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EESTI ELU reedel, 30. aprillil 2021 — Friday, April 30, 2021
Russia Finno-Ugric congress withdrawal statement likely posturing ERR, April 2021
Still from the Simple Session 21 teaser trailer.
Kickflip Conviction: Skateboarding in Estonia Vincent Teetsov Aleksandr Tubin, a rulasõitja (“skateboarder”) from Esto nia, feels a kind of flame burning inside him perpetual ly. He attributes this sensation to fire being his birth element. “I have a feeling inside of me that when I’m skating, noth ing bothers me. I am free. My flame doesn’t go out, even when I’m sleeping.” It’s possible that one’s sur roundings can give you this feeling, too. Tubin says, “Every thing depends on the environ ment you live in. I was born in Estonia. Estonia has a very rich, rough environment. It’s awe some. Natural selection does its job pretty well.” Speaking of natural selection, it would ap pear that skateboarders possess special characteristics that help them to traverse steel, concrete, and huge ramps. Who else can do what they do? Through a fisheye lens and with the crunchy guitar of Dark Star’s “Kaptain America” rum bling underneath, he leaps and grinds his way through Tartu. In this skate video for the now defunct magazine Transworld Skateboarding, he flies through the outdoor terraces of a shop ping mall and abandoned indus trial areas. The snare drum pummels like a heartbeat as this focused skateboarder hits sur faces that are never usually hit. And then the surfaces vanish back into obscurity. It’s an in version of the usual pedestrian world. At the end, Tubin slides past a staircase of 15 steps, pitched forward on a railing. Arms spread wide, he maintains balance and comes down to make the landing. Back on the ground, he kickflips across a curb and up to an old wooden house. You can hear the wheels squeaking as he comes to a stop. It’s the cutoff of a fleeting moment of adrenaline. Some would call street skate boarding a youthful test against established rules and even gravity itself. In some minds, it’s irresponsible – a one way ticket to the emergency room. It all happens so quickly, and from an outside point-of-view, impulsively. But then, some thinkers see its value and are trying to make it more appealing for skaters to ride in urban areas. Landscape architect Terje Ong has worked to refresh spaces in Tartu’s
Annelinn neighbourhood, where people can skateboard outside of a skate park. Pedestrians walk through and sit to watch these athletes in action. Soon, the “impulsive” label doesn’t make as much sense, consider ing how much rigorous training goes into skateboarding skilfully. In those spaces, skaters hone their instincts to move through challenging artificial obstacles. Much like public parks en courage social cohesion in a city, skateboarding builds communities. In Estonia, the competitive events of Simple Session have gathered together skateboarders and BMX bikers year after year. Since 2007, courses have been designed by Nate Wessel, a legend who has also built ramps for the X Games. At Simple Session, there’s a mixture of street skating and vert skating (on ramps). The 20th edition of Simple Session was held at Saku Suur hall in February 2020, bringing people to Tallinn to watch around 160 top riders. There were also live concerts, parties, and food. It drew large crowds and international competitors to Estonia, and gave outside visi bility to Estonia, as the event was filmed and broadcast on Red Bull TV. Simple Session also hosted the “Go Skateboarding Day” in June 2019, where young people over a large age range showed up and had a good time at Metsakooli Skateplaza in Tallinn. This skate park was built by the skaters in an un used lot next to a stadium. With relative ease, they were granted permission to build ramps, rails, blocks, and more. Skateboarding is an industry. Look at the companies vying for attention through sponsor ship and you’ll find that skaters make money by showing off their decks, trucks, wheels, bearings, grip tape, shoes, hel mets, and t-shirts. Aleksandr Tubin himself has been spon sored by Vans Estonia. And the customers of these companies are those who are in search of the freedom and fiery feeling of skating. Skateboarding is a demand ing sport that gives meaning to otherwise blank, sensory-de prived places. A simple skate park can be the difference between getting swallowed up by a boring concrete sprawl or having a purpose and something to do.
