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

The performance “Holy Night 2” is part of the accompanying programme for Kumu Art Museum’s international exhibition “Who’s Afraid of Motherhood?” (curated by Eda Tuulberg). In Estonia’s performing arts scene, “Holy Night” is an unusual long-term project. The first version of the performance premiered in 2013, and its sequel will be staged in 2027. Fourteen years lie between them—almost an entire adolescence. While the first performance focused on the question of how to remain an artist alongside motherhood, the focus now shifts to the relationship with a teenager and crumbling support structures. How can we support a teenager’s search for self without overshadowing it with our own expectations? How can we give them space 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 services, family doctor, the Estonian state, cancer treatment fund, the child’s father, care home for the elderly—could you please answer my call this time when I phone you? Or will you put me on hold again?

Flo Kasearu is an artist who lives and works in Tallinn and runs the Flo Kasearu House Museum. Her works are seasonal and research-based in nature, and often have a playful point of departure. Flo uses irony boldly to examine issues at grassroots level and engage with themes such as the contrasts and connections between public and private space, and between what endures monumentally and what vanishes with time. Mother of two.

Riina Maidre is a freelance actor, performance artist and special education teacher. She studied at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre’s School of Performing Arts, 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 forms of support and intervention grounded in attentiveness, combining artistic and pedagogical thinking. 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 bartender and taxidermist, giving 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 diverse 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 performance venues, and collaborated with various creative collectives in Estonia and internationally. She currently works as head of the choreography curricula and associate professor of dance arts at Tallinn University’s Baltic Film, Media and Arts School. She is a three-time recipient of the Estonian Theatre Award and mother of two.

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Directors and performers: Flo Kasearu, Riina Maidre, Marianne Männi, Oksana Tralla-Anger
Family members involved in the performance: Iip, Emilia, Jakob, Mehis, Pääsu, Rafael, Vint
Artist and technical design: Tõnu Narro
Lighting artist: 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 our former and current men and grandparents.