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Not listed as a cultural monument<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The young Republic of Estonia established its first agricultural school in the heart of Vana-V\u00f5idu manor in 1920. The school has changed its name nearly ten times within a hundred years, bearing the name Yuri Gagarin Modal State Farm Technical School during the Soviet Era. The educational institution with an ambitious name considered the spiritual and aesthetic education of students just as important as developing their craftsmanship \u2013 this could be seen in the form of numerous ceramic and metal pannels, portrait statues of professors, Efraim Allsalu\u2019s grandiose oil painting depicting space flight, and the mural by Elmar Kits decorating the schoolhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The artwork belongs to the artist\u2019s later creative period and depicts three maidens in traditional attire in front of an abstract background. The piece looks like a sgraffito but is actually a sunken relief carved into damp plaster, with surfaces painted already when the plaster had dried. In order to restore the main building of Vana-V\u00f5idu manor in 2015, its Soviet Era building extension was demolished. The only way of conserving Kits\u2019s mural in the building was to remove it from the wall and instal it in a new location. The practice of removing murals was still in its infancy in Estonia, and a unique action plan had to be devised in order to get Kits\u2019s painting off from the wall \u2013 the painting was protected with glue soaked gauze, cotton fabric, and strong plywood boards before being sawed off the wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new location of the painting became the modern school building constructed from the historical barn complex operating in the manor. To ensure the mobility of the artwork, the pannel was mounted to the wall with the help of boards placed under the painting \u2013 this way the painting can be easily moved from one location to another in the future. Today, it can safely be said that this first experimental, risky, and technically difficult undertaking in Estonian context proved itself a suitable method for moving an artwork with an embossed surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although murals are a location-specific artform, and should be conserved in their authentic location, there may be situations in which the only alternative \u2013 relocation \u2013 is valid. Elmar Kits\u2019s Kolm neidu <\/em>(\u201cThree Maidens\u201d) is on exhibition in its full glory in the new schoolhouse of the Viljandi Vocational Training Centre, and the work done with it has perhaps even given it an added value. Inspired by the mural, artist Huup created the piece Hommage Elmar Kitsele<\/em> (\u201cHomage to Elmar Kits\u201d) on a wall of the Tiigi 21 residential building in Tartu in the course of the SmartEnCity project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hilkka Hiiop, Johanna Lamp, Helen Volber<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mixed mediaNot listed as a cultural monument The young Republic of Estonia established its first agricultural school in the heart of Vana-V\u00f5idu manor in 1920. The school has changed its name nearly ten times within a hundred years, bearing the name Yuri Gagarin Modal State Farm Technical School during the Soviet Era. The educational institution […]","protected":false},"featured_media":3059,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[91,114],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n