BARBARA LEHTNA

In a series of lectures and performances created during the last five years, Berlin performance duo Chris Kondek and Christiane Kühl have been investigating the theatrical aspects of our new digital environments. It is therefore only natural that Estonia and its digital doppelgänger e-Estonia should be the site of their next work, “Distinguishing Marks”. Working together with a team of Estonian Artists (Piret Jaaks, Taavet Jansen, Helen Kask, Barbara Lehtna, and Roland Laos), Kondek and Kühl have been in Estonia researching the spookier sides of e-society; from the birth of the digital in the timeless Estonian swamps/bogs to the mysterious existence of something called The Invisible E-State. They will present the dark results of their research in performance using a rich mixture of methods, videos, sounds, presentation styles, and analog apps. The performance will be woven around the nearly true stories of a failed e-Resident Entrepreneur and a lost and lonely traveler careening out of control on the mythical X-road. E-Estonia is, as the branding tells us, the place where the Future is Now. But what kind of future is this exactly? And if it is already happening, what is to expect from tomorrow?

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