Info
Taavi Suisalu (EE), born in 1982 in Tallinn, is working in the contexts of technology, sound and performance, mixing traditional and contemporary sensibilities and activating peripheral spaces for imaginative encounters. His practice is informed by phenomena of contemporary society and its relations to and use of technologies. He applies subjective research methods to study socio-cultural phenomena, being interested in the behaviour, perception and thinking of social beings.
Taavi Suisalu has been exhibiting and performing since 2005, predominantly in Estonia, but also in the UK, Germany, Finland, Iceland, Switzerland, Russia, Belgium and the Baltic States. In 2014, he received the Young Estonian Artist Prize for curating a distributed exhibition throughout non-existent villages of Southern Estonia. In 2017, his work “Distant Self-Portrait” was awarded 2nd prize at the Riga Photography Biennial Awards.
He currently lives and workes in Tallinn.
ABOUT WORK
It is well known that most of intercontinental communication relies heavily on the submarine fiber optic cables. This network carries threads of light as thin as tenth of human hair while being as existential to technological societies as the sun is for the plants. We are hanging by a thread while the artifical sun rays plunge through the oceans and light up our faces via bright screens.
Subocean Botlights introduces baits into these networks and lures in threads of light from different parts of the globe to interact and interfere with the world without an immediate or evident agency. Streams of light generated by creatures of the internet, the bots, once passed the floors of oceans are lit back to our environments in imaginative and performative ways.
The Subocean Botlights installation is the result of the two-month artistic residence of Taavi Suisalu at WRO Art Center.
The project has been implemented as part of the EU Creative Europe – European Media Art Platform program (2017-2021).
The full version of the work will be presented in Wrocław in May 2019 as part of the HUMAN ASPECT WRO Biennale.
