Flo Kasearu, Riina Maidre, Marianne Männi, Oksana Tralla-Anger: “Holy Night 2”

The performance “Holy Night 2” is part of the accompanying programme to Kumu Art Museum’s international exhibition “Who’s Afraid of Motherhood?” (curated by Eda Tuulberg). In the Estonian performing arts scene, “Holy Night” is a rare long-term project. The first version of the performance premiered in 2013; its sequel will be staged in 2027. Fourteen years lie between them—almost an entire adolescence. While the first performance centred on the question of how to remain an artist alongside motherhood, the focus now shifts to relationships with teenagers and crumbling support structures. How can we support a teenager’s search for themselves without overshadowing it with our own expectations? How can we make room for them when the world offers them no place? And what happens when, over the years, independence does not grow, but dependence and the burden of care increase instead? Ministry of Education, social welfare, family doctor, the Estonian state, cancer treatment fund, the child’s father, nursing home for the elderly—would you please answer my call this time when I phone you? Or will you put me on hold again?

Flo Kasearu is an artist living and working in Tallinn, where she runs Flo Kasearu House Museum. Her works are seasonal and exploratory in nature, often with a playful point of departure. Flo uses irony boldly to examine issues at the grassroots level and to engage with themes such as the contrasts and connections between public and private space, and between what endures monumentally and what passes with time. Mother of two.

Riina Maidre is a freelance actor, performance artist and special education teacher. She studied at the Drama School of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, the Estonian Academy of Arts, Amsterdam’s DasArts theatre school and the University of Tartu. She has worked at the Estonian Drama Theatre, Von Krahl Theatre and Tallinn French Lyceum. Her practice centres on long-term observation of people and nature, and on ways of supporting and intervening that arise from attentive observation and bring artistic and pedagogical thinking together. Class teacher and mother of one.

Marianne Männi is an artist with a varied creative background whose path has led from ballet to visual art, music, performance and film. She has also worked as a barmaid and taxidermist, lending her range of experience a distinctive dimension. Alongside motherhood, tattoo art and pole dancing have entered her life, bringing together physical expression, precision and creativity. She currently teaches ballet to young gymnasts, combining her varied experience with movement education for the next generation. Mother of two.

Oksana Tralla-Anger is an Estonian dancer, choreographer, director and dance teacher whose work ranges from classical dance to interdisciplinary performance art. She has created performances at the Estonian National Opera and Ballet, Vanemuine Theatre, Kanuti Gildi SAAL and other venues, and has collaborated with various creative groups in Estonia and internationally. She currently leads the choreography programmes and works as an associate professor of dance at Tallinn University’s Baltic Film, Media and Arts School. She is a three-time recipient of the Estonian Theatre Annual Award and a mother of two.

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Directors and performers: Flo Kasearu, Riina Maidre, Marianne Männi, Oksana Tralla-Anger
Close relatives involved in the performance: Iip, Emilia, Jakob, Mehis, Pääsu, Rafael, Vint
Artist and technical design: Tõnu Narro
Lighting designer: Anton Kulagin
Project manager: Kerly Ritval (Kanuti Gildi SAAL)
Project coordinator: Magdaleena Maasik (Estonian Art Museum – Kumu Art Museum)
Supporter: Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Co-producers: Kanuti Gildi SAAL, Kumu Art Museum, Flo Kasearu, Riina Maidre, Marianne Männi, Oksana Tralla-Anger
Thanks to all former and current husbands and grandparents.