Power, Representation, Reality: The Construction of a Monument to Estonia’s War of Freedom, 1918-1920

• In Event: Landscapes of Memory: Contested Built Environments and Politics in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, 1920s-2020s

Abstract

This paper presents a micro history of these various attempts to impose ideological thinking on artists’ interpretation of history and the complex reactions to these machinations. Ultimately, provoked by Putin's escalating aggressive rhetoric in the wake of the removal of a Soviet-era monument celebrating the so-called "Liberation of Tallinn," the Estonian state stepped into the 2006 competition to design a national memorial, and in the end, dominated the results of the design competition and assured the selection of a “guided” solution by a team of “young architect-designers,” chosen by a jury dominated by the political faction in power. This paper proposes to open a discussion about the relative role of design competitions in the freedom of artistic expression versus the power of the state...and the many contingent issues embedded in these discussions and the “validity” of these representations.
Insurgent landscapes

Author

• Marie-Alice L'Heureux, U of Kansas