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The Monumental Shadows series plans to address seven monuments critically in different European cities that perpetuate a colonial mentality in public spaces. Artist duo Various & Gould initiated this project in collaboration with SAVVY Contemporary's initiative Colonial Neighbours, a participatory archive and research project on German colonial history. The interview centers on their first participatory art project, Monumental Shadows Berlin (2021), focusing on the fifteen-meter-high national monument Otto von Bismarck (Bismarck-Nationaldenkmal). Reinhold Begas's neo-baroque bronze statue (1897–1901), originally located at Königsplatz, was relocated to Großer Tiergarten in 1938. While Otto von Bismarck is celebrated for unifying Germany, his role in European colonialism in Africa is now under critical examination. The Berlin project (Fig. 1) used the paper-mâché technique to cast a new Bismarck monument, only to rip and charge it with new meanings, symbolically challenging colonialism and its modern implications. Four approaches ("shadows") were used—intervention, performance, workshop, and panel discussion. This interview explores how artistic intervention at the monument serves as a communicative tool and delves into the challenges artists face when addressing colonial monuments, including navigating the bureaucracies of heritage protection policies, the time-consuming funding process, artists' multitasking as project managers, moral concerns, and countering racial encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]