Epifanio
Epifanio 1 Epifano 2 Epifanio 3 Epifano 4 Epifanio 5 Epifanio 6 Epifanio 7 Epifanio 8 Epifanio nr 9 Epifanio nr 10 Epifanio nr 11 Epifanio 12
Epifanio 13 Epifanio 14 Epifanio 15 Epifanio 16 Epifanio 17 Epifanio 18 Epifanio 19 Epifanio 20 Epifanio 21      
All kinds of feedback is welcome. CONTACT: augustkunnapu@gmail.com
800

Eestikeelsed artiklid

EDITORIAL

EPIFANIO RECOMMENDS

Exaggerated images of the eastern bloc
Andri Luup

INTERVIEW WITH LEIPZIG-BASED PAINTER MATTHIAS LUDWIG
August Künnapu

EAST EUROPEAN ALEKSEJS NAUMOVS
Vilen Künnapu

MYSTIC SPHERE IN VÕRU
Diana Vene, Vilen Künnapu

INTERVIEW WITH BARRY THOMPSON
Harry Pye

HOW TO STARVE CONCEPTS AND FEED PEOPLE? * INTERVIEW WITH APHRA TESLA
Tanel Rander

We all are artists of life
Jürgen-Kristoffer Korstnik

NATO LUMI'S RESEARCH TRIP TO THE WILDERNESS OF EASTERN EUROPE
Nato Lumi

PAINTINGS BY AUGUST KÜNNAPU

TEAM

HOW TO STARVE CONCEPTS AND FEED PEOPLE? *

Interview with Aphra Tesla

Years ago I spent a winter in Yugoslavia, Maribor. Maybe it is chauvinistic, but I still call these countries Yugoslavia. As there is a fire that lives in its people, in its cultural heritage, radiating from the southern tip of Balkan peninsula as well as from the deep caves of mountains. In European context Yugoslavia is an exceptional region. During the Cold War it was neither East nor West. Being the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, it was part of the Third World. Still, after Tito’s death it gradually turned into East Europe, which, as identity, has been promoted especially by Slovenia and its art scene – Moderna Galerija, IRWIN, etc.

That winter in Maribor was really special. There had been famous protests that tore down a corrupt major. These protests have also been reflected by activist and political scientist Andrej Kurnik in the book “Archives and Disobedience”, published in Estonia. In the city centre there was an old cinema “Udarnik”. A McDonald’s restaurant had sucked itself into the flesh of the cinema, but was shut down because of lack of interest by Maribor people. The vibes were really promising. An old projector of “Udarnik” was shooting film classics, while Janez Janša was packing his bags somewhere to go to jail. I curated some events in “Udarnik” and cultural centre “GT22”, where I also met my friend Aphra Tesla. She’s a well known singer and poet in Slovenia. And the only living artist to have an intermedia award named after her – “White Aphroid Award”. She’s related with Estonia due to some collaborations and she could become our cultural bridge with Yugoslavia – like were Ita Rina and Ljiljana Petrovic.

Meanwhile the world has changed, unfortunately not towards a better direction. Udarnik has been closed, Janša is in power and realities have become suffocating. In summers Maribor gets into devilish heat, while an emerald green and ice cold Drava river runs through it. On the banks of this river there lives Aphra Tesla, who I interviewed at the end of this summer. Before going into this, I recommend to check these links to get an idea about her work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCx-puwGwi8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHuaJmeFE3A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axhBuWLtq5c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wczYvIuVbdI

Aphra Tesla

 

Aphra Tesla

Photos: Aphra Tesla Operating System Incorporated

How was your summer? I know you’ve been quite busy.

I spent summer in a quiet ecstasy, glued to my instrument, harmonium. Made a new album. And second one is coming soon.

Tell me about this album! When was the last time you made an album?

Last album I made came out in 2013, “Home in the zone”. In 2021 I just made an album “Love – Death with Benefit”. First of all, it is for an upcoming exhibition “Portrait of Emotion” in NART, Narva. It is a product of collaboration with Jevgeni Zolotko, for his installation named “Love”. And so we literally made it. As subtile, devoted and passionate as possible. With the power of hermeticism and prophetic persuasiveness. The other album is related with the project “Songs from the Suicide Hole”. Let people be curious.

I’ve seen you perform in media art and noise events, but also on big stages, singing Yugoslavian partisan songs.

Yea, I was floating through all sorts of music fractions. Most of musicians are infected by non-capacity to work with me. I rather hang with my harmonium or just hang….

