merimetsa
Merimetsa is a rehabilitation centre and mental health facility placed within a big
green area in the outskirts of Tallinn. Their textile studio is an open facility em-
ploying a handful of “clients” or mentally handicapped patients. It is not a closed
institution and most clients live at their own or with their families but they need an
ordered and supported working place and at Merimetsa art and handicraft classes
run parallel to their work at the textile studio.
I came to Merimetsa the first time in the spring of 2004, during an artist-in-resi-
dency period of two months in Tallinn, organized by NIFCA. I got in contact with
the rehabilitation centre through the help of a local artist, Sirja-Liisa Vahtra, who
had been working as an art therapist at the institution. Together we discussed ways
to “update” the existing textile production of Merimetsa, and in some way intersect
the two major lines of practice at the institution, the therapy-work done in art or
embroidery classes and the subsidized textile production studio. The aim was to
combine the “non-productive” therapy of craft, with the “productive” utility textile
production studio.
Clothes production is a common type of occupation for women at this type of
institution, which provides working condition similar to the “outside” that for rea-
sons of therapy but that also brings in pocket money for the workers and help
support the overall business of the organization. The studio is usually a subsidized
workshop for the production of utility textiles such as bed linen or uniforms, but
the garments rarely break the monotonous labour conditions or the outcome seen
as a part of the fashion world. Experiments with prison labour, such as Prison Blues
from the US or German Haeftling run into concerns about moral issues, working
conditions, salaries, transparency and also the overall honesty behind the labelRE_TALLiation, the first col-
lection at Merimetsa, was designed
by two fashion students who were
also the models for the collection.
The photographs were taken at
the sewing studio at Merimetsa
with the clients also present in the
images. The collection was sold
in a local fashion store. In this
collection we tried to mimic an
atmosphere of glamorous fashion
and at the same time show the
environment where the garments
were produced.