Location: Narva Art Residency (NART), Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA)
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 September 2-3, 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 September 6.
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” (https://blogi.artun.ee/en/), funded by the Estonian Ministry of Culture.
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)
Information:
Triinu Väikmeri (triinu.vaikmeri@artun.ee)
Photo: Eglė Grėbliauskaitė and Agnė Gintalaitė “Let’s Not Forget Not to Remember” at Petras Cvirka Square in Vilnius, 2021. Photo by Audrius Tuleikis