What is Aphra Tesla Operating System?

It is my solar system – a developing interdisciplinary, social, humanistic project, which started in 2011 with Sinapsa Neuroscience Conference.1 And through the years I was collaborating with MFRU festival in which of course Huxtrl and GT22 are also present.

But you work with Svetlana Makarovic! And you are also running Svetlana Makarovic Embassy. How is that?

“Ambasada” is my intermedial project, longitudinal, from 2016, still running, settled in GT22, each month there is one art happening in production of Fundacija Sonda (artist Miha Horvat – ed).
I could talk about adventures with Svetlana for hours. She is the last living poet of old guard. Queen of chanson and children books. I’ve enjoyed being on stage alone with her, like hermits of two generations. Her poetry, my singing. On last chanson concert I dared (being the first in history) to make a melody for one of her poems “Kam odhajaš lepo moje” (“Where are you going my beautiful”). And she liked it! The poem is about a loved one losing life in a war. I sang it again very recently.

Please speak more about the partisan songs...

I sing Russian songs in Svetlana’s antifa concerts.
I sing partisan songs for my grandpa. And grandma. ….for the memory not to fade. To remember who unslaved us, who was the freedom fighter.

Aphra Tesla

Photo: Aphra Tesla Operating System Incorporated

Are there antifa concerts in Slovenia?

Yes, and lately they look pretty miserable.. Like circus in a candy land. We live under stupid dictatorship. That is mirroring people. Dividing them. On stupid, less stupid and apostates – like me and Svetlana. Considering myself an activist, but really, what becomes of a rebel song if most of people take it as a lollipop? What becomes of people if they are afraid to protest and are too comfortable to demand their rights, to stand as one? Yes, we have antifa concerts here and no one gets arrested for it. Hahah! And no one gets any boost from it. It’s like circus. A brand. A cage.

But still, the partisan songs!

Yes, by the way, I also sing Russian songs, like “Tjomnaja noch” (“Dark night”) and “V zemljanke” (“In a Dugout”). I love Russian language.
But from Yugoslav songs “Što te nema” (“Why Aren’t You Here”) that is from Bosnia. Or “Pogledaj me mala moja” (“Look at Me, my Little”) from Montenegro. “Udade se Jagodo” (The Strawberry got married”). And a Slovene one – “Šla bom na goro visoko” (“I’ll go up to a high mountain”).

To me Yugoslavia is culturally the richest area in Europe...

Carving out a place in a world, that richest place… it became foreign to me. Ever since I moved, ever since I lost my home in countryside. Well…anyway… The world will make a judgment about me that will live without me, same goes for Yugoslavia. Some vanity whispers to me: you a loner. Stranger in a strange land. Poor enough, to inherit the modesty of being able to look at the stars without thinking of transforming them into art. I mean that I live in a guilty piece of the world – Slovenia, ex-Yugoslavia, over which runs a strangely elusive transversal of history and its consequent…

Yugoslavia is rich in forms of decay and cultural diversity that has preserved. In the north live suicidal drunks, philosophers, skiers and bad movie makers. More south you go, the more juice in language and slaughtery in reality it gets. Oh you are absolutely right. And you have a very precise visura* on it. Have you watched the movie Kekec? It’s the best Slovenian movie and it means “Shit” (kekec), hahaha!

Metaphysically, I live in Estonia. That makes me rich. And it comforts me.

*Visura – mixture of the words “vision” and “Usura” (see Ezra Pound)

Being able to look at the stars without thinking of transforming them into art – you have to have experienced communism or just 20th century to be able to think like that....

Yes, I inherited that.

From who? Ancestors?

My ancestors lived, worked in a quarry. My grandfather as a four-year-old child grazed cows to survive, at 14 he escaped from prison of Germans and went to partisans. After the war he worked as a stonemason and took care of our family and many other people. Everyone in the village went to watch TV to us and wash the laundry on our washing machine, as my mom told me. My grandfather was the first to buy my statues and paintings. Regarding my poems, he was silently touched.

What did you inherit from Yugoslavian society?

To starve until a man comes and sits by the table and gives me a sign that I can eat too. Hahahhhaha!

*Before this interview Aphra Tesla had a dream that this was the first question of the enquiry. She only cried and said she loved Tito’s severed leg.

Tanel Rander
is an artist and a poet who has for years been researching East European identity and living with that identity. On this journey, however, he has had hidden motives.