“How to Reframe Monuments”
EKA Outdoor Gallery 1.12.2025–15.02.2026
Open 24/7, free
The past as art material
We live in a time when monuments cannot be ignored. There is debate all over the world about their meaning, as well as whether and how controversial monuments should be displayed in public spaces. Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine has brought one of the centers of monument conflicts to Eastern Europe. By now, a large number of Soviet-era monuments, especially World War II monuments, have been removed in Estonia.
The project “How to Reframe Monuments” is based on the assumption that removing a monument does not remove problems – a complex legacy cannot be overcome or circumvented, but must be worked through. By incorporating knowledge and skills from different fields, we have developed solutions that allow us not to dismantle controversial heritage through research, heritage conservation and digitization practices, and artistic interventions, but to place it in a new, critical framework.
The focus of the outdoor exhibition is on the possibilities of art to deal with memory conflicts in public space and, through this, the social potential hidden in contemporary art. The design competitions held within the framework of three projects illustrate ways of reframing different types of dissonant heritage – memorial, painting, and sculpture. To date, one of the artists’ interventions has already materialized, the reframing of the Tehumardi Memorial, by Neeme Külm.
A total of 17 artists participated in the art competitions held in 2024–2025. Kirke Kangro, Neeme Külm, Anna Mari Liivrand, Johannes Säre, Kristina Norman and Taavi Piibemann participated in the conceptualization of the Tehumardi Memorial Complex located on Saaremaa and which has now been partially removed.
Anna Škodenko, Hanna Piksarv, Jevgeni Zolotko, Kati Saarits and Sigrid Viir proposed their solutions for the transformation of the monumental paintings completed in 1955 in the old passenger terminal of Tallinn Airport.
Trevor Kinna, Bob Bicknell-Knight, Hasso Krull, Camille Laurelli, Samuel Lehikoinen, Ülo Pikkov and Yiyang Sun created digital artworks based on the memorial “Vjatško and Meelis in Defense of Tartu” (1950/1956) located in Tartu. The works are exhibited in the short exhibition “Monument and Fairy Tale” open in the EKA lobby from 1.12.–12.12.2025.
Exhibition team: Linda Kaljundi, Kirke Kangro, Annika Tiko, Maris Veeremäe
Design: Kristjan Mändmaa
Language editors: Hille Saluäär, Eva Finch, Jason Finch
“How to Reframe Monuments” is a collaborative project between the Estonian Academy of Arts and Tallinn University, funded by the Estonian Ministry of Culture.