Heritage of the Finnish Civil War monuments in Tampere

Abstract

The 100th anniversary of the Finnish Civil War has made questions about the construction of its heritage and cultural memory topical. Taking the concept of dissonant heritage as a starting point, the paper looks at two monuments in the City of Tampere and their reception and landscape, focusing on recent decades. War monuments are always understood within the framework of current politics, but they are also in continuous dialogue with their physical surroundings and, thus, shape and are shaped by their landscape. In this paper, we look at the statues as arenas for politics of history and cultural memory, and the changes and continuums they carry with them. Monuments are at the core of urban public space and the processes of placemaking. Even when they are distanced from the historical events, they represent and remind us of the historical and political nature of public space.