International Workshop “How to Reframe Monuments: Case Studies for Thinking Through Dissonant Heritage”

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has sparked debates and conflicts over Russian and Soviet monuments in the former Eastern Bloc and has also revitalized global discussions about dissonant heritage. This has created a new need and a new framework for comparisons – for comparing monuments, as well as their toppling and rebuilding in different parts of the world and historical contexts.

This event is primarily about learning from cases of reframing. The lectures, seminars and workshops will bring together expertise and knowledge from different fields and contexts to explore solutions that aim not to dismantle dissonant heritage but to place it in a new, critical framework. During the three days, we will discuss the broader conceptualizations and histories of reframing monuments and heritage, as well as focus on concrete cases. The cases will include various artistic interventions as well as other means of reframing, ranging from educational programs and museology to community engagement.

We believe that there is an urgent need to bring together knowledge of existing cases also to develop future practices for reinterpreting heritage through cross-disciplinary collaboration: artistic research and memory studies, heritage conservation and digitization, and spatial interventions. Thus, this event aims to generate new knowledge and skills for dealing with complex heritage at different levels.

The event will consist of lectures, seminars, tours and group work. Students are divided into interdisciplinary groups to develop a reframing project, each of which will focus on a case study representing dissonant heritage from Narva and the neighbouring industrial regions of northeastern Estonia.

The workshop will include the following events open to the public:

September 2 @ NART

13:00-14:45 Introductions:
Conceptualisations of Dissonant Heritage

Linara Dovydaitytė (Vytautas Magnus University):
How to Articulate Dissonance in a Dissonant Heritage?

Kristo Nurmis (TLU),
Illiberal Heritage: Preserving Soviet-Era Historical Layers in Estonia

Moderator: Linda Kaljundi (EKA)

15:00-16:00
Victoria Donovan (University of St Andrews):
Towards a Method of Critical Care: Community and artist engagement with ‘difficult heritage’ in Ukraine’s industrial East

Moderator: Hilkka Hiiop (EKA)

September 3 @ NART

10:00-11:30
Case studies – the artist in focus

Runo Lagomarsino:
Geography of Haunted Places

Kristina Norman:
Looking Back at “After-War” (2009) during the War

Moderator: Epp Annus (Ohio State University / TLU)

12:00-14:00
Case studies – bridging different contexts

Olha Honchar (Territory of Terror Museum, Lviv):
Formation and interpretation of the collection of Soviet totalitarian sculpture in the “Territory of Terror” Museum in Lviv

Tullia Catalan (University of Trieste):
Managing Controversial Memories: The Recontextualisation of Fascist Legacies at the Italian Borders. Case Studies of Bolzano and Trieste

Moderator: Anneli Randla (EKA)

15:00-16:00
Case studies – Estonia

Epp Annus (Ohio State University / TLU):
Rotting Bones and Caked Blood: War Graves and Reburials in Estonian Literature

Kirke Kangro (EKA):
Art and Recontextualisation of Heritage: The Case of Tehumardi in a Wider Context

16:30-17:45
Egle Grebliauskaite (Vilnius University):
Artistic Autonomy Against Political Control: Clash of Wills in Memory Transformations (presentation and film screening)

19:00 Screening of Alyosha (2008) and discussion with the film director Meelis Muhu

September 4 @Sillamäe Cultural Center

14:00-14:45
Riin Alatalu, Anu Soojärv (EKA):
Sillamäe – fascinating dissonance

September 6 @ EKA, room A 501 and EKA TV

14:00 Presentations of the group work
Moderator: Gregor Taul (EKA)

Experts: Riin Alatalu, Kirke Kangro, Gregor Taul, Anu Soojärv and Triinu Väikmeri (Estonian Academy of Arts), Kristo Nurmis (Tallinn University), Victoria Donovan (University of St. Andrews), Oksana Denisenko and Linara Dovydaitytė (Vytautas Magnus University), Egle Grebliauskaite (Vilnius University), Olha Honchar (Territory of Terror Museum, Ukraine)

The workshop takes place within the framework of the Transform4Europe (T4EU) project. T4EU, consisting of ten universities, operates under the European Universities Initiative with the aim of making European higher education more competitive, based on European values ​​and identity.

More info:
Triinu Väikmeri (triinu.vaikmeri@artun.ee)