A commission for a publication
2 double page images
BAL Conference Catalogue 2025
2025

Images for the publication © Pille-Riin Jaik

CONCEPT

In my writing practice I struggle a lot with the clearness of the written word on paper and its rigid nature it brings into academic writing. I always find meanings that are in process or shifting more curious, being closer to performative aspects of oral storytelling. The texts presented here is one of my text scores for a performance called Murky Business. In it I was trying to experiment with alternative ways of political and poetic storytelling, where the meaning of the words depends on different layers of complexity that accumulate over the course of the performance. Through a 90s pop song from an Estonian singer, Maarja Liis Ilus (called "Keelatud maa", which translates to The "Forbidden Land") and over-the-top stage makeup, shifts between different styles of singing and speaking, I tried to explore a way of inhabiting different knowledge of different times, while constantly underlining their contradictions and gaps, or repeating patterns between them. Due to the added layers during the performance, something that seemed as a naive pop song about love grows into a dark confession of being lost and afraid of disappearance of one's land and existence.

Documentation of the publication © Pille-Riin Jaik and BAL Conference.