Agu Pilt. A Memory

Linnar Priimägi (4/2016)

 

 

3. XI–3. XII 2016
Kastellaanimaja Gallery (Eduard Vilde Museum's gallery)
Curator: Harry Liivrand

 

 

I

For his 50th birthday I gave him his portrait commissioned from photographer Toomas Volkmann and an essay titled "Agu Pilt's XIX century", which placed him in a cultural context he gladly embraced. His work is characterised more by the elusive concept of gay sensibility than the straightforward gay imagery of Tom of Finland.

He was subtler in his variation of form as well as tonality of colour. Pilt himself held the French Symbolist painter, Puvis de Chavannes (1824–1899), in high regard, however, I see nothing aspirational about him, nor do I see any traces of his influence in Pilt's work – perhaps only in the quietness of his poses, as in the Frenchman's painting of blacksmithing "Le Travail" (Work, 1863).

But no, Agu Pilt wanted glamour – once he did live amidst it in Moscow, designed dresses and shoes for Russian superstars, drank and partied to the point of passing out. After coming back to Tallinn he stopped – he realised a great amount of his work had been temporal, and is now scattered all over the world, either included in costume sets of random plays (like a "Don Carlos" I myself directed at Ugala Theatre in 2000) or as illustrations in books. At the beginning of the sixth decade of his life he tried to do an inventory of sorts. And hung himself.

He did not have children, but did have distant relatives and close friends. Maybe Agu Pilt is the only Estonian artist who left behind such a faithful circle of friends – homophile, of course. Actually – aguphile. He is lovingly remembered as a not particularly good-looking guy, towards whom people with refined sensibilities nevertheless gravitated. They still appear seemingly out of nowhere to celebrate the opening of his exhibition and to silently show their loyalty to his art and their friendship.

He was like a passageway to his own XIX century. Oh, beauty! Oh, decadence! Oh, delicate eroticism! Oh, human body, not sheltered but betrayed by clothing!

 

II

When he visited his relatives in the US, I was doing montage on a film of his fashion show that had taken place in Niguliste church. Unfortunately the material is all lost and the script I typed into my computer has become so indecipherable it would require an Egyptologist. Yet the idea was to point out how the personas Agu Pilt had made his models into conveyed an aesthetic belonging to a semi-Christian, but also semi-pagan realm of God, called Beauty.

I directed several of his fashion shows, or rather – costume catwalks. The opening act of Richard Wagner's "Tannhäuser" (1845), "Barcelona" (1987) by Monserrat Caballe and Freddy Mercury, "Fuga y misterio" (1968) by Ástor Piazzolla. We practiced his choreography of "Guadalajara" in the Tallinn Flower Pavilion until dawn!

The clothes Agu Pilt created were all costumes for theatrical performances never created. In the 1990s, Inessa Josing became recognised for her intriguing store window designs, where she used mannequins and borrowed clothes. Agu Pilt's "fashion" shows featured live models, his male and female friends, who wore unique pieces.

The most memorable collaboration with Agu Pilt's friends took place at Nightman, a nightclub in Tallinn, to celebrate his birthday. For this I had asked nine Estonian artists to pick out one of Agu Pilt's watercolours and stage it with live models. The result – impressive erotic miniatures. No one could have hoped for a more spectacular night. Among others, Ene-Liis Semper, Ly Lestberg and Inessa Josing displayed their visions, and how many friends and acquaintances agreed to transform themselves into Agu Pilt nudes. Such a shame I do not remember everything anymore: such a shame that Mark Raidpere who exclusively acquired the right to document the show only took blurry "artistic" shots.

At the time each of his shows featured his very own mascot – his long time partner, young, golden and naked, Ain Talalaev, who slowly moved across the stage, fluttering his mechanical wings like an ambassador of futurism, in no hurry to escape the hell of decadence.

 

 

 

Still frame from a documentary film by Marianne Kõrver
"Going Inside the Picture" (Exitfilm, 2002)

 

 

 

III

Celebrity has four levels. First off, zero-level, where the person is not known or linked to anything at all. Second, being known in terms of type. When people need to name "an Estonian artist", they say "Agu Pilt" as a typical example. This is not how Agu Pilt is known, only a few know and remember him. Third, absolute celebrity. This could perhaps be helped by Agu's surname, Pilt, which means "image" in Estonian. So that when people say "pilt", they would immediately also say "Agu!". However, that is also not the case. And the fourth level (that applies to him) is being known by character: when someone says "Agu Pilt", people know "Oh, that eccentric artist". And that is exactly what Marianne Kõver's portrait film of Agu Pilt, "Pildi sisse minek" (Going inside the Image, 2001) says.

In November the Kastellaanimaja Gallery (in the Eduard Vilde house museum) presents Agu Pilt's memorial exhibition. He would have been 65. Only three years older than me – and I always felt he was an artist of the previous generation! The famous politician Edgar Savisaar, also a friend of Agu Pilt, is older than me by four years – and we really are from different generations.

What is the event that separates our birth dates? What happened in 1953? Stalin died. Yet what did 2 or 3-year old children know about that? Why did they end up belonging to the previous generation, compared to those born only a year later? This is their mystery for us to solve.

 

IV

Agu Pilt is not an "artist" in the current sense. His pictures are an invitation to a more glorious and sublime world, echoing from the other side.

 

 

Linnar Priimägi is a critic and writer. He has been teaching in several Estonian universities subjects like German, theory of literary critique, history of philosophy, art history, cultural history, imagology, propaganda techniques, media production, PR and stylistics.

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