Not listed as a cultural monument

In November of 1971, three identical residential buildings were constructed in Viljandi County, on the margins of Ramsi Borough. In spring of 1972, the monumental artworks were added to the road-facing sides of the buildings’ façades. Fifteen metal tiles have been placed on the buildings as five-part compositions following the example of a chessboard pattern motif. Each metal tile depicts machinery and elements related to agriculture. In addition to industrial equipment, the tiles portray farm animals and birds, ears of grain, a vigorous worker, and a parent walking with a child. The general geometric form of the pieces is softened by spirals and volute-like sinuous decorations.

Enn Tõnuveer, who has researched the history of Ramsi borough proposed that the commissioning client of the monumental artworks was most likely the head engineer of the region, Heldur Laumets. The artworks’ author and origin of designs is unknown, but it is thought that the design could have been created by an employee of the ARS art factory. Secondly, the pieces could be artworks created as an unofficial side project, as they were most likely not any kind of high-priority commission. The decorative tiles were created in a local workshop in Ramsi, where craftsmen cut out the elements of the pieces based on the designs, welded them together and finally mounted them onto the buildings’ walls.

The impressive artworks on the façades of the three Ramsi residential buildings are style-wise almost as if an ode to the exemplary former collective farm settlement, alluding to the abundance and prosperity of the collective farm. Despite the fact that the surface of the metal tiles has been affected by changing weather, the pieces are in good condition and have survived in their original form.

Anna-Liiza Izbaš