Every year, more and more travelers head to the Balkans to explore the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Some come for the adventure, many for the history and culture, and others for the region’s fresh food and spectacular scenery. But a trip here to see some of the world’s most inventive monumental artworks can tick all the boxes.
Sculptures and monuments designed by Serbian architect Bogdan Bogdanović (1922-2010), who was among Yugoslavia’s most important scholars and urban planners, challenge space, logic and expectations of public art. His designs, often the size of buildings and erected over a period of more than three decades, from the 1950s to the late 1980s, seem to come out of nowhere. They emerge – austere, cosmic, alone – from seemingly forgotten fields. Gigantic swirls of polished concrete, steel, stone and wood rise to dominate the countryside of this corner of southeastern Europe and reinterpret reality as cones, science fiction flowers , wings, horns, fountains and columns. The coins commemorate the region’s tumultuous 20th-century history, ethnic and religious groups, war, anti-fascist resistance and ideological unity. More than 20 epic works by the designer can still be seen in this ancient country, which once spanned the western half of the Balkan Peninsula and included six republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.
Although Bogdanović was one of dozens of designers responsible for hundreds of such epic memorials (and thousands of smaller monuments) across the country’s post-World War II incarnation – officially the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , which lasted until 1992 – its time capsule-like artworks are some of the most famous and distinctive of the era. The block-sized installations forged an aesthetic that shaped their own romantic, modernist style without giving in to the socialist realism omnipresent throughout Eastern Europe at the time. Its coins can be found in all the republics of former Yugoslavia (except Slovenia) and in present-day Kosovo; they often reside on former battlefields and near sites of major historical events. And with the resumption of tourism in the Balkanslarger-than-life, free public art exhibitions began to inspire a new generation of visitors, also leading to the creation of the Spomenik database – an ongoing and comprehensive project to document and interpret monuments.
Perhaps the architect’s most recognizable work is the almost 24m concrete stone flower in Jasenovac, Croatia. Completed in 1966, this bird-like flower was built to commemorate the victims of World War II concentration camps. In the Serbian capital Belgradethe monument to the Jewish victims of fascism, dominated by 10.5 m high stone wings, was built in the Sephardic cemetery in 1952. The Revolution Sanctuary in Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo – a 19m memorial with two columns symbolically supporting a mining cart – honors Serbian and Albanian miners who worked together to rebel against German occupiers during World War II.
“I particularly admire two aspects of Bogdanović’s work: his interest in the whole process of creating the monuments and his concern to overcome the problems of ethnic and religious conflicts in the region,” says Sanja Horvatinčić, postdoctoral researcher at the Art Institute. History in Zagreb, Croatia, which focuses on memorial sculpture and architecture from the period of socialism in the former Yugoslavia. “In many of his projects, he collaborated and learned from local artisans – stonemasons or shipbuilders – implementing their skills into the very fabric of the structures built. He also emphasized the inclusion of the local community in the very process of creating and constructing the monuments, as a method of developing a sense of belonging and heritage.
More than a quarter of a century after the breakup of Yugoslavia, architecture, monuments and creations like those of Bogdanović reaffirm the region’s role as a political, economic and, above all, cultural synapse between the West capitalist and the communist East during the Cold War. In 2018, the modern Art Museum (MoMA) in New York will highlight the former country’s design prowess and global reach with a major new exhibition titled “Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948-1980.” THE exposure, which runs from July 15, 2018 to January 13, 2019, will explore topics such as urbanization, technology, consumerism, monuments and memorialization. The collection brings together hundreds of drawings and photographs, film sequences and models from across the region.
“We have identified four prominent figures in Yugoslav architectural culture, all of whom shaped the country not only through their buildings, but also through their prominent roles as public intellectuals, teachers and authors – Bogdan Bogdanović being one of between them,” says Martino Stierli. , Philip Johnson, chief curator of architecture and design at MoMA, who believes that Yugoslavia had a rich and diverse heritage of modern architectural production. “During the Cold War, socialist Yugoslavia promoted a “third way” in a divided world order, leading to relative openness toward both orders. All of this was absorbed into a dynamic and hybrid architectural culture, open to much experimentation and even utopian thinking.
For the growing number of travelers to the seven independent countries that once made up Yugoslavia, a renewed and burgeoning interest in the cultural glory of the Balkans provides yet another reason to visit, understand and appreciate the region. Not only will they gain insight into its shared history, but they will also explore some of its most distinctive pockets, from the sunny Dalmatian coastline to the rugged mountains of the Dinaric Alps to the pancake plains of Vojvodina province. Among the best-known Yugoslav monuments – created by many different architects – are Tjentište in Sutjeska National Park, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Podgarić near the Croatian capital Zagreb; Kadinjaca near Tara National Park, Serbia; And Ilinden in the town of Kruševo, North Macedonia.
“At the end of the socialist period, the Yugoslav regime built many memorial monuments in nature parks with the aim of revitalizing underdeveloped regions. That’s why many monuments are in stunning locations,” explains Vjeran Pavlaković, associate professor of cultural studies at the university. from Rijeka, Croatia, who works on issues of memory policy in South-Eastern Europe. “In recent years, all countries in the region have understood the value of investing in this aspect of cultural heritage. The trip in search of the monuments is part of the fun of the enterprise, forcing the tourist to go off the beaten track, meet the locals and sample traditional food and drinks while experiencing the extraordinary architectural art of a vanished country. .’