Ingrid Ruudi SPACES of the INTERREGNUM: Transformations in Estonian Architecture and Art 1986–1994 Dissertationes Academiae Artium Estoniae 31 Dissertationes Academiae Artium Estoniae 31 Spaces of the Interregnum. Front cover: Jüri Okas, Marika Lõoke. Transformations in Estonian Commercial centre to Tallinn city. architecture and art, 1986–1994 Project for the 1991 Milan interna- Ruumiline interreegnum. tional exhibition The Future of the Muutused Eesti arhitektuuris ja Cities. Fragment. Courtesy of Estonian kunstis 1986–1994 Museum of Architecture. Dissertationes Academiae Back cover: Raoul Kurvitz, Urmas Artium Estoniae 31 Muru. Performance at the opening of Doctoral School / Institute of exhibition of Group T at the Tallinn Art History and Visual Culture Song Festival Grounds, 1988. Courtesy of Raoul Kurvitz. Supervisor: Prof. Andres Kurg Supported by: (Estonian Academy of Arts) Archimedes Foundation Cultural Endowment of Estonia, External reviewers: Endowment for Architecture Prof. Vladimir Kulic Estonian Research Council (through (Iowa State University), grants IUT 32-1 and PSG 530) Dr. Johannes Saar Graduate School of Culture (University of Tartu) Studies and Arts Väino Tanner Foundation Opponent: Prof. Vladimir Kulic © Ingrid Ruudi, 2020 Public defence: ISBN (trükis) 18 December 2020 ISBN (pdf) ISSN English proofreading: Richard Adang Printed by Pakett AS Estonian proofreading: Tiina Hallik Editor: Jarmo Kauge Design and layout: Laura Pappa S Ingrid Ruudi C E S P A H E M O F T E G N U R R I N T E Transformations in Estonian Architecture and Art 1986–1994 Estonian Academy of Arts Tallinn 2020 Contents 4 7 Acknowledgements 5 10 Introduction 9 14 Theoretical framework: social space and the public sphere 12 20 Periodisation and terms: transition, interregnum, 19 late socialism, post-socialism 28 Methodology 28 30 The structure of the work 30 34 Unbuilt space: Visions for 36 New Architecture and the City 36 New interest in urban planning 37 42 Transition to a market economy and new commercial spaces 44 47 The ambivalent relation to international know-how 50 52 The architects’ agency and self-regard 55 55 Imagological issues: high-rises, interaction centres and kiosks 59 63 Architecture as the embodiment of national identity 68 70 Conclusion 76 72 Utopian Space: Tõnis Vint’s Vision for Naissaar Island 76 74 Naissaar: the city of the future 77 83 ‘The Zone’, or legal and economic speculations 87 90 ‘Cosmic energy’ for urban acupuncture 94 94 Conclusion 99 121 Discursive Space: Nordic-Baltic Architecture 101 Triennials in International Dialogue 123 The ambitious initiative 102 127 Diverging expectations 106 130 Nationalistic myths and the issue of provincialism 109 134 Regional identities in integrating Europe 114 138 Estonian-Finnish axis and Nordic disputes 118 140 NBAT II and further – Estonians continue on their own 121 146 Conclusion 126 148 Performative Space: 129 Group T’s Architecture and Performances 150 Group T: a ‘curated’ affiliation 130 152 The realities of practice at the Estonian Industrial Project 132 155 Architectural drawing as a site of production 136 Contents 5 161 A technodelic expressionism to counter neo-national 142 romanticism 164 Performing space, subverting places 145 167 Performances at the Art Hall: a climax of activities 148 171 Establishing a counterpublic and an alternative 153 public sphere 178 Institutional Space: Tallinn Art Hall and 159 George Steinmann’s Revival of Space 180 Tallinn Art Hall as the central venue of the local 160 contemporary art scene 182 George Steinmann and the idea of a sustainable 162 processual artwork 186 Negotiations, finances and construction: 166 the artist working as a crossbench practitioner 191 Local reception and ensuing usage practices 197 Conclusion 200 Conclusion 180 241 Kokkuvõte 186 242 Sissejuhatus 186 Probleemipüstitus 242 186 Teoreetiline raamistik ja allikad 242 188 Periodiseerimine ja mõisted: üleminekuaeg, interreegnum, postsotsialism, hilissotsialism 244 188 Ruum ja avalikkus 247 249 Ehitamata ruum: Realiseerimata arhitektuuriprojektid ja linnavisioonid 195 252 Utoopiline ruum: Tõnis Vindi Naissaare tulevikuvisiooon 256 Diskursiivne ruum: Põhja- ja Baltimaade 202 arhitektuuritriennaalid rahvusvahelises dialoogis 259 Performatiivne ruum: Rühm T arhitektuur ja performance’id 262 Institutsionaalne ruum: Tallinna Kunstihoone ja George Steinmanni „Ruumi naasmine“ 265 Järeldused 212 269 Bibliography 216 Spaces of the Interregnum 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation has evolved over quite a long time and has benefited a lot from help and support from many people and institutions. During the whole period, I have been associated with the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture of the Estonian Academy of Arts, as a doctoral student, research