Performance with John Grzinich (sound) 

Curator: Liisi Kõuhkna

ARS Project Space 

2026

Tallinn, Estonia 

In May 2025, Jaanika visited the Italian Alps. The landscape itself encouraged the artist to keep her balance, which didn’t allow her to see further than the next slope. It was low season for tourism, so no ski lifts were operating to ease her journey upward. Jaanika was alone with the mountain as she continued her way forward. The glacier at the foot of the mountain had melted and in order to come into contact with ice and snow, she had to climb even higher. The expansive, solid and mountainous landscape made her feel small, yet the desire to reach what seemed unattainable remained.

Glaciers are considered to be unpredictable, dangerous both in real life and as a symbol. They might be seen as the historic archive of atmosphere, giving us hints of past climates and exposing the ways we are all connected to our ancestors and the generations that follow us. We are bound together by a shared destiny and responsibility. Scientific methods may describe and interpret the mountain, but the actual experience of it can feel sublime and ordinary at the same time.

In the performance the mundane is brought together with the divine, the scientific with the sublime. Peerna’s use of melting ice in mesh bags and her late father’s ski poles while wondering amidst of her sculptural Icicle Forest installation is sensitively woven together with Grzinich’s icy soundscapes recorded both in Estonia and the polar north. 

Costume: Tuuliki Peil /New Life Studio  

Photo documentation: Roman-Sten Tõnissoo

Video documentation: Valdek Laur 

Technical support: Aksel Haagensen, Mattias Veller

Support:  Cultural Endowment of Estonia, ARS Art Factory, Estonian Artists’ Association