SAAL3 vol 5: Anumai Raska, Raido Mägi, Mari Ann Valkna

SAAL3 is a format for experimenting, trying things out, failing and succeeding. In one evening, short performances by three artists are presented on stage.

The fifth edition of SAAL3 is curated by artist Keithy Kuuspu, who rethinks the hierarchy between director and performers. Normally a director assembles the creative team; in this format the process is reversed. First Kanuti Gildi SAAL selects a curator, the curator invites performers, and then the performers choose their own directors. This way of working moves attention away from an author-centred model towards collaboration and the agency of the performer, and invites us to reconsider the performer’s role both in the creative process and in the wider institutional landscape.

The performers are Raido Mägi, Anumai Raska and Mari Ann Valkna. They identify more with the positions of performer and dancer than with those of director or choreographer, and are usually the ones invited rather than the ones who invite. They share an interest in the presence of the performer, body-based practice and the position of the performer, as well as an awareness of how fragile that position is in a field where visibility and sustainability often require taking on the role of author too.

For SAAL3 vol 5 it is important that the performers themselves can articulate their needs, interests and relationship to authorship, and choose directors based on trust, artistic interest and preferred ways of working. As a result, the project focuses not only on the final outcome but also on the process through which collaboration and the division of roles emerge.