assistant, researcher and lecturer. I owe a great deal to discussions with my supervisor Andres Kurg, which helped me refine my positions, as well as to Katrin Kivimaa, who encouraged me in setting goals in the initial stages of research. The supportive and warm environment at the academy has contributed considerably to completing this dissertation: the flexible working arrangements have eased the process a lot, while my growing into a historian of architecture and art over the years has been thoroughly impacted by stimulating collaboration and inspiring conversations with my colleagues, especially Mart Kalm, Krista Kodres, Virve Sarapik, Lilian Hansar, Anneli Randla, David Vseviov, Karin Nugis Vicente, Kristina Jõekalda and Eik Hermann. I am also very grateful for advice and feedback on research in progress to David Crowley at the Royal College of Art, London, and Reinhold Martin at Columbia University, New York. For the financial support that facilitated the study trips to London and New York, I owe gratitude to the Archi- medes Foundation and the Doctoral School of the Estonian Academy of Arts. Additionally, the research has been supported by the Estonian Research Agency, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, and the Väino Tanner Foundation. Thank you! Ideas for a large part of this dissertation were first tested out at the exhibition Unbuilt. Visions for a New Society, 1986–1994, which took place at the Estonian Museum of Architecture in 2015. I am deeply grateful to the museum and its director, Triin Ojari, for giving me the opportunity to curate an exhibition where I was able to work through and juxtapose a wealth of empirical material, and to receive the abundance of valuable feedback that the event generated. In the process of curating, as well as in later stages of research, I was much aided by the patient and knowledgeable staff of the museum: Anne Lass, Sandra Mälk, Mait Väljas and Carl-Dag Lige. In assem- bling the material from a period of feverish social and institutional changes when preserving and documenting creative production was often not a top priority, I am also indebted to helpers in many other Spaces of the Interregnum 8 archives: the Art Museum of Estonia (Liisi Raidna), the Centre for Contemporary Art Estonia (Maria Arusoo and Rebeka Põldsam), the Estonian National Museum (Riina Reinvelt and Tiina Tael), the Estonian National Archives, the Swedbank archive (Rita Laanemets), the Finnish Archives of Salaried Employees (Anna Kemppinen), and the Bern Art Museum (Marianne Wackernagel). My sincere gratitude goes to Marija Dremaite and Artis Zvirgzdiņš, without whose assis- tance I would not have been able to access any material in Latvian and Lithuanian libraries. This research would not have been possible without the generos- ity of the many architects and artists who enabled me to use their archives and agreed to interviews: Gunnel Adlercreuz, Andres Alver, Kristel Ausing, Ignar Fjuk, Raoul Kurvitz, Liivi Künnapu, Vilen Künnapu, Leonhard Lapin, Kaur Lass, Jaak Leimann, Marika Lõoke, Urmas Muru, Jüri Okas, Juhani Pallasmaa, Teet Parve, Peeter Pere, Ülo Peil, Raivo Puusepp, Irina Raud, the late Andres Siim, George Steinmann, Ralf Tamm, Emil Urbel, Tarvo Hanno Varres, Aili Vint, and Eva Vint and the late Tõnis Vint. Your memories of the events and graphic material of the projects helped me to arrive at a much more profound and nuanced understanding of the conditions of creative production of the era. Many ideas covered in this dissertation were first tested in various conference papers and I am grateful to the conference organisers for invitations and for the opportunity to receive valuable feedback: the colloquium Current Issues of Central and Eastern European Archi- tectural Historiography in Bratislava, 2013, the annual conferences of the European Architecture History Network in Turin in 2014 and Tallinn in 2018, the 13th International Conference on Urban History, organised by the European Association for Urban History in Helsinki in 2016, the conference Culture in Times of Transition, organised by the Center for Interdisciplinary Polish Studies at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) in 2016, Lost and Found Spaces: Displacements in Eastern European Art and Society in the 1990s at the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn in 2018, and the annual College Art Association conference in New York in 2019. Some conference papers were afterwards worked into articles that I had the opportunity to publish in the journals Kunstiteaduslikke Uurimusi / Studies in Art and Architecture, and ALFA: Architektonické Listy Fakulty Architektúry Stu / Architecture Papers Of The Faculty Of Architecture. The insightful Acknowledgements 9 remarks of the anonymous peer reviewers greatly helped me to elaborate the