Gregor Taul

On Tuesday, December 2, the Estonian Academy of Arts will host the opening of two exhibitions and a discussion evening, focusing on the ability of contemporary art to rethink complex history and heritage. At 5 pm, the exhibition “New Frames of Monuments: The Past as Art Material” (02.12.2025–25.01.2026) will open in the EKA Outdoor Gallery, … Research Café “Contemporary Art and Complex Heritage: How to Work with Dissonances?” and the opening of the exhibition “The Past as an Art Material” on December 2

13 November 2025 ERR News English section informs: Saved from a crumbling local building, fragments of a massive 1980s mural by Estonian artist Andrus Kasemaa are now on view in a pop-up exhibition in Peri. Thirty-seven pieces of Kasemaa’s 60-square-meter “Mahtra War” were preserved by a team of students from the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) and … ERR News: Rescued Soviet-era mural fragments on display in Southeastern Estonia

On Thursday, 20 November at 18:00, Kirke Kangro’s solo exhibition The Scream of Kalevipoeg. Dream of a Monument opens at Draakon Gallery. The exhibition will remain open until December 14. Kalevipoeg is an epic hero who perishes by his own sword. As he wades through the River Kääpa, the blade cuts off his legs. According to … Kirke Kangro resurrects Kalevipoeg at Draakoni Gallery

14.11.2025 ERR broadcasts the unveiling of Elmar Kits’s mural in the premises of the Estonian National Museum: Since November 14, the large sgraffito panel created by Elmar Kits in 1965, which was originally made for the interior of the Tarvas restaurant in Tartu, has been on public display again in the café on the B … A mural by Elmar Kits, rescued from restaurant Tarvas with a special solution, was unveiled at the Estonian National Museum

ERR Radio News on November 12th reports on the rescue of Andrus Kasemaa’s mural: Art students from the Estonian Academy of Arts and Pallas saved Andrus Kasemaa’s mural “The War of Mahtra” in the Peri village center in Põlva County. The work was in danger of being destroyed by time on the wall of a … ERR Radio News: Art students saved Kasemaa’s mural in Peri village center

The presentations from the symposium held on October 10, 2025 can be viewed on the Tartu University Television (UTTV) website: https://www.uttv.ee/embed?id=38418

In August 2025, Andrus Kasemaa’s (1941–2016) secco-technique mural “Mahtra War” (1984) was dismantled from the wall of the Peri village centre (former office-club of the E. Vilde collective farm) near Põlva. The removal of the large-scale work was inevitable: the depreciated building is scheduled for demolition and the mural, which was in a dilapidated state, … Andrus Kasemaa’s mural Mahtra War – A New Life in Fragments. Exhibition and seminar at the Peri village center

On October 10, 2025, the University of Tartu Museum will host a symposium “Meelis and Vjatško: Anatomy of a Myth”, which will give meaning to the controversial story of this ideological monument. The exhibition “Invisible Tartu. 800 years since the city’s beginnings” at the University of Tartu Museum has once again brought to light the … Symposium “Meelis and Vyachko: Anatomy of a Myth”

On the 25th of April Estonian War Museum reported: The Estonian War Museum today unveiled a public database of all known Soviet war monuments and graves on Estonian territory from 1944-1991. The database is based on material compiled in 2022 by the Working Group for the Mapping of Soviet Occupation Memorials at the Government Office, and includes … Estonian War Museum has compiled Soviet war monuments and graves into a public database

21 April 2025 ERR reports about the removal of the Soviet coat of arms from the facade of the Tallinn Russian Cultural Centre. The City of Tallinn started on Monday to remove the Soviet-era sculpture from the facade of the Russian Cultural Centre on Mere puieste. The work is based on a coalition agreement and … The Soviet coat of arms disappears from the facade of the Tallinn Russian Cultural Centre – ERR

2 April 2025 Saarte Hääl published an article about the Tehumardi monument by Counsellor of the Saaremaa Heritage Board Liis Koppel: One who does not remember the past lives without a future. “With these lines from Juhan Liiv, one could characterise the events at Tehumardi that unfolded this weekend. The Tehumardi monument was again the … Liis Koppel of the Saaremaa Heritage Board about the Tehumardi monument in Saarte Hääl

30 March 2025 Delfi reports of vandalism towards Tehumardi memorial: Saaremaa municipality is still looking for a solution to modernise the Tehumard red monument. On Thursday, red graffiti was spray-painted on the Tehumardi monument in Saaremaa with the poem: “Call, Saaremaa! Let’s take down the red pillars of the patriots! Let’s knock out their teeth!”. … Delfi on the vandalism towards Tehumardi memorial

27 March 2025 ERR reports on the co-operation between Saaremaa Municipality, Cultural Heritage Board and the project Reframing Monuments in terms of the Tehumardi memorial. The Saaremaa municipality, which covered the red emblem of the Tehumard monument last Friday and is planning to modernise the memorial field, needs an extra €5,000 from the state. The … Saaremaa municipality asks state for money for Tehumard monument – ERR

21 March 2025 ERR reports from Saaremaa in terms of Tehumardi memorial: The municipality of Saaremaa covered the propaganda texts and the red emblem of the Tehumardi memorial monument on its own initiative on Friday morning before the start of the tourist season. The heritage authority confirmed that they were aware of the municipality’s wish … Saaremaa municipality covered the Tehumardi pillar with red symbolic tiles – ERR

