An interview is a part of a joined and co-produced intermedia project of radioCona (Ljubljana, Slovenia) and Radioartmobile Live (Roma, Italy).--------------------------------------KRISTINA NORMAN - After-War, Palazzo Malipiero, San Marco 3079, Venezia. From June 7th to November 22nd, 2009.

KRISTINA NORMAN’s project After-War will represent Estonia at the 53rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. The exposition at the Estonian Pavilion is curated by MARCO LAIMRE and commissioned by the Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia.

Kristina Norman, the Estonian representative exhibiting at the 53rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, belongs to the generation that entered the art scene in the ‘00s. She deals with political, provocative, documentary and research-based art. Norman’s work is highly context-centred and has grown from her immediate surroundings. After-War is a comprehensive installation environment comprised of videos, photographs and objects in five separate spaces. The installation is based on a specific event and the issues surrounding it that must be regarded as the most traumatic event in Estonian society since the restoration of independence in 1991, and one which aroused the most public discussion.In April 2007, the Estonian government removed a monument commonly referred to as the "Bronze Soldier" from a prominent place in the centre of Tallinn, where it had stood since 1947. The memorial, officially called "The Monument to the Liberators of Tallinn", was dedicated to the Red Army soldiers who fell during what in Russia is known as The Great Patriotic War (WWII), but for most Estonians this memorial was a symbol of Soviet occupation. The monument was removed from its original site and relocated 2.5 km away at the military cemetery. The original location was then planted with low shrubs and flowers as if there had never been a monument there. This "psycho-geographical" manoeuvre carried out by the Estonian government provoked protest by the Russian-speaking community and was followed by two nights of rioting on the streets of Tallinn. Using the concept of a memory community, Kristina Norman describes and analyses past events and proposes subsequent cultural practice. The title of the work After-War is a reference to the idea that the war is over, but the conflict still continues.Kristina Norman, “My art practice is interwoven with documentary, and for me the video camera is an indispensable tool. While making documentary films, I am collecting information and material for my art projects and visa versa. In a way, After-War is socio-cultural research and an experiment during the course of which I am mapping and dissecting the “monument incident”. I am fascinated by the theme of how values are formed and the problematics of the sacred and the profane. I am also interested in the relationship between memory and history in the construction of national and state identity.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a substantial catalogue with texts illustrated by the artist. In this publication, the After-War project and the conflict surrounding the monument are discussed by Alexander Astrov, philosopher and lecturer in International Relations and European Studies at the Central European University; Airi Triisberg, cultural theorist; Andres Kurg, architectural theorist; Marco Laimre, the curator and Kristina Norman, the artist. Press release compiled by Marco Laimre