I haven't been to Estonia since 1990 (for a few days in Talling in some strange rock / punk festival) when it was still part of Soviet Union. Except for a short drive through via Via Baltica in 2002 when Timppa and I drove with Sebastian B. to Vilnius, Lithuania in one day and then Timppa and I returned for about week later from Vilnius to Tallinn by bus in one night and then right across the sea back to Helsinki without seeing anything. So, the former is a whole different story and the latter doesn't really count.
When textile artist Ulla Lapiolahti told me last autumn about this potato print festival that she had heard of, I was ready to go right away. So, when the middle of the August finally came, we packed out bags and after one night stay in Helsinki we crossed over to Tallinn, took the train from Tallinn to Türi and continued from there to the Laupa mansion. The whole festival was organised very freely without any timetable stress or pressure to do everything in a strict way or order which suited me more than well. We even worked in my normal day schedule (breakfast in 10 or 11 ... or at 1 pm...).
Since I find myself sitting in the front of my computer monitor 24/7, the festival was really a refreshing break to my usual life. I found also the place, the Laupa mansion and its peaceful surroundings, to be absolute meditational heaven. The mansion, which works as a school these days, was under renovation and everything was piled and wrapped - the pianos for example were wrapped in plastic foil - which brought more of the surrealistic clang to the place. I enjoyed sitting around the building just feeling the atmosphere. There were many empty spaces and I was a bit frustated that I *didn't* pack Zoom (digital sound recorder) with me - there would have been many strange and beautiful voices and soundscapes to save...
Anyway, I really didn't get as much images done as I had planned but I got some new ideas to my future art work and other work projects too. I wrote many pages to my memo book after arriving home at Sunday night / Monday morning at about three/four am, before going to sleep. I'm absolutely enthusiastic right now! Ulla gave a lecture of natural dyes and pigments and for the first time I tried printing with natural dyes - I did most of my prints with soot black (which is pigment) and cochenille and madder tinctures mixed with gum arabic. This is the thing that I must continue to do. (I still have to find more detailed info about concentrating the natural dyes into inks and paints though.)
Sadly I noticed that I haven't got any images from the lecture of potatos (changing the world) by the director of London Print Studio, John Phillips, which I found really interesting and entertaining. Lecture by Phillips was not the only thing I didn't take pictures of. I'm quite angry with myself for not taking more images from the event generally, since there would have been so much to document. When I looked through my photo files I found mainly images from the Laupa mansion rooms and little details all over... Well, it's the organizers' fault really: why do they find such an interesting place to have the event... :)
Anyway: new ideas, new working methods, new techniques and most important: new, interesting contacts. People taking part to the festival were with various backgrounds which made the festival more interesting. I hope to be in contact with those people in future too.
More about the festival: www.printpotato.pri.ee Festival works will be exhibited in EKA Galerii (Eesti Kunstiakadeemia, Tallinn) September 3.-15, 2008.