Commentators in Estonia have downplayed a recent statement by Russia’s FinnoUgric umbrella organization which said that its participa tion in this summer’s VIII world congress in Tartu was now off the table, due to the politicization of the event, daily Postimees reports. Kadri Liik, senior expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Posti mees that Russia is involved in sending out signals on all fronts making it clear that interference in its domestic politics is not to be tolerated – which Liik said was far from a sign of strength, however, and more one of weakness, with the downside that if the withdrawal from the congress goes ahead, the event will be much the poorer for it
Tiigi Seltsimaja: Tartu’s “Castle” of whim and curiosity Vincent Teetsov High points on hills and mountains have always been preferrable for fortifications. In the 10th century, motte and bailey forts were dotted around northern France and the British isles, with wooden keeps and palisade walls built on artificial mounds or ones used for burials. The city of Tartu was fortunate in that it already had a hill to work with. Toomemägi (“cathedral hill”) is a fundamental point in the city of Tartu. In the 7th century, defences lined the slope facing the Emajõgi, the river that runs through town. The hill had many key struc tures placed on top of it since. Dorpat Domkirche (“Tartu Cathedral”) had its first bricks laid there in the 1200s. Püssirohukelder (the “Gun powder Cellar”) which has also been used for academic lec tures, beer storage, and eventu ally dining, was cut into the earth of the hill as instructed by Russian Empress Catherine II. Tartu Tähetorn (“Tartu Old Observatory”), one of Estonia’s most important places of scien tific study, was constructed atop the hill in 1810. Not all buildings start out with huge empires, savvy scien tists, or powerful rulers behind them. Sometimes it’s as simple as wanting to build a house for yourself. For Alexander Kons tantin von Oettingen, that was good enough for him. In 1879, with the help of his nephew, the architect Moritz Alexander Rudolf von Engelhardt, the residence was designed. Von Oettingen desired to live on the other side of the hill where, at the time, it was much less built up than it is today. The roads were more sparse. Plenty of
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and many Finno-Ugric peoples from the Russian Federation will miss out. While the foreign ministry has declined to comment so far, Tõnu Seilenthal, Estonian representative on the World Congresses of the Finno-Ugric Peoples’ coordinating body, said preparations will go ahead in any case and that the statement had simply read that: “Parti cipation in the congress is not considered expedient,” making it more threat and not a given that no people from Russia would be attending. Seilenthal said that the state ment was intended to be provocative, and was not likely to convince all potential partici pants in June’s conference, in cluding those from the Russian Federation, adding that the statement hadn’t even been signed by anyone, and was likely the work of a narrow clique. Similarly, Jaak Prozes, ad viser to the congress, said that the event was too recent to comment on and would require
more time to digest, while Russia expert Karmo Tüür told Postimees that following the logic of the statement, Russia would be as well to pull out of the Council of European, the olympic committee and all other international organizations, which it perceives as politi cized, and that the incident was just one of many. The Russian authority which made the announcement, the AFUN, did so the same day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania opted to expel one Russian diplomat apiece, in solidarity with the Czech Republic, which has done same in the wake of an explosion at an ammunition depot which killed two and which has been linked to Russian agents. As of last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invi tation to the congress in Tartu June 16–18, put off a year due to the pandemic, was still on the table. The first congress was held in 1992.
p rivacy. So there was room for what he had in mind, a red brick neo-Gothic mansion. As a theologian, professor, and dean of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Tartu, there was space for him to recede and write his books. He also opened the house up to fellow professors and used the top floor to house the gaggle of meteorologists led by his younger brother Arthur. In the northeast tower of the house, they would measure air tem perature and other atmospheric parameters to forecast the weather. It all happened at Tiigi 11, as you will see the address marked today. 11 Tiigi tänav more fully, or “Pond Street” in English. Even after the house was vacated and wrecked by bombs during the Second World War, it was taken care of by healthcare professionals as the Tartu Health Care Workers’ House. Professionals of all kinds congregated there for cultural recreation. Finally, in November 1998, Tiigi Seltsimaja (literally translated as “Tiigi Society House”) was formally estab lished by the City Council of Tartu. These days, the red brick heritage building is the home of an organization that “promotes and introduces folk culture under the auspices of the
Culture Department of Tartu City Government.” Traditional folk dance, theatre, educational seminars, and choral music, including the organization of Tartu’s laulupidu (song festival), fall under this cultural umbrella. They are also the organizers of Jõululinn Tartu (“Christmas City Tartu”) and the histori cally-themed festivities of the July’s Hansapäevad – “Han seatic Days”, named after the Hanseatic League that domi nated Baltic trade between the late 1100s and late 1400s. Where the meteorologists once were in the upper part of this old house is a large hall, connected to the old tower, that is rented out by the public for their clubs and activities. It’s available to whoever needs it. The transition of this build ing from a grand private resi dence to a community-facing building depicts how our plans today are predicated on the whims of the past. Those who once had power and wealth in Estonia were able to finance their curiosities and desires quite lavishly. Nowadays, the development of new buildings is a much more measured thing to do. But it’s fortunate that our curiosities and desires today have a place to grow in build ings such as the home of Tiigi Seltsimaja.
Photo: tiigiseltsimaja.tartu.ee
