Suudlusest süütuse kaotuseni: Eesti performance’i-kunstnike esimesed esinemised Soomes ja nende kajastused sealses trükimeedias
From the Kiss to the Loss of Innocence: the first appearances of Estonian performance artists in the west and their reviews in the Finnish print media

Summary/Abstract: The article concentrates on Estonian performance art and its reception in the Finnish print media during Perestroika, mainly the years 1988–1990, when the first trips of the artists across the Iron Curtain took place. The period of study is framed by the metaphors of “kiss” and “loss of innocence”. The former designates the first encounters of the Estonian performance artists with the west, marked by a specific event in 1988 when the artist Siim-Tanel Annus (b. 1960), having for the first time sailed on a ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki, kissed the Finnish cost on arrival – an event which was widely covered in the Finnish media at the time. “Loss of innocence” stands for the transition from earnestness to cynicism in performance art at the end of the 1980s as described by the artist Raoul Kurvitz (b. 1961). The transition corresponds with the shift from idealisation of the west to the sobering to the reality of capitalism. Contemporary art reviews offer ample study material of the tension between metaphorically loaded performance art of the era and the turbulent politics of the day. Having been situated simultaneously in the mythical as well as contemporary reality, performance art acted as a living metaphor for the political events.

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