MANIA GRANDIOSA. From Tallinn to Paris
endurance performance
in collaboration with Karl Joonas Alamaa
July 4-8, 2023
“MANIA GRANDIOSA. From Tallinn to Paris” which in its content is the world's longest fashion runway. In the summer this year, 04.07.2023-08.07.2023, the performance “MANIA GRANDIOSA. From Tallinn to Paris" will take place. “MANIA GRANDIOSA. From Tallinn to Paris" is the world's longest fashion runway created for five days. The total length of the runway will be 100 kilometers, starting from Tallinn Airport and ending in the Estonian village of Pariisi which is located in northeastern Estonia. In Estonian language, the name of this small village “Pariisi” is equivalent to the metropolitan city of Paris. “MANIA GRANDIOSA. From Tallinn to Paris” is like a pilgrimage to the mecca of fashion, which thousands of people undertake every year in the hope of finally reaching the goal.
The project raises a question: what are the dreams we are dreaming of? Are they really ours or are they constructed by the environment that we have surrounded ourselves with? The work looks at the culture of achievement with a selfironic and critical eye, posing a symbolic question: what happens if instead of the desired metropolis, after a difficult trial, a country home awaits instead? If there is a Paris outside of Paris, then what exactly is Paris?
The models will be hiking on the fictive runway for five days in a row, wearing identical ensembles that will be created specially for the journey. Along the way, costumes change, nature and the journey alter the costumes, thus they will remain as physical symbols of the performance. The journey will be broadcasted, captured, and most importantly, created in collaboration with local communities
"MANIA GRANDIOSA. From Tallinn to Paris" is a statement on art scene and the ideals, as well as on values of a small North-Eastern European country. Due to history of Estonia, the mentality of being suppressed and need of working hard to be seen is still very present: the mindset that "determination leads to a goal" and the only sure way to find satisfaction and happiness is through hard work. The hunger for achievement and the desire for competition are widespread in the cultural scene, the work takes on the complexes and everyday components of the people of local cultural scene and ties them together into a self-ironic-critical whole. The longest, the most difficult, the proudest - because by following that path one should reach their dreams.
Photos by Alana Proosa, Johann Kööp and Elo Vahtrik
MORE INFORMATION: https://maniagrandiosa.ee/
