DFBRL8R + NON GRATA/DIVERSE UNIVERSE proudly present
SEASIDE SALON
Performances on the Seashore
SAT 26 AUG 2023 at 8PM [20:00]
The Ladies’ Beach in Pärnu, Estonia
Featuring performances by:
Steve Abeni [Benin, Africa]
Kim, Jung Soo [S.Korea/Chicago]
Theo, Tzuen Wu [Taiwan/Chicago]
Joseph Ravens [Chicago]
The program features performance art and music by artists-in-residence at LOOVLINNAK. Four artists from around the world come together to share work inspired by the Baltic Sea and the city of Pärnu, Estonia. The works will take place on the beach as the sun sets. A range of performance styles from music to conceptual actions are designed with the sea and the city in mind. We will begin at the cafe near the entrance to the Ladies’ Beach.
BIOGRAPHIES :
Kim, Jung Soo [www.kimjungsoo.art] is a Chicago-based artist born in Seoul, Korea, who uses interactive installations to tell stories about the spaces we occupy and actively evolve.Starting with an individual exhibition at the Cyart gallery in Seoul, she unraveled the story of individuals and spaces by artistically expanding the existing sociological concept of personal space. Kim investigates the space where we exist, and will exist. Especially, her works include various individuality to feel the diversity of the space. She seeks spatial experience about ‘Us: Society, Community’ from ‘Myself’, so that it can be sensorized the diversity in Society. And also induce freshness in our daily life.
Tzuen Wu (Theo) [www.tzuenwutheo.com] is a Taiwanese artist and researcher currently residing in Chicago. They make and install experimental objects, images, and videos. Their work explores the power dynamics of seeing and being seen, and questions the related social structures in the context of identity, family history, colonialism and environment. They experiment with optical illusion, bio art, and 3D modeling. Wu received a BFA from the Taipei National University of Art, and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Steve Abeni is a musician from Benin, West Africa, who traveled to Pärnu at the invitation of composer Andrus Kallastu, to teach local professionals the musical rhythms of their country at the Massia center and to introduce the culture of their country to all interested people in Estonia.
Joseph Ravens, [www.josephravens.com and www.DFBRL8R.org] is organizer of summer programs at Loovlinnak who founded Defibrillator Gallery (aka DFBRL8R) in 2010 as an international platform for Performance Art in Chicago. Actively contributing to global dialogs surrounding conceptual, ephemeral, or enigmatic forms of expression, DFBRL8R champions artists and audiences who are diverse in their culture, identities, worldview, and all those who are invested in alternative modes of being in society. DFBRL8R has a mission to raise awareness, appreciation, and respect for the discipline of Performance Art. Visit
DIVERSE UNIVERSE [www.performance.ee] is a conceptual umbrella that includes not only a residency program but also a performance festival and the Printmaking IN exhibition. The scale and duration of DIVERSE UNIVERSE allows for deep and meaningful interdisciplinary cross-fertilization between artists from different nationalities to push the boundaries of contemporary performance art, and in turn excite audiences with new works that are affective, thought-provoking and responsive to our current times. The aim is to bring experimentation, non-conformity, and creativity back to contemporary art while also fostering cultural fluidity through the exchange of ideas, concerns, and cultural perspectives.
NON GRATA [www.nongrata.ee] are the masterminds behind DIVERSE UNIVERSE. Non Grata is a performance group that travels constantly all over the world – Asia-America-Europe – presenting original performances and organizing the DIVERSE UNIVERSE and PRINTMAKING IN festival for 25 years. The main characteristics of Non Grata members are anonymity in group work, ignorance of the local art world, and critiquing of mass media while physically weaving together a worldwide creative network.
Pärnu LOOVLINNAK is located in the former Bliebernicht Brewery that operated for a century and a half, from 1879 until 1940. Continuing under the name Pärnu Brewery for awhile before closing, the building stood empty for many years. The people of Pärnu have made it into a Creative City, transforming the community, neighborhood, and all of Pärnu into a collaborative creative hub for all peoples and fields.
