Estonian Art 2' 2006


	Atom cities
	Eléonore de Montesquiou



	deerHunter: ATOM CITIES is the title of the work you realised in Estonia in 2005 and 2006, what does it mean and what does it consist of? Eléonore de Montesquiou My first title was villes closes, in French, or closed cities, namely Sillamäe and Paldiski, two cities in Estonia which were virtually inaccessible during Soviet times. But I found this title too harsh, and as Elnara Taidre, my assistant on the project, and myself were having our very first talk with David Vseviov [historian – Ed], he suggested ATOM CITIES, since the two cities were linked by their atoms, they were both secret and closed for nuclear research. I liked including the word Atom in the title. It carries both the idea of positive progress – Sillamäe was built as an ideal beautiful Soviet town – and its negative counterpart. The work consists of a double publication and posters with interviews of inhabitants of Paldiski and Sillamäe. Designed by Aadam Kaarma, they are trilingual Estonian- Russian-English, illustrated with stills from the films. ATOM CITIES also comprises eight films and a radio piece for France Culture (a French national radio station). Six films are in colour, they are the result of unexpected meetings with people, or the filming of celebrations. Two films are in b&w: PALDISKI and SILLAMÄE. An important aspect of this work is that it is a real collaboration, with Elnara Taidre at first, with Aadam Kaarma for the graphics, with Tatyana Kozlova and Helena Tulve for the sound of SILLAMÄE and Liis Jürgens for the sound track of PALDISKI.

	deerHunter: What was your aim with these b&w films? Eléonore de Montesquiou I wanted to draw a portrait of the two cities by filming them from the outside and watching how people interact with the town and move within this urban setting. I constantly had my video camera with me and shot whatever I saw, asking permission from people when I came close but not when I filmed from a distance. The second ‘rule’ for the films was the sound. They are musical films. I asked the composers to create a 20 minute soundtrack for each city and these directed my images and editing.

	deerHunter: How did you proceed both for the images and the sound? Eléonore de Montesquiou I first filmed in colour. I remember even being very attentive to colours in Sillamäe, because it is such a colourful city, with red brick buildings and children everywhere playing in red-blue-orange-yellow clothes. However, I came to the conclusion that those films did not need colours. This choice would distance them from the other series of films, from everyday reality and together with the sound pieces would make a more poetic, musical portrait of the cities, out of precise time and space. It also tied the two films closer together and for Sillamäe it allowed for a more subtle transition between the archives and my own footage. As for the sound pieces, I gave the composers CDs featuring the interviews I had led and they had ‘carte blanche’ for a 10 to 20 minute creation..

	deerHunter: What was your main idea when you composed the sound piece Na Grane, ‘on the border’ for the film Sillamäe? Tatyana Kozlova When we started to work with Helena Tulve, she already had an idea for the piece. So I didn’t need to come up with a concept. She had this image of the Water-wall (rain), which was a symbol of the mental border around the city. Also, as it is in films by Tarkovsky, water is often connected to time, so in this film it could mean a problem in the present and / or past for people in Sillamäe.

	deerHunter: How did you structure this piece? Tatyana Kozlova We mostly used the voices and sounds from Sillamäe, extracts from the interviews published in the books, which were on the CDs Eléonore gave us. First we cut and systemized them and I helped Helena here to translate what people were saying. The only sound, which was not from Sillamäe, is the rain. The form of the piece came more from Helena, as she had quite a clear ‘macro’ idea and I helped to find solutions with ‘micro’ ideas in particular places because I knew more about the possibilities of the music editing programmes we were working with in the studio. Eléonore de Montesquiou Before the start of the music, I edited a sequence of archive film material – this material is kept in Sillamäe, in abundance, and is rarely shown in public though it tells a lot about the construction of this utopian town. Then my images follow Helena and Tatyana’s ‘macro idea’, the concept and narrative structure the music: firstly people enter the city, then, at one point, the rhythm changes radically, as did the city in the beginning of the 90s. More children, young people are shown, and the film ends on a question mark, it stays floating, no one can predict the future of Sillamäe.

	deerHunter: What story do you wish to tell about both towns through the films? Eléonore de Montesquiou My experiences were very different in each city. In Paldiski, it was difficult for me to ‘enter’ the city and to establish contacts; or rather I kept entering and leaving and I never slept there, because Paldiski is so close to Tallinn. Also the streets are rather empty and desolate and I believe this feeling is translated in my film. I used to enter the city from the harbour, passing the ruins of the Pentagon, and then walk all the way up to the end of the town, the Estonian school and back again. This difficulty is reflected also in the book; it was not so easy for me to find people to interview and I am very grateful to Gilbert and Elve Mandzolo who helped me a lot. For the film itself, the collaboration with Liis Jürgens has been a great pleasure; she came with me, filmed on 1 September in the Estonian school (while I was attending the ceremony in the Russian school) [first schoolday in Estonia – Ed] and recorded sound pieces for her music. Liis told me that for her Paldiski was interesting because of its secrets and strangeness. She used her own recordings for her sound piece, sea sounds, as well as a clarinet performance by Leo Achenberg and extracts of my own interviews. In Sillamäe, I started the project with Elnara Taidre. She had arranged some meetings at the museum. But as we were strolling through the museum rooms we met by chance a school class from Kannuka School with their English teacher, Valentina Repina. She was very eager that I come to the school, so I decided to stay a few more days alone and to manage with the few words of Russian that I know, I came back many times, one meeting leading to another. I was in Sillamäe also on 9 May and was so amazed by the celebrations that I just filmed whatever I saw [Victory Day, celebrating the capitulation of the Nazis in 1945 – Ed], only realizing later how important a material it was and editing it in my film 09.05.05. I wanted to tell something about the circulation within the city; about the sense of community which is so strong in Sillamäe that once you open a door, you are welcome everywhere, and everyone is willing to tell a story, teachers and kids in the schools, the kindergartens, people in the church, in the museum, in shops, in the streets – the young people from my short films KESK and KATRIN – as well as the veterans. In Sillamäe, there are always people walking up and down the Viru Street, chatting in the parks, cycling, children playing in the numerous playgrounds, there is the sea, wind, and sun most of the time. Sillamäe is a very lively city where it was easy to find images and sound material and start building up a story. *Eléonore de Montesquiou* (1970), French video and installation artist with Estonian roots, lives and works in Berlin. Her videos explore identities and borders. In 2005–2006 she made the project Atom Cities that has been shown in Estonia, France and Germany. Sillamäe is a small town on the northern coast of Estonia. The town was closed to visitors and kept secret during Soviet time because of its military industrial function. The workers for the industry were brought in from other parts of that-time Soviet Union. Paldiski is a small town on the northwestern coast of Estonia. In 1939–1991 it was closed town where Soviet Navy had its garrison. Most of its inhabitants are until nowadays Russian.


	\| Estonian Art 2/06 (19) \| Published by the Estonian Institute 2006 \| ISSN 1406-5711 (Online) \| ISSN 1406-3549 (Printed version) \| einst@einst.ee \| tel: (372) 631 43 55 \| fax: (372) 631 43 56 \|