10 Questions by Nelli Rohtvee to Peeter Linnap

	1. Is it interesting to make art and write criticism in Estonia? Depends on the person. Only boring people are bored. Talking about Estonia as a province, it is naturally uncharted water. Those who express themselves via exhibitions are always the same, the places are the same and the opinions can be guessed beforehand. However, it is possible to make pictures in Estonia that are shown elsewhere in the world. Criticism can also be written anywhere. Recently, for example, I wrote the article Political art in Estonia which will be published in Poland, etc. Modest fees and low-quality examples of pictures are certainly no inspiration - this is why I am no longer an enthusiast of newspaper criticism. It's no fun selling shrewd and compact ideas for peanuts. Luckily new publications have emerged for which it is a joy to write - especially those that, besides talking about pictures, are able to present a decent image of them too. The latter include kunst.ee and Cheese. In my opinion, Estonia has so far been 'logocentric' because we have hardly seen any printed pictures at all.
	2. Does the notion 'Estonian art' mean anything outside Estonia? Who actually needs the notion of 'Estonian art'? Does the Estonian 'continent' need to be discovered? I don't see any point in this question because it is based on an outdated understanding of a nation-state. The dullest are always the exhibitions ˆ la Estonian art, or Finnish painting or Bulgarian installation. Intellectual ties never emerge due to purely geographical principles. Nor do I care, quite frankly, who the first Estonian to walk on the Moon or Mars was...
	3. What could be done to make Estonian art society, as a normative reservation, healthier? Isn't our society (and society in general) inducing propriety also in the artist's behaviour? Can art be the fruit of average behaviour? Art can only ever be 'fantastic', i.e. extremely good - or nothing. A society that behaves like a group of 19th century manor house servants, who meekly demonstrate to the master that their behaviour is exactly as expected, is in fact not able to produce any kind of art. Making art seems largely a pretence; there are various foundations and publications that use that 'art', but, looking at it from a distance, it really seems a sham. I'm thus not so sure that we have art in Estonia in the first place.
	4. Art on the loose. Can teeming art be controlled by society and, if necessary, harnessed to an expo-like promotional bandwagon? What do you think about showing Estonian art abroad: exporting, selling and presenting it? Has Estonian 'art' been properly shown abroad? The fact that some 'one-time' painters whore around at St Mark's in Venice, and use their abilities in 'social engineering' to 'show' themselves, does not mean showing Estonian art. No wonder 'participation' in Venice biennials has brought along absolutely nothing for the artists concerned. No career developments. Because as long as things are arranged on the principle of useful 'parochial' connections or belonging to certain art-related families, there is no reason to expect anything else. Even state-level art politics in Estonia is just a new type of hopscotch played by former classmate-schoolgirls. The mere fact that 'Estonian art' has gained no success whatsoever, and is, despite all the above-described efforts, still virtually unknown internationally should answer your question quite adequately.
	5. Feminine and masculine essence in art and criticism. Can they be described? Who are more successful in art - men or women? Who are more successful in life - men or women (women live longer)? Is it strength or flexibility that decides? Estonia is, historically, clearly a 'matriarchy'. Men who were men in the best sense of the word were deported to Siberia or fled to Australia. What was left was a hopelessly mediocre resource of genes. All those 50-60-year old fatsos who don a beret if the situation requires, are in fact second-hand washouts. One can't really expect them to produce any decent criticism or art or indeed anything except an endless primate-style flirtation or hesitation between red or white wine at yet another exhibition opening. Women are by nature cautious, often mediocre, and in a certain sense very reliable in work. The women's world tolerates no behavioural aberrations, and is essentially homeostatic - i.e. destructive towards what are known as pinnacles or, for them, aberrations. Such busybodies between 40 and 50 form a considerably large community and grab every chance to dominate. I don't fancy the flexibility you mentioned - mediocrity also has no place in art. Live longer? Living and vegetating are different things altogether! Life may be short, but it must be lived to the full - especially the life of an artist.
	6. You have been engaged in the Saaremaa biennials, achieving under Estonian conditions an extraordinary international success and unusual co-operation. Give us a recipe for creating collective synergy, or share your observations with us. Recipe? No bad thoughts. No expectations of any kind of profit! Besides, you must not let yourself be persuaded that such things are possible. Synergy emerges from sympathy. The distribution of work here develops according to individual (not politically correct) principles. If someone has the power to incite and encourage others, he or she must be allowed to exercise that gift. The moment petty cravings for power and personal dissatisfaction enter the game all is lost. An idea emerges, then a realisation that the idea can work and is 'in the air', touches upon an epoch, etc. The button must be pressed IMMEDIATELY! No time for parochial criticism, no need to consider EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY. No 'national' and even less gender-related nonsense! That's it.
	7. You have participated in the 'art mafia' dialogues as a ferocious combatant. Are there any ideologies here, apart from fighting for resources/finances? What defines the 'sides'? 'Ferocious' or not, I have certainly been a clear-sighted participant. I can't stand it when under the label of 'an exhibition', 'participation', etc. people try to accumulate wealth and grab the chairs/thrones. It is so obvious. I have not fought for 'resources', but merely for the right to do things as I want to do them. Indeed, what too often defines those 'sides' is the fight not for ideologies, in the name of ideologies to be precise, but rather for the savoury pie. This is a disease that has not spared most members of the Estonian art community. I do get by, and I don't think that soaking in a champagne bath every morning would make me happy. The 'sides' are thus determined by very different worldviews and it is patently clear that stuffing the precious resources down one's throat makes one neurotic not happy.
	8. As you are professor of photography at the Tartu Art College, here is a question about the future of new photography and new media. What options do present art students have in future? How does society and demand shape talent? Options? As before, somewhere between the pragmatic and the idealistic, with the new generation increasingly leaning towards the pragmatic. In other words, art education should support a certain idealism and fanaticism, but so-called life is larger and wants otherwise. Despite everything, I have retained a kind of idealistic atmosphere around me because this is something that can easily evaporate later. Let young people have at least one period of positive drug addiction in their lives.
	9. Does art mean deceiving yourself or others? Is art an unwillingness to grow up? Maybe people want to be deceived? Isn't every form of art and changing consciousness meant for the public actually dealing with creating illusions and conjuring up false pictures, even if it is politics. Deception on all participating sides. It could be said that not all people become adults, and so what? The Finno-Ugric society as a whole, for example, regards childhood as 'a tiresome stage' on the road to growing up. I don't like the concept of man as a workhorse. This sort of understanding was once encouraged by 19th century agrarian society, and now by late capitalism. The entire contemporary era looks upon an individual as a mere 'unit of work force'. To be 'deceived' about such truth is aristocratic and noble. I would thus turn the notions of 'false' and 'true' around
	10. Breakthrough in Estonia? What to do in Estonia when you have achieved everything? Achieve "EVERYTHING" in Latvia!
	| Estonian Art 2/02 (12) | Published by the Estonian Institute 2002 | ISSN 1406-5711 (Online) | ISSN 1406-3549 (Printed version) | einst@einst.ee | tel: (372) 631 43 55 | fax: (372) 631 43 56 |