Gallery: Complaints Choir debuts crowdsourced lament at busy Tallinn market
The Complaints Choir project is back in Estonia, debuting a seven-minute collaborative lament led by alternative artist Florian Wahl at Tallinn's Balti jaama turg on Friday.
The Tallinn Complaints Choir performance brought together residents who turned everyday grievances into a crowdsourced and collaborative choral piece, developed through rehearsals with Wahl and the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM).
Based on actual personal complaints, the Estonian lyrics were cowritten by the participants and Wahl, who also composed the music, forging a seven-minute opus that shifts between humor, irritation and collective release.
Following the premiere, Saturday's performance will live on as a music video featured in EKKM's outdoor jubilee summer exhibition, which kicks off July 23 and will remain open through September 27.
Collective complaints since 2005
The Complaints Choir project was launched in 2005 by Finnish-German artist duo Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, encouraging people to complain freely — and transform their complaints into music.
The project format went "open source" in 2006 with the publication of a 9-step method for organizing a complaints choir, and has since grown to include over 140 "DIY complaint choirs" worldwide, from Helsinki and Chicago to Melbourne and Singapore.
Saturday's performance marked the second time the Estonian capital has hosted a complaints choir, following a 2015 edition at the Tallinn Art Hall exhibition "DOings & kNOTs."
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Editor: Annika Remmel, Aili Vahtla
