Questions by John Smith to Merike Estna

	John Smith interviews Merike Estna (the questions were noted down eleven days before John Smith's final departure) John Smith: I wasted the best years of my life away from my homeland, in pursuit of 'scientific' discoveries based on two boys, before I came to my senses and started painting. Unfortunately I was too old by then to make a breakthrough in this world, being unable to perceive all the subtleties. You, however, are already successful and young too. Where exactly would you like to get to as an artist, and what does success mean to you? Merike Estna: I am enjoying the process of making art and hope that the viewer is also getting something out of my work. It matters to me what I say in my pictures, but visual enjoyment, which can also be a shrewd trap, is also important. I am successful when I am able to move forward, develop, seek and make myself understood. JS: In my art I have always tried to offer joy and consolation to people. What are your aims? ME: I'm afraid my aims are quite the same, however strange the means and manner. JS: As I've said, I left home as a young man because I wanted to achieve something in science. Would you be prepared to move somewhere else for good in the name of art? Or for some other reason, maybe love? How important are such relations to you anyway, home, childhood, familiar places etc? ME: I am always ready to grab my things and go. I am fascinated by other cultures. Recently I have especially yearned for environments where people are free of the consumer-focused society. I am, of course, ready for anything for the sake of art, as art is in fact my home, although I'm also very keen on home as a place and my nearest and dearest. Homesickness always hits me quite dramatically. But this does not prevent me from going. To me homesickness is a very beautiful and pleasingly sad sensation. Naturally I would travel to the end of the world for love.
	JS: A long time ago two boys, Marko and Kaido, tried to build a spaceship in order to leave the planet Earth. This was of course a classic example of stupidity, but I still remember them and their undertaking with great affection. What do you think - if a person has not been blessed with anything special, should he avoid all grander undertakings and lead an ordinary life, according to his abilities, or do we all have a right, and indeed an obligation, to try something crazy at least once, however idiotic it might seem? ME: I think that ridiculous actions such as Marko and Kaido building a spaceship are actually very gratifying. JS: I've heard that you are producing kinetic paintings or pictures that move. Tell me, why are you doing this? ME: Because this is what I truly like. JS: But surely, if the picture is moving people cannot see it properly and you have painted it for nothing! Can you explain this to me? ME: A work of art not only exists as such, but reacts to the viewer in constant change and lives in real time. It is a living work, a look at the continuing change of the moment, not an object. Its form and motion emerge occasionally and can be perceived in the previous context and in what will come. Via physical behaviour in a painting, it is possible to involve the visual surface, which is not possible in a static object. JS: I have been confined to my bed for quite some time now. My joints are hopeless and the January cold added pneumonia. I can't get out at all, so I listen to the radio. It's a great pity I can't see the new art museum and the new exhibitions ... How do you like that Kumu [Kumu Art Museum - Ed], or whatever it's called? ME: I like it very much. Kšler and the room of busts are excellent, I have found a lot that I really like, and it's wonderful that Estonian art is finally displayed properly. Not that it was done poorly before, but it was impossible to see much.
	JS: I hear the shape of the building is a bit weird. And does this kind of museum have any real meaning for a young person like yourself? ME: It means a lot to me, and it does not really matter what the building looks like exactly: I am thrilled about it. JS: Have you seen any UFOs? ME: Not really, no, but in a film I saw Martin Pedanik's very own ufo. Very pretty it was too, and the film is pretty as well. JS: I haven't seen any, but it has been my great dream. Although I have studied gene technology, I am almost 100 per cent certain that after death life continues somehow, on the level of souls. What's your opinion of this? ME: Well, if that's what you think, I have nothing to add; you are older and wiser after all. JS: Incidentally, what do young people think of gay marriage? ME: You could just as well have enquired about marriage in general. In any case, I think love is essential. JS: If you had as much money as all those famous artists abroad, what would you do with it? Let's say 10 million kroons. ME: If I had that much money it would obviously mean that I was one of those artists. However, it's much more expensive to live abroad, at least in the countries where the artists have such sums of money. Besides, I have an amazing knack for wasting money if I happen to have some, so it would be no problem to get rid of ten million. At the same time I am not too frustrated if I do not have money. It might be annoying if you go hungry or the turpentine has run out, but I have not really experienced that, at least not dramatically. JS: Where do you think contemporary Estonian art is going now? I haven't had a clue for ages. ME: Nor me. Merike Estna (1980), painter and video artist. MA student in the Interdisciplinary Arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts. See also: merike.estna.com John Smith (1943-2006), fictitious and conceptual character who concealed in his robes artists Marko Mäetamm and Kaido Ole. Represented Estonia at the 50th Venice Biennial in 2003.
	| Estonian Art 1/06 (18) | 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 |