interdisciplinary performance in various acts
november – august, 2022, elektron.art
venues: online platforms, social media, Von Krahl Theatre, Dance Week 2022, ERKI Fashion Show, Club Kauplus Aasia, Intsikurmu Festival, Kanuti Guild Hall
more information: https://elektron.art/projects/saboliit
authors: Liisbeth Horn, Mait Vesker, Gregor Kulla
actors and helpers: Mariann Tammaru, Cristo Madissoo, Rasmus Kaljujärv, Anumai Raska, Elina Masing
Performance formed as an alliance which you can become a member of (project ended with 120 members in total). Interdisciplinary project in numerous parts, different scenes took place in virtual space, urban space and theatre hall and includes mediums like graffiti, cryptocurrency, social media, media publications, memes, couching sessions, fake-protests etc.
We redirected institutional resources toward building a semi-anarchic union open to anyone interested in engaging in acts of (symbolic) disobedience. Performance, based on the idea that the society is built on made-up rules and agreements, was relocated into public and social space, with members acting both as performers and audience. Through open calls, street actions, and online presence, the alliance grew to over 100 members.
In February 2022, nearly 70 people gathered for the first assembly: a crazy mix of art students, activists, conspiracy theorists, and even political figures. The meeting became a durational performative event in itself full of intense debate, ideological clashes, and collective imagining of possible interventions. Principles of the alliance were also confirmed, according to which, sabotage is for an example simply being honest or shamelessly shitting in a shopping mall.
But then, three days later, the first missiles dropped throughout Ukraine…
As the political context shifted following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the project reconfigured itself through Sabo Academy—a virtual platform for collective reflection, skill-sharing, and critical discussion. Rather than proposing direct action, Sabo Academy focused on questions of survival, propaganda, power, and resistance in times of crisis.
After knowledge sharing and smaller performative interventions (like hijacking street interviews or collecting letters to the government) the project culminated a bit ironically in the Public Sabotage Gala, a performance in the form of a ceremonial gathering. The Gala reflected on sabotage across multiple scales—from personal acts of refusal and everyday norm-breaking to larger ideological, social, and even theological forms of authority. The performance also concentrated on how normativity is produced, rewarded, and sanctified, while simultaneously questioning the desire for validation within systems one seeks to resist. It was the grand ending of this alliance which we didn’t know how to pull forward anymore. It was a place for all the members and interested outsiders to come together.
The project ultimately collapsed under shifting political reality. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine radically altered the meaning of “sabotage,” exposing the limits of artistic ambiguity when very real and brutal violence is so close by. We didn’t have adequate tools to navigate this ideological rupture and the collective dissolved. Rather than failure, this project revealed the necessity of structure and ethical clarity when working within real-world political contexts and pushed us all toward developing more grounded, accountable frameworks for politically engaged performance.
https://saboliit.ee/
https://www.instagram.com/saboliit/
