Kreenholm Area and Kreenholm Textile Factory

Narva, Estonia

A tour through a few sites in the mostly Russian town of Narva, Estonia on the northeast border. Sites include old Russian War Memorials, the Estonian Blue Hills Memorial and war museum and the now-derelict Kreenholm Manufacturing textile plant.
For my ebook about traveling through Eastern Europe from Estonia, click the link below or search The Near Abroad in the iBooks store:

The Russians on Crow Island - Official Selection ÉCU 2013

ÉCU Official Selection 2013
Director: Sulev Keedus

Looked from the bridge, it is a gloomy and mysterious fortress. The island of river Narva stands in the middle of Russian-Estonian border river like a wrecked ship. The red brick walls of the abandoned textile factory look like torn skin.

The Kreenholm factory, set up in 1857, was once the biggest in Europe and only two years ago the machines pounded in the halls. When the factory bankrupted, over 10.000 people lost their job and income, most of them Russian speaking folk of an Estonian city. Adults, youngsters and children walk past us telling their fate-bruised stories. We will see how the equation of unemployment and social exclusion has inevitably come true also here with fateful consequences such as orphanhood, drugs, and crimes, even expulsion.

My Narvana, acoustic, original composition. R Joks

Narva is an eastern Estonian town which borders Russia. This original composition is about this wonderful post industrial city, with its Tsarist architecture, including the abandoned Kreenholm textile factory. This song is a tribute to Narva - its past struggles and future promise.

Pothole Geodessia walkthru

Pothole Geodessia, геометрия выбоины, kukkus Geodessia

2018
Dave Greber and Sophia Belkin
12' x 10'
Video projection on inkjet-printed polyester, found artifacts, thistles

Featured as part of the Narva/Detroit symposium held at the Narva Art Residency, Estonia, in August, 2018.

Aitäh
Ann Mirjam Vaikla & Narva Art Residency, Gary Markle, Lisa Wilkens
Dmitri Shumin and the Krenholm Textile Factory
Participants of Narva Urban Lab & residents of Narva

Pothole Geodessia on hübriid Narva industriaalsest ja looduslikust keskkonnast. Ajalooraamat räägib loo Kreenholmist kui manufaktuuri allakäigust. Jah, kui me vaatleme maastikku, kui pidevalt muunduvat sümbioosi loodusest, inimestest ja tehnoloogiast, siis võime tõdeda, et narratiiv on muutumas. Tööstusmaastik on tärganud ellu. See hingab, pulseerib ja libiseb. Teod roomavad vihma järel oma kodadest välja ning konveierilint liigub omasoodu edasi.

В книгах по истории всегда рассказывают об упадке производства Кренгольмской мануфактуры. Но если посмотреть на окружающее нас пространство как на постоянно меняющийся симбиоз природы, людей и технологий, то можно сказать, что история меняется. Промышленный ландшафт ожил. Он дышит, пульсирует и развивается. Улитки выползают после дождя, а конвейер продолжает работать.

Pothole Geodessia is a hybrid of the industry and natural environment of Narva. The history books tell the story of Krenholm as one of manufacturing decline. Yet if we think of the landscape as an evolving symbiosis between nature, humans, and technology- we see that the narrative changes. The land is as alive as ever. It breathes, pulses and slithers. The snails come out after the rain and the conveyor belt keeps moving along.