Mind the River and Writting Water
“I am interested in how landscape is connected with the mindscape. Since childhood I have felt that rivers are like the blood circulation of the Earth. Through this blood all is united and every thought carried around the world, memory changed and preserved at the same time. The name of my work „Mind the River“ – means both „keep in mind the river“ and „mind as the river“.The project consisted of several events following the main theme-our mind is a river of memories.
* “Collected silencies” (video, sound, photo)
I was silent in different places both in Estonia and Portugal with different people, animals and objects. How does being silent differ from culture to culture, from place to place? In final installation a river of collective silencies was born.
* “My most embarrassing secrets” (video)
I shared my deepest secrets that I do not want to share with anyone with the river Paiva by writing them into the water. The letters dissolved into the water and became transparent showing the transparency of our fears and dreams.
* “My granny’s trip to Portugal that never took place” (performance, installation)
My granny’s dream was to travel into the Southern Europe. But during Soviet occupation it was not possible for her and when it became possible, she died. I took the last photo of my granny alive and carried it during my residency to everywhere I went. I documented it by photography.
*”On that day that I remember” (sound)
The piece consists of different days in Portugal that I each remember and charish. All together they form ariver of memories. The voices of old Estonian runo songs meet traditional Portugese songs sung by village women.
*”The apple tree” (performance)
I took water from Estonian Emajõgi (Mother’s river). I asked people to tell the water their wishes for the people of Nodar. With this water I planted an apple tree in Nodar on the shore of river Paiva.”
Anna Hints’ project for the Paivascapes Festival took the form of a journey about what a river means to her. A personal flow with several meeting points that became three distinct works.
1. She asked people to come closer to the river and be silent and listen to the sounds inside and outside themselves. Personal silence linked by the river.
2. She told the Paiva River intimate secrets, in such a way that the incessant noise of its waters only allowed the river itself to hear them.
3. She asked people from villages on the banks of the Paiva River to join her in singing traditional songs. Everyone was invited to sing something that affected them, that is part of her personal memory. In the way of singing the songs to the river, our personal memories are collected and distributed around the water.
Anna Hints is an artist from Estonia who works in the fields of photography, performance, installation, sound art, folk and experimental singing. She studied Estonian and Comparative Literature and Folklore at the University of Tartu and Photography at the Faculty of Arts in Tartu. Since 2005, she has presented her work at festivals, galleries and museums in Russia, Mexico and in various places in Estonia.
ARTISTIC WORKS