(Re)configuring Territories
(Re)configuring Territories is an interdisciplinary research program for architects, artists, designers, and writers. The program takes place at Narva Art Residency in Narva, eastern Estonia. I took part in the inaugural research programme and together with 4 other researchers created the following multimedia documentary consisting of interview recordings, photography, and video work that was exhibited at the Narva Art Residency.
Team
Marie-andrée Godin — research, BTS documentationJulia Akimova — interviewing & translation, and transcriptionAmélie Pollet — research & written contentPolina Medvedeva — Mentoring & videographyAlex Bernatzky — research, photography, videography and editing 
Physical geographies tend to shift on a scale only interesting to geologists focused on the distant past, but the Estonian town of Narva lies on a once highly contested border. As a result, there have been several shifting political geographies. Our research interest focused on the shifting social geographies of the town of Narva as a result of these political instablities and their ripples felt across all aspects of Narvan life. These loci of community and identity and the disruption thereof bring into sharp focus the importance of place and placemaking to social systems as social geographies find themselves anchored to physical geographies i.e. Narva, the neighbouring town of Ivangorod and the Kreenholm factory.
We centred our research on two salient subjects. The first being the previous Kreenholm workers. The factory dominated Narvan life until the late 90s. The majority of the town’s social life centred around the factory. This all changed when the factory closed down in the early 2000s
”There would always be somewhere to eat, something to eat, and someone to eat with. Everybody was one family,”
How does a town that is almost entirely focused on industry adapt to a post-industrial future?
Following the closure of the factory. The social aspect of these people’s lives fragmented and dissolved along with the economic identity of Narva. Many moved away. a phenomenon all too common in many cities across the former USSR. Or found themselves without direction, doing what they could to make ends meet.
A particular curiosity is can be noted in the workers who ended up working in or owning stalls at the indoor market in Narva. Even though they work in the same close physical and economic proximity as their factory lives, their social geographies have diverged and become isolated.
Below you will find the interviews and videos that were exhibited
Socio-political geographies are also most evident in the cultural identity of Narva. 95% of the residents of Narva are Ethnically Russian. The majority language in this small Estonian town is Russian, not Estonian. The dissolution of the USSR has left a swath of such identity crisis-ridden cities across the Baltic region.
A phenomenon crystalized by our second subject, the grey passport carriers. They are neither Estonian nor Russian. And Although their passport gives them unlimited visas and to both Russia and Estonia and by extension the EU they are in practice stateless.
Our Subject Jaroslavna finds her identity unmoored. A semiophor of the baltic condition, Economically bound to the EU as a path to a better future, while navigating a history and heritage tied to the USSR. She routinely crossing the river to Ivangorod to visit her Grandmother and commune with a cultural heritage she more strongly identifies with
