{"id":4651,"date":"2020-07-23T08:54:32","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T08:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=4651"},"modified":"2024-04-11T08:08:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T08:08:34","slug":"dealing-with-controversial-monuments-in-estonia-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/2020\/07\/23\/dealing-with-controversial-monuments-in-estonia-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with controversial monuments in Estonia and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery aligncenter columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2020\/07\/Statues-three.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"4690\" data-link=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?attachment_id=4690\" class=\"wp-image-4690\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2020\/07\/Statues-three.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2020\/07\/Statues-three-600x300.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2020\/07\/Statues-three-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2020\/07\/Statues-three-768x384.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Federico&nbsp;Bellentani&nbsp;(PhD 2018)&nbsp;is&nbsp;a&nbsp;digital research manager for&nbsp;a Google Cloud partner based in Italy.&nbsp;His&nbsp;PhD&nbsp;research&nbsp;into controversial monuments&nbsp;has become increasingly&nbsp;relevant&nbsp;due to&nbsp;international&nbsp;protests and calls to remove statues.&nbsp;He&nbsp;discusses&nbsp;his findings from&nbsp;Estonia&nbsp;and his thoughts on dealing&nbsp;with&nbsp;controversial monuments&nbsp;across the globe.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During&nbsp;Federico\u2019s&nbsp;time as a PhD student&nbsp;at Cardiff University,&nbsp;he&nbsp;was&nbsp;looking&nbsp;at monuments and memorials&nbsp;as&nbsp;built forms which communicate&nbsp;certain values&nbsp;and ideas.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEvery&nbsp;day I passed&nbsp;Cardiff\u2019s&nbsp;monuments&nbsp;and statues, especially going into the Glamorgan building&nbsp;with the surrounding&nbsp;war memorials. This environment&nbsp;helped me with my studies.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWales is similar to other transitioning countries. Its relationship within the UK has been difficult at times. My case study was Estonia&nbsp;but doing it in Cardiff was meaningful.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recently,&nbsp;Welsh councils have been&nbsp;turning their attention to&nbsp;local monuments and memorials&nbsp;and assessing whether to remove them. Federico emphasises the importance of the debate and the complexity of the issue.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His research demonstrates&nbsp;how post-soviet countries have tried different&nbsp;strategies&nbsp;to minimise the impact of monuments by removing, relocating or, in some cases, even hiding them within their surrounding environment.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI want to be clear \u2013 every nation&nbsp;and&nbsp;every statue&nbsp;has its own context. To remove a&nbsp;Soviet monument in Estonia is not the same as removing a&nbsp;Confederate monument in the US. There&nbsp;are&nbsp;very different planning practices and very different ideas of design methodologies.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Based on his findings, Federico has&nbsp;developed&nbsp;a&nbsp;set&nbsp;of strategies&nbsp;for&nbsp;dealing&nbsp;with monuments,&nbsp;from leaving it as it is and dealing with the material form, to destroying&nbsp;it&nbsp;completely.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAt the state level,&nbsp;I&nbsp;encourage&nbsp;participation&nbsp;with&nbsp;a mix of&nbsp;people \u2013 artists, architects, planners, philosophers and&nbsp;everyday&nbsp;citizens. It is important to assess this problem and it\u2019s complex because emotion is very high.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the surface, removal&nbsp;of monuments&nbsp;appears to be straight-forward,&nbsp;but&nbsp;Federico&nbsp;explains&nbsp;that sometimes removal can cause unexpected reactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn&nbsp;the&nbsp;Baltics, there&nbsp;have been issues with&nbsp;moving&nbsp;Soviet built forms which for years had been accepted.&nbsp;There\u2019s no tourism around&nbsp;them&nbsp;and&nbsp;they were&nbsp;just functional pieces&nbsp;of the built environment.&nbsp;Still,&nbsp;they were removed&nbsp;by&nbsp;spending a&nbsp;huge amount of money. Often, they were&nbsp;put&nbsp;in a museum&nbsp;where&nbsp;people started to see&nbsp;them. It gave a new life to&nbsp;them.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMoving&nbsp;them also&nbsp;caused tensions&nbsp;with a controversial neighbour&nbsp;(Putin\u2019s Russia)&nbsp;who wondered why&nbsp;they were&nbsp;being moved.&nbsp;So, in some instances,&nbsp;you can create an intense&nbsp;problem that can&nbsp;lead to economic sanctions,&nbsp;removal of embassies and, at an extreme level, hybrid warfare.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this case, removal caused more&nbsp;problems. But, as Federico stresses, every monument or memorial is different.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEstonia has developed some great ways to include people in the design of monuments. In 2018 they built&nbsp;a&nbsp;memorial to the&nbsp;victims&nbsp;of communism,&nbsp;which is&nbsp;intended to widen public participation&nbsp;through the use of digital tools. Nearby&nbsp;is&nbsp;another&nbsp;Soviet memorial which was not removed, so they live together and coexist.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt does not&nbsp;erase&nbsp;the past or&nbsp;add&nbsp;tension.&nbsp;The government&nbsp;worked&nbsp;with planners, designers and people who could give a certain kind of solution, resulting in a&nbsp;homogeneous&nbsp;project which, generally, people like.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2020\/07\/Federico-headshot-760x500-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4671\" width=\"263\" height=\"174\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2020\/07\/Federico-headshot-760x500-1.jpg 750w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2020\/07\/Federico-headshot-760x500-1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 263px) 100vw, 263px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Federico is&nbsp;currently&nbsp;working for a Google Cloud partner&nbsp;in Italy&nbsp;specialising in&nbsp;artificial intelligence&nbsp;and collaboration tools.&nbsp;Looking ahead, he is interested in merging his expertise and focusing on digital memorials.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen you think about memorials, it\u2019s something very material and something you can touch. The current pandemic has shown there can be a commemoration in absentia \u2013 when&nbsp;you cannot be&nbsp;physically&nbsp;present to&nbsp;commemorate&nbsp;your&nbsp;beloved.&nbsp;Imagine how many people from across the world in different communities could engage with&nbsp;a memorial&nbsp;if there wasn\u2019t&nbsp;the need&nbsp;to go there physically?\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><em><strong>For more information about Federico\u2019s research, you can read his&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiff.academia.edu\/FedericoBellentani\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>published papers<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><strong>&nbsp;or his&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.degruyter.com\/view\/title\/540837\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>soon-to-be-published book<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><strong>.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federico Bellentani (PhD 2018) is a digital research manager for a Google Cloud partner based in Italy. His PhD research into controversial monuments has become increasingly relevant due to international protests and calls to remove statues. He discusses his findings from Estonia and his thoughts on dealing with controversial monuments across the globe.","protected":false},"author":1811,"featured_media":4690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,39,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories","category-cardiff-connect","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1811"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4651"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4707,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4651\/revisions\/4707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}