Where are you?

Where Are You?

‘Anthropologies of Space II: Where Are You?' was the last part of the Apartment 34 series, a work that emerged from an eighteen-month-long experience of observing the body and space. It was open for the audience to visit and experience during the festival of Baltoscandal in July 2022 in Rakvere. You could enter physical space or visit the mediated apartment through the web.

Author’s words: After spending some time in this apartment, I came to the clear understanding that I would not end my experience in this apartment alone. I was interested in what would happen to the relationship between me and the space when guests entered, for I am not alone in this world. What happens to me and the space when the capsule breaks, when a stranger arrives?

I wanted to offer such a fertile, unfinished space and raw state of being to others as well because if I needed it, perhaps my contemporaries might need it too. As Ene Mihkelson states in her essay 'On the Personal in Art': 'At a very deep level, there is no difference between personal and social life. The social is one way of expressing the personal, an internal external side.' At the same time, it was a test for myself: have I reached such a depth, how far or close to myself have I moved? 

I envisioned the apartment open to guests as a space where one could briefly escape their habitual identity and way of functioning. A space that would allow observing oneself, time, and the people around without labeling. A space where things do not happen in a set way, where no one tells you how things are done or not done. I felt this space was necessary because the world had changed beyond recognition; after the coronavirus and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, things were no longer in their familiar places. The world no longer functioned as usual, yet it still existed. I wanted to offer the possibility of stillness, a way to stretch the moment, to experience the nature of time, and then to move forward, not backward.

Author: Liis Vares

Technical assistance: Taavet Jansen (digital space), Marko Odar (the swing), Magnus Andre (physical space)

Virtual space: Kristjan Jansen

Producer: e⁻lektron

Project manager: Eneli Järs

Partner: Baltoscandal

Photos: Alana Proosa ja Epp Kubu

Special thanks: Hannes Vares, Virve Vares