Kausaal is a pop-up bookshop that is open only one day at a time, inviting visitors to co-activate and co-create the space by participating in its events. Events and happenings in Kausaal vary from discussions and collective readings to digital writing experiments and reading games.
The thematic focus is different each time, exploring reading or writing as a practice, the spaces for reading, etc. The aim of Kausaal is to introduce both foreign and local experimental writings and offer books about art that are otherwise not available in Estonia. Kausaal is also seeking new ways of writing about performing arts, connecting the latest with the field of literature. Apart from that, at each opening you'll be able to get to know Kausaal closer. Its thoughts, feelings and desires, the reasons behind its choices or their complete absence. Kausaal strives to be an open book itself.
Kausaal #1 in Kanuti Gildi SAAL focused on introductions - moments before diving in. An introduction is something that is followed by a body. An in-between before things get real. How to introduce a bookshop, an event, a meeting-point-to-be? What if we removed all introductions? How does one get into the state of reading? How does one choose a book to commit to? Now, in the era of short attention spans, is the time for long books with heavy paragraphs over? Have the ways of experiencing depth changed?
Kausaal #2 (in the studio of eˉlektron) entered darkness to view it as an unknown amount of potential, focusing on shifting forms. The invisible physicality of nature embedded in technologies. Networks of social media and how all of it becomes a sort of mycelium. Rocks, going through major changes when no one is looking. And how such metamorphoses are framed through and by books and writing. What is our relation to all of these shifting forms – the unknown unknown? Are writers eager to shift in their writing and bookshop visitors willing to explore it with us? There was a performative conversation about form with Alissa Šnaider, Mikk-Mait Kivi, Bohdana Korohod and Heneliis Notton, a collective reading game Talk To Me In Someone Else's Language and a performance "Knock-knock, who's in the basement?" by Johhan Rosenberg.
Kausaal #3 took place in Tartu as a part of the festival Switchover. This time Kausaal collaborated with the non-musical pop band Unholy 3nity (Annabel Tanila, Kärt Koppel, Daniela Privis). Quoting Unholy 3nity: “What is the hidden meaning of emojis? Could you notice generational differences there? How to send dramaturgically composed messages, using just emojis? What is the potential of books, when no-one has time to read them anyways? When does everyone become the author?”
Kausaal #4 took place on August 13 in Stockholm, at Futureless Festival. This time Kausaal organized a collective writing session, using everyday digital readymades (like Google Docs). The participants joined both live in Stockholm and from the livestream on the elektron.art platform.
Kausaal #5 took place as part of "Something Great" on November 9th! This time Kausaal focused on developing more diverse ways of perceiving art. Some extra reading!
Kausaal #6 took place as part of the Ümberlülitus performing arts festival in Tartu on May 6th and Festival Of Spooky Action At A Distance in Tallinn on May 11-13th. This time, in addition to opening a bookshop, Kausaal's collaborated with artists Clara Amaral (Portugal) and Eline Selgis (Estonia) whose practices revolve around text and the role of the written word in our physical lives. Clara Amaral presented her exclusive performance “She gave it to me I got it from her” for the first time in Estonia. It’s a book and a choreography, read out loud and handled by a performer, for a small group of people. Eline Selgis led a workshop about writing poetry on bodies. Both explore the text, the writer, and the reader as performers.
“The publication/performance skips through five generations of women in Amaral’s family and hinges on the one in the middle—the last one in the sequence to not have been taught how to read or write. What at first sounds like just some family trivia in actuality offers a glimpse into a deeply rooted sociocultural obstacle that many women in Portugal faced up until the 1950s, before the reform of the education system—which until then often excluded women on the basis of their gender or economic status.” – Yana Foqué, director Kunstverein Amsterdam
“She gave it to me I got it from her” is an exclusive performance for just 5 people at a time. Clara Amaral is an artist working with text and performance. Her interdisciplinary artistic practice questions what it means to be a reader, to be a writer, aiming to expand existing modes of reading, writing and publishing. Central to her practice is the investigation of publishing modalities and the performative aspect of writing and language, through an intersectional feminist approach. Her works have been presented in The Netherlands, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Writing on bodies is a practice that explores stillness, intimacy, play and seriousness, new and old ways of being together and looking at the body. In the workshop we’ll be playing, drawing and writing poetry on the body. The workshop doesn’t require previous experience in dance, writing or drawing and is open for anyone interested in creative self-exploration. The participants are asked to wear comfortable clothes they don’t mind getting dirty and should be prepared to take off their shoes.
Eline Selgis (1990) is a freelance dance artist. She graduated from Viljandi Culture Academy in dance in 2016 and received a master’s degree from Tartu University in theatre studies researching intimacy in contemporary performing arts in 2018. Her choreographic practice is based on contemporary dance and improvisation, exploring the relationships between the body, space and dramaturgy. She relates to choreography and movement practices as a way of understanding. She believes in magic and nonsense. She also writes and paints. Her performance ‘ABOUT US—choreographies of hugging’ co-created with Sofia Filippou received the dance award at Estonian Theatre Awards 2023.
The idea emerged from SAAL Biennaal where Kanuti Gildi SAAL hosted an artist run bookshop rile*. Together with rile* eˉlektron.signal SAAL Biennaal radio organized a concert and a public live-streamed reading from the bookshop. Now, some months later, Kausaal keeps collaborating with rile*.
