Polymer last weekend, before you get any wrong ideas …it’s this hip old factory that works as an artcontainer and experimental event machine, was throwing in an ultracool party . One could not imagine being anywhere else but in Berlin just after the wall came down. This Nordic energy really made the place feel like being inside a lightbulb with nuclear party sparks shooting all around you, hyperinfective and irresistable . Imagine a bunch of rooms on the same floor used for various music, like a ‘party shoppincenter ‘ almost.
One can walk trough from live experimental stuff (one moment you’re in India,the next in Montreal or Arabia, on Mars or similar in your neighbour’s teenage bedroom), to a dj set in another graphitystyle room, to alternative techno, a theaterstyle almost dolltheatre-like room and offcourse a chillout bar .
This is partying for the 21st century boys and girls : never get bored, keep moving and try to grab it all, delicious rooms full of yummiyummi-tunes left, right, center all around you (!), from the live festival feel, to the laserhaze of a clubby atmosphere . Mix it with an artgame where you have to hit boys riding on bicycles and throw balls through toiletrings attached to the wall, the place was as insane as it gets .
But what a playground it was ! Definitly Tallinn’s most experimental place to party and an absolute hyperplus for this city’s hipness, there is great reason for Estonia to be proud of the Polymer concept.
The history and facts about Polymer : During Soviet times it was a toyfactory (yeah yeah!), after the closing down in the mid 90′s a group of artists decided to turn it into studio space . Musicians aswell saw opportunities for rehearsal space.Nowadays the 3000 sq m building houses some artist studios and works with ‘artists in resident’ from abroad, there are exhibition spaces and places to experiment . It’s a base for exchanging imagination a kinetic work space, well we all heard of Andy Warhol’s art “factory”, it’s not exactly the same thing we have here but one can find many similarities.There ‘s some 30 artists and organisations living in Polymer.
You can find Polymer at Madara 22, some 20 minute walk west of the old town .More pictures at http://www.flickr.com/groups/polymer and on facebook .For artists who want to become a resident at Polymer check out this link ! Info for upcoming events is to be found on this site http://festival.kultuuritehas.ee/index_eng.html this week up until august 30 there are lots of things going on every day . So CHECK IT OUT !
author and photographer : Thomas Viaene
