Cseri Miklós, Füzes Endre (szerk.): Ház és ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 12. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 1998)

MERIKE LANG: Észt Szabadtéri Múzeum. Alapkoncepció és a fejlődés jelenlegi tendenciái

Merike Lang ESTONIAN OPEN AIR MUSEUM BASIC CONCEPT AND CONTEMPORARY TENDENCIES OF DEVELOPMENT The Estonian Open Air Museum is the central state museum of rural architecture that was founded in 1957, and opened to the visitors in 1964. The territory of the open-air museum was divided into four zones according to the historically developed ethnographical-geographical regions of Estonia: Northern Estonia, Southern Estonia, Western Estonia and the islands. The provisional project of the museum fixed the scheme of movement between the different regions. It specified the type of settlement in each region by considering the natural peculiarities of the museum territory, whereas the main stress was laid on the presentation of complete farmyards as essential elements of the exposition. Each region had to introduce the development of architecture and furnishings in the 18—20th centuries, the different social groups of peasantry as well as the local peculiarities in the spheres of activities. The smaller etnic groups such as the Estonian Swedes, Russian Old Believers from the left bank of the Lake Peipus and the Setu - should also be exposed. Besides this, suitable public buildings church, tavern, schoolhouse, village shop, etc. - that once had organically belonged to the Estonian rural settlement, were also previsioned. The exposition of rural architecture with its 70 exhibit buildings covers today 66 ha of the 84 ha territory of the Estonian Open Air Museum. The most important part of the exposition is the thorough dissertation of the barn-dwelling, a unique housetype that has prevailed in Estonia for centuries. The present financial situation of the state is far from being favourable for the museum. The development of the museum has been slowed down by the physical ageing of the existent 25-40-year-old exposition. Unfortunately, the Estonian Open Air Museum has repeatedly experienced the worst of imaginable catastrophies - fires, by which 7 original buildings have been completely destroyed. Both extensive repairs and liquidation of the effects of fires have raised several problems to be solved by the researchers of the Estonian Open Air Museum: 1. Reconstructing or replacing buildings that have been destroyed in fire. The ideal would naturally be the replacement of the perished buildings by new original buildings. The problem would become more complicated when it would be impossible to find a suitable replacement from the countryside, or when it would be impossible to change the chronological concept of the extant buildings. In that case, the Estonian Open Air Museum has considered a reconstruction on the grounds of the available documentation the only possible solution. A reconstruction on the other hand enables two different ways of approach - it is possible to erect a precise replica, or to build a new house with scientifically motivated replacements and additions. The latter way was chosen in the West Estonian Sassi-Jaani farm that was destroyed in fire in 1984. 2. Changes in interpreting the exposition. These questions have been raised in connection with modern tendencies in the open-air museums throughout the world. The Estonian Open Air Museum has met these problems by extensive repairs and reconstructions. In the North Estonian Kutsari farm from the end of the 19th century, it was caused was caused by the need to give up the re-exposure of the relatively frequently represented period of the 19th century. The visitors could be offered some variety in the form of an exhibition of the 20th century. The accomplished interior and exterior are now reflecting the 1940s. The new interpretation of the Kutsari farm gave an impetus to make the subject even more lively and emotional. Everybody knows that most of the open-air museums throughout the world are prominent for the sterile way of life of their imaginable farm families. Real life has been and still is considerably more commonplace. At the same time, one cannot just highhandedly scatter the interiors, as seeing the disordered rooms „when the farmer is away from home" evokes perplexed embarrassment and inappropriate remarks from the museum visitors. The solution for us was the staging of a certain historical event - the big action of deportation on March 25, 1949. The visitor naturally accepts this exhibition as a thematic impressive frame-up and the museological striving after order-disorder does not dominate. Another interpretation problem came to the fore in connection with the reconstruction of the Sassi-Jaani farm, completed in 1993. Before the fire a wedding exhibition was exposed in the barn-dwelling. At first, the same exhibition was restored in the reconstructed building. But the big dark room smelling of fresh timber left the visitors indifferent. It was a pity to experience actually that, in searching imaginary man and life in the interiors of the open-air museum, one was not interested in what had been created by man and what had determined his way of life. As the buildings of Sassi-Jaani actually presented magnificent life-size models, it was decided to make use of them. Now the visitor can go through a short course of Estonian vernacular architecture explained with the help of drawings and short texts, whereas every interesting constructional element has been separately stressed in electric light. Thus, the SassiJaani farm is going to be turned into an educational introduction to the whole exposition of the open-air museum.