Discipline and Care: Institutional Spaces in Late Soviet Estonia

The Baltic Studies Program at the Yale MacMillan Center presents “Discipline and Care: Institutional Spaces in Late Soviet Estonia” by Ingrid Ruudi, Juris Padegs Postdoctoral Associate, Yale University
Location: Luce Hall, Rm 203
Register to attend on zoom: https://bit.ly/YaleBaltic-12423
Building up an image of a healthy and progressive Soviet society presupposed concealment and dislocation of subjects deviating from the social norm – the physically and mentally disabled, the elderly, and the orphaned or neglected children. What kind of places were assigned to such non-normative subjects? What were their spatial characteristics, how did these impact the living experiences of their inhabitants and contribute to the construction of such marginalised subjectivitites? The talk will focus on institutional spaces of Late Soviet Estonia, detailing the ideologies conditioning the establishment and design of the institutions as well as the architectural solutions determining the appearance and quality of the spatial environment. The architecture of nursing homes and orphanages will be analysed in juxtaposition with user accounts of the instititutions.
Ingrid Ruudi is senior researcher and visiting associate of the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture, Estonian Academy of Arts, and is currently Juris Padegs postdoctoral associate at the MacMillan Center of Yale University. Her dissertation was titled Spaces of the Interregnum: Transformations in Estonian Architecture and Art 1986 – 1994. She has also been active as a curator, including the Estonian pavilion at the Venice biennial and research exhibitions at the Estonian Museum of Architecture, and is editor-in-chief of the Estonian bilingual art history journal Kunstiteaduslikke Uurimusi / Studies in Art and Architecture.
Photo: Tilsi orphanage, screenshot from the film Naerata ometi (Well, Come On, Smile) by Leida Laius, 1978.