Besides the beautifully pastoral landscape, MoKs has the unique ability to offer its resident artists the many abandoned spaces around the village. Co-director of MoKs, John Grznich's practice and project, revenant, grew out of his using the microphone to "play" the sounds of many of these spaces. In any case many of these buildings are unused and dying a slow death; others have been redefined or renovated; while still others have become sites of usufruction, where ownership and use of nearby materials (tractors, granary machines, thingamajigs) is as mutable as water. Meanwhile... visiting artists often approach these sites with an intent to vandalize, decorate, or transform into an ephemeral performance venue.
For a good portion of its' life Mooste was a collective farm under Soviet order. These farming buildings were gradually abandoned following the removal of Soviet occupation in the early 1990's. Not long after, the railroads were privatized and gradually abandoned - there are no more trains in Estonia, though busses are available for most locations. Collective farming died. People now use local stores with cheap goods and, more recently, tend private green houses. The community has slowly been redefining themselves ever since. The many granaries used heavily during occupation are still here; some are still used though not to optimal capacity. Things are being renovated slowly. And while Mooste itself may be culturally enriched or infected by the addition of new businesses and dwellings via these renovations (inevitable), there is something beautiful that will have been lost when these fragile and multipurpose mnemonics have been replaced or disappeared.
abandoned weigh station (interior, side)
abandoned neighborhood bar (+nearby 'singing square')
granary turned community performance space (interior, front)
farmhouse turned "graffiti barn" (interior, left side), neighboring MoKs
abandoned oil tanker (interior) a 6 second reverberation time makes this stinky cylinder quite a place to sing (recordings coming)
this abandoned (?) granary sits at the center of town, across from the Mooste elementary school
some buildings are literally sinking
abandoned grain silo - a personal favorite
Many are closed (locked or encased by brick), empty or used to store other unused 'junk'
5 comments:
What a devilishly evil thing for the Soviets to do when they bugged out - destroy the railroads! And that gives some persceptive about Mooste to think it was once a collective farm. It's no surprise that the locals might be reluctant to mix with strangers. It hasn't even been 20 years since that all happened. Memories are long about those kind of things...
though im not in favour of soviets i would like to clear one thing: soviets did not destroy railroads in Estonia. it was free market economy and liberal capitalists who did it in the middle of 90ies, when young state politicians fans of milton friedman privatized railroad. this is when decline begun. some years ago state bought railroads back (with much more money of course) and passeger traffic is now slowly recovering. there is quite good and comfy train connection btwn tallinn-tartu. of course much more to develop (like to reconnect with riga)
Thanks e, i corrected the post. we're now quite familiar with the train to Tartu, which is pretty convenient (and so far very punctual!).
actually mattskies, we've been taking the bus. =)
Bus, not train, that's what I meant. Jesus
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