How to Reframe Monuments

Estonian Academy of Arts, together with Vytautas Magnus University and University of Trieste, will organise an international workshop for graduates in the fields of heritage studies, art and architectural history, fine arts, curating, architecture, etc. The workshop includes numerous events open to the public: open lectures and a film screening at the Narva Art Residency (Joala St. 18) on 2-3 September 2024, an open lecture at the Sillamäe Cultural Center (Kesk St. 24), and presentations of students group work projects at the Estonian Academy of Arts (Põhja St. 7, Tallinn) on 6 September.

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.

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

This workshop stems from an urgent need to bring together knowledge of existing cases to develop future practices for reinterpreting heritage through cross-disciplinary collaboration: artistic research and memory studies, heritage conservation and digitization, and spatial interventions. The event aims to generate new knowledge and skills for dealing with complex heritage at different levels.

The workshop 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 workshop, there will be discussions on the broader conceptualizations and histories of reframing monuments and heritage, as well as focusing on concrete cases, which will include various artistic interventions as well as other means of reframing, ranging from educational programs and museology to community engagement. As a result of the workshop, interdisciplinary student groups will develop reframing projects, each of which will focus on a case study representing dissonant objects from Narva and the neighbouring industrial regions of northeastern Estonia.

The event is part of the joint project of the Estonian Academy of Arts and Tallinn University, ‘How to Reframe Monuments’, funded by the Estonian Ministry of Culture.

For more information, write an email to Triinu Väikmeri (triinu.vaikmeri@artun.ee)