​TIMETHREADS

Exhibition by the Fluidum Ensemble collective
Thule Koda, Kuressaare, Estonia

The video installation interweaves Nordic mythology with the aesthetics of Japanese butoh dance. Its point of departure is the Norns – Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld – who, as embodiments of time, spin invisible threads between the past, present, and future. In their movement, time, fate, and care intertwine – a ceaseless effort to keep the world alive through the cosmic tree Yggdrasill, which holds together the Nine Worlds.​

​​At the dawn of the world, the mightiest of all trees took root — Yggdrasill, the World Tree. Its branches stretched wide across the celestial realms, while its roots delved deep into shadowed places, weaving together the fates of the nine worlds.

​Three Norns — Urdr, Verdandi, and Skuld — kept watch over the tree. Each day they drew water from Urdr’s well and mixed it with dark soil, pouring this lifeblood over Yggdrasill’s roots so its bark would not wither, and the worlds might hold fast. Yet even within Yggdrasill, unseen forces stirred. In its highest boughs, a great eagle kept vigil; far below, the dragon Nídhogg gnawed relentlessly at the roots. Though they never met, a deep hatred bound them. Between them darted Ratatoskr, the sly squirrel, racing up and down the trunk from dawn till dusk, ferrying barbed words and venomous whispers. Thus their enmity festered — a conflict neither had chosen, yet both were trapped within. At times Yggdrasill trembled and groaned, as though foreseeing Ragnarök — the great unravelling, when the worlds of gods and men would fall apart.
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​Yet even then, the Norns returned to the well, drew water and fed the roots, spun their threads and wove their stories — keeping alive a fragile hope from which new shoots might one day emerge.

Photo by Roman-Sten Tõnissoo

Photo by Roman-Sten Tõnissoo

Photo by Henry Tiirik