied sustainable art creation at the EU School of Participation 2021 in Novi Sad, Serbia, and have trained with several prestigious composers, including Chaya Czernowin (US/Israel), Federico Favali (Italy), Slavomir Horinka (Czech Republic), amongst others. Kulla received the honorary title of Tartu Noor Kultuurikandja in 2020 and, in 2021, became a laureate of the cultural newspaper Sirp. They are a recipient of the annual prize of the literary magazine Värske Rõhk, the Esimese Sammu literary award, Erkki-Sven Tüür Foundation scholarship and in 2024 they received the Betti Alver literary prize. Since 2021 they are the creative producer and artistic director assistant of the international contemporary music festival Afekt and in 2023 they taught in University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy. Gregor Kulla is the host of the IDA radio show “(new) music w/ kulla”.

Their work deals with gender studies, feminism, minority and queer cultures, drag culture and Eastern philosophies. It is seen and heard as something seemingly unchanging, which preserves itself only through constant change. Kulla’s work “brook” (2023) has been described by Simon Cummings as follows: “Nothing was still: little taps, trills and tremolos, with occasional plunks that in this rarified context sounded almost like great boulders falling from the sky, in the process begging the question of how fragile this world actually was. […] At no point did Kulla break the spell, from start to end we are immersed in pure magic.”

Gregor Kulla is a composer, writer, critic and a performance artist based in Vienna and Tartu. Their work deals mostly with gender studies, feminism, minority and queer cultures, drag culture and Eastern philosophies.

Johanna Ulfsak

Johanna Ulfsak (b. 1987, EE) is a textile artist and a designer based in Tallinn, Estonia. She holds a Master’s degree in Textile Design from Kolding School of Design, Denmark. She continued studies in Japan, entering Kawashima Textile School. From Kawashima Ulfsak acquired the skills of Kasuri weaving and various ancient plant dyeing techniques. Following her studies, she gained work experience at several fashion and textile companies in Switzerland, Germany and Estonia.

Mainly working with slow and traditional methods such as hand-weaving, wood carving and painting on textile; her work focuses on time and material hierarchies. Ulfsak combines and mixes traditional weaving techniques with contemporary art concepts to create unique items and installations that challenge the established boundaries between disciplines.

Ulfsak’s work has been shown at, among others, Draakon Gallery, Tallinn (2024); Margot Samel Gallery, New York (2024); Tartu Art Museum (2024); Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design (2022) ; Tallinn Art Hall!s Lasnamäe Pavilion (2022); participation in the curated section of Collectible Design Fair, Brussels (2022); artist exchange in collaboration with Kärt Ojavee, Cotton Factory, Hamilton, Canada (2022); Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna (2020); Artishok biennale (2020); and Espoo Museum of Modern Art (2019)

From 2025 she is a laureat of honorable artists salary given by the Republic of Estonia Ministry of Culture. From 2020 she has been a guest lecturer at Estonian Academy of Arts.
Ulfsaks works are a part of the public collection of the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design. She is a member of Estonian Artists Association and Estonian Textile Artists Association