Within this intersection of urban night, alterity and identity, twelve residency participants were tasked to explore the city of Tartu after dark in search of diverse shades of selfhood and sensorial expression. These filmic explorations looked to the city’s night-time inhabitants, their environs, architecture and forms of collective life to draw out their respective social and sensory dimensions. During the day, with the museum serving as a creative hub, the residents would gather for image/sound post-production and review along with creative exchange amongst all of the groups and the residency facilitator.
For the residency (June 13th–16th), the participants were combined into four groups of three and tasked with doing research and media production together. The sessions took place in the World Film wing of the Estonian National Museum with filmmaker and ethnographer Jeff Silva serving as mentor and primary facilitator during the four days of production. Between the participants, organisers and facilitators, the VRN residency sought to offer the opportunity to encounter many different backgrounds, life experiences, and geographic provenances, as well as the satisfaction of seeing work produced from this unique setting exhibited and screened at the conference in this museum setting, mere days after its production.
The residency films and participants:
Pimeduse koostis: Composition with pieces of darkness
Mathilde Blum, Natalie Marr, Nolwen Vouiller
Old Bad Night
Flo Boux, Élisabeth de Bézenac, Piibe Kolka
Mothernight / Emajõgi
Coralie Gourdon, Casey Hayward, Anna Waldie
Spectres of Night – Wandering presences and traces from beyond
Julia Berg, Noemi Didu, Shannon Turner
