The Myth: last day

Netti Nüganen's performance "The Myth: last day" is centered around an archaeological mine of different layers of history, in which a pseudo-archaeologist digs objects from the ground. By creating myths, the play intertwines reality and fiction, thereby creating speculative pasts and futures. “The Myth: last day” won the prize for the best Estonian performing arts production in 2022.

Rumour has it that over centuries the layers underneath the ground have preserved friction energy from sociologic changes and collective reconfigurations. The crust of the earth has stored geological activities, memories and marches, generating magnetic heat and making it possible in ideal circumstances to defeat the decomposition of flesh.

How long has she been there, defying decomposition, nobody knows. The layers are getting thicker as she crawls and crawls and crawls and crawls. Up, towards the sunlight that pierces through the open cracks and her lengthy fingernails are clawing through the soil. She is boiling, roasting, red-hot fuming. The cold, fresh air too unbearable to be inhaled, the light too bright to be absorbed—so she vents. Completely chaotic, headless, spineless. She needs a form - any distinct style - to clasp onto. So she could tend to some temporary business - and then be gone again, forever.

Netti Nüganen (Tallinn / Vienna) is a performance artist and choreographer. She has been busy with theatre, music, dance, circus and sports and has graduated from SNDO, choreography department. Her influences from such a variety of subjects make her treat everything that is known with careful deconstruction and everything unknown with vigilant attention. In her works she creates characters like weightlifter, teenage vlogger, detective, historian, cowboy and more. Building narratives while deconstructing them is one of her methods to investigate the gaps between recognisable references and signs. Her video and stage works have been shown in My Wild Flag festival, Batard Festival, Tartu Art Museum, KIM? gallery, Kanuti Gildi SAAL, Uferstudios, Lisbon Film Festival, My Wild Flag Festival and more.