Sigrid Viir. The Mirror (Peegel). 2025
Viktor Karrus. View of Moscow (Moskva vaade). 1955
On Thursday, July 16 at 17:00, the outdoor exhibition How to Reframe Monuments: The Past as Art Material will open on the central square of Kohtla-Järve. The exhibition explores contemporary art’s capacity to address Soviet heritage and its associated memory conflicts. Developed as part of the joint research project New Frames for the Monument by the Estonian Academy of Arts and Tallinn University, the outdoor exhibition will remain open to the public on Kohtla-Järve Central Square until the end of summer.
Debates regarding whether and how to display controversial heritage in public spaces are ongoing worldwide. Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine has brought one of the epicenters of monumental conflicts directly to Eastern Europe.
The outdoor exhibition provides an overview of three art intervention competitions held between 2024 and 2025. A total of 17 artists participated across these competitions, proposing 25 distinct solutions for recontextualizing different types of heritage, including the Tehumardi Memorial in Saaremaa by artists Riho Kuld, Mati Varik, and Allan Murdmaa, the monumental paintings in the old passenger terminal of Tallinn Airport by artists Viktor Karrus and Richard Sagrits, and the monument Vjatško and Meelis Defending Tartu in Tartu by artist Olav Männi.
At 17:00, Hilkka Hiiop, Rector of the Estonian Academy of Arts, exhibition curators Linda Kaljundi and Kirke Kangro from the Estonian Academy of Arts, and historian Kristo Nurmis from Tallinn University will introduce the outdoor exhibition and the concept of rethinking Soviet heritage. Additionally, Ainar Varinurm, Director of the Kohtla-Järve Shale Oil Museum, will speak about the adjacent miners’ monument Glory to Work!, created by artists Olavi Männi and Udo Ivask.
This will be followed at 18:00 by a guided tour of the Stalker Museum exhibition Excursion in the Stalinist-era Kukruse club building at Lehe Street 10a. This group exhibition intertwines industrial heritage, the history of East-Viru County, and contemporary art. It features works by Peeter Laurits, Arne Maasik, Raoul Kurvitz, Ernst Hallop, and others, alongside interventions by contemporary artists Anna Škodenko, Hanna Piksarv, Jevgeni Zolotko, Kati Saarits, and Sigrid Viir into the socialist realist monumental paintings of Tallinn Airport. The tour will be led by Hilkka Hiiop, Linda Kaljundi, Kirke Kangro, Indrek Leht, and Ainar Varinurm.
The Kukruse exhibition is open from July to August 2026 by prior notice by calling +372 5155365 and on Fridays and Saturdays from 15:00 to 18:00 between July 17 and August 29. The outdoor exhibition on the Kohtla-Järve Central Square remains open to everyone until the end of summer.
The exhibitions and displayed works are part of the collaborative research project New Frames for the Monument running from 2024 to 2026, which is funded by the Estonian Ministry of Culture. The project aims to develop new solutions for rethinking monuments and other forms of dissonant heritage by combining cross-disciplinary expertise and engaging various stakeholders and communities.
The conceptual designs for the Saaremaa Tehumardi memorial interventions were authored by Kirke Kangro, Neeme Külm, Anna Mari Liivrand, Johannes Säre, Kristina Norman, and Taavi Piibemann. Anna Škodenko, Hanna Piksarv, Jevgeni Zolotko, Kati Saarits, and Sigrid Viir proposed their own solutions for reframing the paintings of the old terminal building at Tallinn Airport. Trevor Kinna, Bob Bicknell-Knight, Hasso Krull, Camille Laurelli, Samuel Lehtikoinen, Ülo Pikkov, and Yiyang Sun created digital artworks inspired by the sculpture Vjatško and Meelis Defending Tartu.
Organizers would like to thank the Estonian Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Kohtla-Järve City Government, the Kohtla-Järve Shale Oil Museum, and the Just Transition Fund.