Memorials of Others
The Monuments of Former Yugoslavia
Architecture fascinates me.
It reflects the ideology, values, and narratives of the period in which it was built. But, unlike narratives, architecture lasts for years; thus, the buildings built in the spirit of one period or another stay with us like pages in a history book. And the story they tell gets a different meaning, depending on the observers, their background, and the values of current times.
When I photograph architecture, I create my art from the art of others. I correspond with its original creators, with the values of the time in which they acted, and with the narratives that led them and express it all as it reflects within me, as it makes me feel today, here and now.
What are the Spomeniks?
I learned about the Spomniks by chance while wandering around the Internet.
These are unique Modernist-Yugoslav monuments (Spomeniki in Slovenian, Spomenici in Croatian) that were built in the 60s and 80s throughout what used to be the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to commemorate the victims of the national liberation struggle against the Nazis and Fascists following the invasion of German and Italian Axis Powers during World War II.
The first thing that struck me was the gap between the monuments’ might and power and their state of neglect and disrepair. The more I delved into the research about them; I discovered a fascinating story of changing narratives.
The Spomeniks were designed and built by Yugoslavia’s finest artists and architects. It wasn’t a governmental enterprise, but a wave of local and regional initiatives meant to commemorate the victims of the liberation struggle and glorify the communist-partisan uprising narrative that was one of the foundations of Socialist Yugoslavia.
However, the Spomeniks were forgotten with the disintegration of Yugoslavia. With their supporting narratives challenged and contradicted, they fell into a state of disrepair with most of them suffering from neglect, destruction, and vandalism during the wars of independence in the Balkans.
In recent years the Spomeniks have seen a wave of renewed (but very different) public interest. One that rides on the wings of social networks mixing “Post-communist Nostalgia” with “Ruins Porn” without much context and respect for the past. As a result, the Spomeniks are not once used as production sets for commercials, music video clips, movies, and even reality shows.
The Spomeniks’ story could not be fully understood without its political and cultural context.
I learned a great deal from these sources, and I encourage you to do so as well:
- The Spomenik Database
- DESSA gallery’s ARCHITECTURE. SCULPTURE. REMEMBRANCE. exhibition
About this work
My work "Memorials of Others" is the result of a long journey among some of the Spomeniks that are still standing in the ex-Yugoslavian countries of Serbia and Croatia.
A journey between nations that are so similar but also very different, who struggle to this day with the tension between the wars of the past and the reality of living side by side in the present.
I chose to process the photos of the Spomniks in black and white using a technique of blending selective exposures. I wanted to create a look that emphasizes the unique aesthetics of the Modernist-Yugoslav artists while also showing their disintegration and neglect. In some of the photos, you can notice bullet holes and scars from the Balkan wars, as well as the physical destruction of the buildings, but this does not undermine the photograph's aesthetics.
Since most of the Spomniks were built in the areas of the battles between the Communist Partisans and the Nazi and Fascist forces, reaching them often required some offroad traveling to far and insulated forest clearings or hilltops. I chose to emphasize this feeling of loneliness and alienation in my photographs. The Spomeniks are presented as disappearing from sight and forgotten by heart, without any cultural or social context to be associated with.
As an Israeli Jew who grew up in the context of the Zionist narrative, with national memorial days of the Holocaust, and of the fallen soldiers of Israel's wars and the victims of terror hostilities; with all that relates to the way we experience and interpret the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to this day; Looking from the sidelines at the history of other nations, the way they experience a decades-long ethnoreligious conflict, and the rise and fall of narratives and ideologies, seemed to me much like looking at a mirror through the lens of an outside observer.
The Spomeniks, in this context, are for me a silent reminder that narratives and ideologies may rise and fall, but the people killed on their altars could never be returned.
