of(f) focus
Ann Mirjam Vaikla
“Alongside the establishment of power structures, visual spectacles emerge, leaving behind traces of evidence intended to define their ‘reality.’ In Estonia, as in the rest of Eastern Europe, the remnants of the most recent colonizing power belong to the Soviet Union, the successor to the Russian Empire. Its influence is evident in the architecture and interiors still present today.
The installation Trace of Power represents a decolonial gesture: the flame of a petroleum lamp adorns the front of a Soviet rosette replicated from an old cinema, gradually covering it with black soot as it burns.
The architectural element, reasserting its visibility, beckons the viewer’s gaze – redirecting one’s focus from ‘off’ to ‘of’, and prompts the question: How might one unlearn this ingrained behaviour of being ‘off focus’, inherited from previous generations, to instead be ‘of focus’ towards sites that serve as evidence of committed violence?”
During the spring semester Decolonizing Architecture shares the concepts that informed this year individual and collective research.