A research project by the Estonian Academy of Arts and Tallinn University explores how to deal with complex heritage while creating new qualities in public space and preserving the important role of controversial heritage as a carrier of history. On of the case studies of the project is the Auvere power plant metal panel.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the façade of the Auvere power plant was decorated with a giant metal panel representing either a star or a sparkle. The project team has not yet been able to identify the author. The work was assembled from several pieces and mounted on the façade using two identical metal frames (each approximately 3 x 4 m). With Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine beginning in 2022, the Soviet legacy came under increased scrutiny in Estonia. The metal sparkle was removed from the façade of the Auvere power plant because it allegedly resembled the Soviet red star. Fortunately, the metal ornament was carefully dismantled and stored on the territory of the power station, where it still stands today, awaiting reinterpretation.
It is not a monument in the strict sense of the word, but is categorised under the genre of monumental-decorative art, which was widespread during the Soviet period. The concept of monumental-decorative art became widespread in art during the so-called Thaw – more precisely, after the Second Congress of the Union of Soviet Architects in 1955, when Nikita Khrushchev condemned the excesses of Stalinist-era neoclassical architecture and paved the way for the monumental-decorative art. In the process of mechanising the construction of micro-neighbourhoods, Soviet urban planners and architects developed a methodology for synthesising the arts in new neighbourhoods: standard-design apartment buildings created a backdrop against which more unique public buildings stood out. The synthesis of the arts, in the form of monumental-decorative art, embodied these landmark buildings. The synthesis of the arts of the late Soviet period valued equally mural painting, ceramics, textiles, stained glass and metalwork. During the Soviet period, hundreds of monumental-decorative artworks were created in Estonia. Many of these have survived and some are still famous and popular today (such as Enn Põldroos’s curtain in the City Hall or his mosaic pot in the Radio House), but in recent years dozens have been destroyed.
News and articles about the Auvere artwork: