You probably have noticed that Estonia is full of national monuments, things that stand for the national awaking, the identity. One of those is the "Eesti kroon", the money.
Estonia, is indeed not a big country. It unites the smallest number of native speakers of a language in one of the smallest national territories. However, this wasn't a reason for not developing a cultural heritage, a national conciousness, an Estonian history. After years of difficulties Estonia got its own money in 1992 and the awareness of being something special has probably increased.
But now this stage of patriotism is over and a new European one will begin. Crown is going to become Euro and the countdown has started. Maybe some are looking forward to this event, maybe some are regarding it as a mistake, at least it is a big change. This is why this nation should of course keep in mind its history, but as well look forward to possibilities offered by the community of Europe.
Of course, we as volunteers can't interfere in political issues, at least just in a very limmited way. But we can show to Estonians, that their national identity is not going to vanish, because thery won't see Estonian faces on bank notes.
Each of the pictured persons has a monument somewhere in Estonia. My idea is it to visit these places and "wrap" the monument. Well, the idea is actually related to Christo, an artist I can recommend to google if you want to see something really great ;DAnyway, our wrapping would be done with another purpose, not the artistical realization, but the sense behind is counting. We can wrap the these monuments, cover them, to show that the intelectual property is not going to disappear. Lydia Koidula is still going to be in people's head although she is not on the 100 crown bill anymore.
I am sure someone will notice.
It was even noticed, when Gwen and me wrappen Jakobson just for some minutes for the picture.
Tell me what you think of the idea.
I am open for critics.
Musi ja kalli,
Gerda
Hi Gerda,
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of wrapping the statues. It's so much more concrete than just taking pictures. And when there is even a slight link to a famous artist, it makes the project a little more... convincing.
I just think that we have to, by one way or another, make sure that people understand why we wrap their statues. I personally would react to a wrapped statue thinking that somebody wants to hide it. So maybe the most important part of this wrapping-project should be unwrapping?
Some more questions to think about: Do you think we should somehow spread information of this project or just wrap and later unwrap? How long the statues would be under cover (this question is related to the importance of unwrapping)? Do you think we should collect the stories behind the faces together? As outsiders we don't know the stories, so for us learning the stories would be really interesting/useful, but otherwise, would there be any use?
Yes, I liked the idea when I read about it, but during writing these comments, I started to get inspired :).
henna
Hello Gerda and folks,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, congratulations!!!
The memory idea is very good and make it during a change is much more stronger.
I also agree with Henna about hide symbols as a very strong idea that may mislead the whole point... specially because now it can be taken as an "act" against Euro (when the Estonian symbols will disappear). Maybe it would be cool to have the pics with some description and in the end create a booklet!! What do you think? I also like the idea of interview (maybe young people) and their feelings of change!!
Please write me about the whole plan and we can start to talk about who can do what and how we can finance this activity!!!
GREAT WORK!!!
hey guys, get inspired too!!
Marco