ERR continues to report on the Tehumardi monument: After the Tehumardi war graves were buried last year, Saaremaa municipality also wanted to remove propagandistic symbols and texts from the Tehumardi sword. However, the texts on the monument are still there today, because the heritage protection authority and the Estonian Academy of Arts wanted to reinterpret … Saaremaa municipality cannot remove red emblem from Tehumardi monument – ERR

In the 1970s and 1980s, the façade of the Auvere power plant was decorated with a giant metal panel representing either a star or a sparkle. The project team has not yet been able to identify the author. The work was assembled from several pieces and mounted on the façade using two identical metal frames … Auvere power plant metal panel

A book on war monuments in Russian-occupied Ukraine by historians Mischa Gabowitsch and Mykola Homanyuk was recently published by the Central European University Press. Professor Mischa Gabowitsch of the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz presented the working version of the book at the Summer School “Disentangling Eurasia” at Tallinn University in the summer of 2023. … Open access ebook: Monuments and Territory. War Memorials in Russian-Occupied Ukraine

Delfi writes about the so-called “Red Monuments Act”: “In March last year, Alar Karis did not promulgate the Red Monuments Act, as the Head of State considered it unconstitutional. Alar Karis said that the removal of the so-called Red Monuments Act had not been a priority for the committee. The chairman of the Riigikogu’s economic … Delfi: There is no rush to adopt the “Red Monuments Act” (19.09.2024)

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 … Presentation of the results of the international workshop “How to Reframe Monuments: Case Studies for Thinking Through Dissonant Heritage” on September 6 at EKA and EKA TV.

At the end of August, the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) confiscated a copy of the Lihula monument from a van transporting it from Tallinn to Lihula. The monument had been planned to be taken to the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the dismantling of the former memorial, according to the PPA. According … Media outlet Delfi on the position of the Minister of Interior: “I do not want to see the bust of any occupying power in Estonia”

An anti-war sticker on the defaced sign of the Lenin Park in Helsinki, 2022. Photo: Hannu Häkkinen, Finnish Heritage Agency. Pavel Petrov, a Master’s student in History and Eastern European Studies at the University of Helsinki, wrote this text as part of his internship at How to Reframe Monuments (July-September 2024) project. Besides publishing this … The statue that never was – the persisting and vanishing Lenin Park of Helsinki

Pavel Petrov, a Master’s student in History and Eastern European Studies at the University of Helsinki, wrote this text as part of his internship at How to Reframe Monuments (July-September 2024) project. Besides publishing this and other texts on our blog, Pavel assists at the international workshop at Narva Art Residency. In 1979, the town … Failed reframing of the Lenin monument in Kotka

The special issue of the magazine kunsttexte.de, War on Monuments: Documenting the Debates over Russian and Soviet Heritage in Eastern and Central Europe. Documenting the Debates on Russian and Soviet Heritage in Eastern and Central Europe, edited by Kristina Jõekalda. This issue of the open access online journal kunsttexte.de (https://doi.org/10.48633/ksttx.2024.1) contains 14 articles on the … Special issue of Kunsttexte.de War on Monuments: Documenting the Debates over Russian and Soviet Heritage in Eastern and Central Europe

Location:Narva Art Residency (NART) Start Date:31.08.2024 Start Time:10:00 End Date:06.09.2024 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, … International workshop “How to reframe monuments: case studies for thinking through dissonant heritage”

Antanas Kmieliauskas, Hope, 1982. Fresco. Pharmacy Vilties (Hope) in Kaunas. Courtesy of Gregor Taul. Photo from 2020. On 1 July at 11:00 Gregor Taul will defend his thesis “Monumentality Trouble. Monumental-Decorative Art in Late Soviet Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania” (“Sekeldused monumentaalsusega. Monumentaal-dekoratiivkunst hilisnõukogude Eestis, Lätis ja Leedus”) The public defence will be held in EKA … PhD Thesis Defence of Gregor Taul

Uncontactable Gustav. Intervention of an anonymous art student from the course Art and Public Space, Spring 2024. I teach a course at EKA on Art and Public Space which on the one hand deals with monuments, interventions and street art in urban space, and on the other hand looks more broadly at the position of … Monumental Disputes

The conference “Cultural heterologies and democracy II” will take place at the Estonian Academy of Arts (Põhja puiestee 7, Tallinn, Estonia). Confirmed keynote speakers and their abstracts:Marju Lauristin (professor emeritus, University of Tartu, Estonia)Dorota Kołodziejczyk (University of Wrocław, Poland)Gulnaz Sharafutdinova (King’s College London, UK) The conference will be held in English. To register, please fill out this form. Registration deadline June 10, 2024. … Cultural Heterologies and Democracy II. Transitions and Transformations in Post-Socialist Cultures in the 1980s and 1990s

On March 4, 2024, an annual event called PhD Vitamin took place at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EAA). It is a conference and meetings where artists and designers who are interested in doctoral studies gather. At EKA, doctoral studies take place in four disciplines: art science and visual culture studies, heritage protection and conservation, … Monumental Vitamin

On March 4th and 5th, the PhD Vitamin event will once again be hosted at the Estonian Academy of Arts. PhD Vitamin aims to support and pave the way – and inspire artists with a research approach on their way to doctoral studies. The goal is to introduce artistic research and advise potential candidates for … PhD Vitamin 2024

In 2024, the three-year research project How to Reframe Monuments was launched, with the aim of creating new solutions for reinterpreting monuments and other dissonant heritage.  The interdisciplinary project received funding from the Ministry of Culture’s new research and development programme. It is led by the Estonian Academy of Arts in cooperation with Tallinn University, and partners … Research project creates new solutions for reinterpreting monuments