NARVA : TOMORROW, collective actions
Narva: Tomorrow is a programme of public events called collective actions. The events bring
together international and local participants in a series of discussions and workshops around the
highlight event — the world premiere of the documentary opera Russia: Today by composer
Eugene Birman. Employing verbatim as a method, the opera explores the phenomenon of voice as
an instrument and as a means of expression, both in musical and social realms. The collective
actions will engage with Narva’s local context and seek to create a safe space for sharing multiple
perspectives, mutual understanding, finding inspiration and new meanings together.
—-
16.00 – 18.00
Collective Action 4 | Critical Thinking
• From values to creative expression — how our everyday life gives social
relevance to artistic production. Seminar with Eugene Birman, composer and
Scott Diel, librettist.
Scott and Eugene first came to prominence in Estonia when they set the Twitter feed of
the former President Ilves to music — leading to the first critical discussion of Eastern
Europe’s post-financial crisis economic policy in the cultural sphere and media headlines
around the world. From this moment, they discovered that music has incredible potential
to bring attention to important issues. That philosophy has informed numerous works
since, ranging from an opera about the Occupy Wall Street movement to a high tech-
installation in a greenhouse in the center of Hong Kong as a commentary about the
environment that was called “a Covid-proof opera for our times” by the Financial Times.
In this discussion, Scott and Eugene will share their experiences about how the act of
creating art in any field can make a difference locally, nationally, and even internationally.
They will give their perspectives and share practical tools and ideas with local community
members of Narva on how everyday life can be the source of important life-changing
artistic work and how Narva itself can directly inspire new artistic productions.
18.00 – 20.00
Collective Action 5 | Presentation
• Participation as a positive cultural and social strategy for the Now. An open
presentation and discussion based on the outcomes of the previous Collective
Actions.
The entire project team comes back together with workshop participants to discuss
practical strategies for creating international artistic projects including fundraising,
institutional partnerships, working abroad during the pandemic, and how to create long-
lasting relationships with members of the local community as well as peers worldwide.
With the Russia: Today project as a basis, the team will go through each stage of the
project, from the initial EU-funded residencies to composer Eugene Birman winning the
2018 Guggenheim Fellowship on the basis of his work in socially relevant opera,
describing tools, tactics, and how they would do it differently / better.
—-
Narva: Tomorrow is a programme of public events called collective actions.
The reference to the name of the famous conceptual artist group from the Soviet
underground is no coincidence. The programme explores participation as an artistic and
social strategy for creating the now, and thus, for building the future.
Registration for the event is required:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeFhHi3M_cq8SR-y9wkvRVhAubYV9Ar2afOBDVMiPl2tWtZjA/viewform?fbclid=IwAR3ft8VRH4Trk7AUBMVYlpSmTlB6i09eXkRFUzOpxw1h4dCL8ZcI7JIO3p0
Free entrance, a valid covid health certificate must be presented, i.e., one of three:
a) vaccination passport (the last dose must have been administered according to the time specified by the manufacturer);
b) certificate of recovery from Covid-19 (up to 6 months from recovery);
c) negative test result ( PCR-test 72 hours before or a rapid antigen test 48 hours before).
