Grants and residencies

Research and art

Outlands: The Museum of Soviet unpleasantness and future landscapes

Application summary

Outlands: Museum of Soviet unpleasantness is a portable museum. Since 2015 I have been discovering and photographing abandoned houses in Baltic area. The starting point was the attempt to understand the growing xenophobia that affected me in a personal level. The xenophobia that raised with the arrival of the new wave of refugees in 2015. What caused the panic and outrageous fear of the refugees in East Europe? Why have these people forgotten that many of their own citizens were once refugees? More I’m investigating this xenophobic nationalism, more I find it connected with the succession of national traumas of historic proportions in the region. In eastern Europe, where borders were frequently redrawn, the nation is still widely seen as an ethnic entity rather than a political one, and cultural and ethnic homogeneity is regarded as an asset that helps to prevent the disintegration of the state. During the World War II, and Soviet era, millions in the region have sought to escape from oppression and genocide and left their houses behind. I study and photograph these abandoned houses and try to connect with the lives of people who emigrated from the region. My other work, Outlands: Future landscapes, consists of a series of photographs, game playing videos, and lectures by teenagers. It deals with different forms of control from various systems such as state, institutions, or digital domain over human. These super organisms that beyond any individual's power rule us and embed

1 Museum of Baltic Remont:
Museum of Baltic Remont is composed of documentation of what may appear to be a mundane task. Over the last three years, Bita Razavi has been studying renovation in an abandoned house in the Estonian countryside and an apartment in Tartu. What sets her construction apart is her fascination with and scrutiny of the various materials that have been used to repair homes in the Baltic region throughout years of changing economic and political situations. The materials that were used during the Soviet era to insulate and renovate these houses, have been collected and preserved as if they were samples for an anthropological research study. Following on from an earlier works in which she documented the common traits of Finnish and Iranian households, Razavi has now built a commemorative scientific installation to showcase the invisible building materials that many people in Baltic region live amongst.

2 Future Landscapes:
We live in a time where artificial intelligence challenges human thinking and decision making – even creativity. Algorithms might know more about us than we know about ourselves. Many seem concerned about advancements in technology and imagine a Terminator-like doomsday scenario. This exhibition however paints an alternative picture, taking on a more sentimental perspective. This work focuses on liminal states between physical and digital experiences, between artificial and natural spaces. A series of photographs that resembles classical landscape paintings in gilded frames. They are, however, screenshots from video games – beautiful computer generated scenery. A video work explores the same imagery, taking on an impressionist approach towards the ephemeral nature of light and its effect on colors. In a series of sculptures with discarded game electronics and plants, on the other hand, she suggests yet another relationship between organic and digital.


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