Ballet “BRAIN”

It’s incredible that the withered cauliflower-like substance in our heads is so powerful that it has protected us from ancient mammoths and modern internet scammers alike. Yet we still buy things we don’t need and hit the snooze button in the mornings. Why is that? Guided by neuroscientist Jaan Aru, we will start piecing together the complex brain puzzle at Leigo. Just like the brain is a whole whose true potential is greater than the sum of its parts, the thought patterns will fall into place and form a whole as the project culminates in a spectacular contemporary ballet.

The brain is a powerful and precise radar that scans the past, present, and future. However, while the brain is old, rational thinking is new to humankind, and we still have much to learn about making rational decisions. Not to mention how to cope with an ever-increasing flood of information. How can something that still tries to protect us from long-extinct predators guide us into the future?

In 2024, as part of the Leigo Lake Music Festival, the grand artistic project “BRAIN” will take the audience on a journey into the deepest recesses of the brain. Through the collaboration of neuroscientists and artists from Estonia and the Nordic countries, a micro-world will first emerge at Leigo – installations that visitors can ponder over for four days. On the final day, the pieces will find their true place in a creative explosion, with unprecedented thought patterns flowing over the Leigo landscape as a contemporary ballet, accompanied by original music by Timo Steiner and Sander Mölder. The merging of micro and macro worlds will be driven by two keywords – pieces of knowledge and thought patterns. As project leader, neuroscientist Jaan Aru, puts it: creativity requires piecing together a puzzle from countless fragments, for which there is no guide and no certainty of how many pieces there are in the first place.

The visual design of the production, inspired by thought fragments and patterns, is the work of architect Ülar Mark and Finnish animator and video artist Juho Lähdesmäki. Giant geometric projection surfaces will move across the lake, blending in with the water. Thus, the lake’s surface becomes a border between two worlds – the visible and the invisible.

The brain’s main task is to keep us alive: both as individuals and as mankind. However, with innovation and progress, the brain paradoxically leads us to ruin – through addictions, burnout, or even the destruction of our home planet. This gives rise to the great survival question explored in the project: are we worthy of our brain, and where will it ultimately lead us? Or do we have to retreat and make way for a rational artificial brain that lacks self-destructive tendencies?

Through an interdisciplinary approach, the project introduces science and art to a broader audience in a novel way. It skillfully combines the opportunities of the beloved South Estonian event Leigo Lake Music Festival with the creativity of Estonian and international artists.