The artist explains: “During the campaign to liberate the machines, we managed to give a new identity to ten car windscreen wiping engines and five disco ball engines. Never again will they have to perform the dull movements of scrubbing water droplets and bird droppings from the windshield or spinning a silly mirror ball for nights on end for the joy of sweaty and squirming bodies. Monotonous rhythms have been replaced by dynamic ones. Instead of direct or alternating current pulsating incessantly through the grooves, the machine beats in the unpredictable rhythms of a random generator. By forever abandoning the claustrophobia of an engine compartment or the loneliness of a night club ceiling, instead forming systems with their companions and creating kaleidoscopic rhythm patterns in order to dominate the space. Man is only an observer here.”
Erik Alalooga (b 1974) is a visual artist, performer, director, sound artist, teacher and cultural organiser living in Tallinn. He graduated the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) with a bachelor’s degree in sculpture and acquired a master’s degree in interdisciplinary arts. Since 2018, he has been studying at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater doctoral studies. He has worked as an associate professor of the Interdisciplinary Art Department of EKA (2006–2010) and as the head of the Performing Arts Department (2010–2013). He currently works as the head of the EKA sculpture studio. Alalooga has presented exhibitions, performances and experimental concerts in Estonia, the Nordic and Baltic countries, Germany, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, France, the USA, and Australia.
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
