Camera Erotica presents two Estonian artists’ films from the mid-2000s, emerging from a post-Soviet landscape still defining its boundaries of freedom and identity. 

INVISIBLE PEARLS (Jaan Toomik; 12min; 2004)
The documentary delves into a secret prison ritual to explore how the body becomes a site of identity, desire, and resistance. With stark and hypnotic imagery, Toomik transforms an act of taboo into a meditation on freedom and constraint. The film is considered one of the most provocative reflections on the human body in Estonian contemporary art.

AVERSE BODY (Liina Siib; 45min; 2007)

The film takes us through Tallinn’s nightscapes and into intimate conversations with sex workers, exploring the body as both labor and desire. Through quiet interviews and subtle visuals, Siib reflects on vulnerability, agency, and the politics of visibility. Originally presented at the 54th Venice Biennale as part of the Estonian Pavillion’s exhibition A Woman Takes Little Space, the work is a powerful and tender study of intimacy and resilience.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the Estonian artist Liina Siib, who will discuss her film, the landscape of Estonian art and society in the early 2000s, and the social realities faced by sex workers at the time.