Toivo Raidmest. Space and form V. Plan for exhibition layout. 1988
This project proposes to study the history of exhibitions in the late Soviet period. From the 1960s onwards, exhibitions have become an increasingly important medium for the mediation of ideologies, while their design has become an increasingly important field of activity for architects and designers alike. The project explores the visions and imaginaries that exhibitions convey through their design, on the one hand, and the infrastructure behind them that makes them possible in the first place, on the other. Drawing on archival materials and other primary sources and oral history, the planned research aims to build a more complex picture of the Soviet-era exhibition system as part of and linked to the official power structure through a number of nodes, while at the same time, through a variety of visual and spatial strategies, allowing for the presentation of narratives that diverge from the mainstream.
The research project will continue the themes of the PUT group project “ Forecasting and fantasy in the architecture of the late soviets (2020-2024), developing them in new directions.
Principal investigator: Mari Laanemets
Duration: 2025-2026
Project type: EKA Personal Research Grant
Financed by EKA