Spomenik:Monument (2015-2019)
35 images Created 13 Jan 2016
Spomenik:Memory
It was Proust who so succinctly, elegantly even, outlined essentially three types of memory:
The subjective. Memory that is intentionally or willfully recalled.
The collective. Memories one "subjectively" remembers but did not necessarily experience.
The involuntary. Memory that is provoked or maybe invoked by something.
The images in this show represent but a handful of the monuments in the former Yugoslavia. And the hundred or so remaining are but a fraction of the thousands created in the era following WWII.
Spomenik is the word for "monument" in the languages) of Yugoslavia. The root of the word, "spomen," means "memory."
The first and probably most important thing to understand about the spomenici (plural of spomenik) is that like most everything in this region, they hold different meanings for different people. To some they are the legacy of a bygone era, or the markers of past suffering. They are the physical manifestation of hope in the future of a generation, or objects of defiance.
They are proof of triumph or symbols of resentment. For as many monuments as exist there differing ideas, feelings, reasons as to their existence.
What is incontrovertible is that they are a series of memorials built from the 1960s-1980s during Tito's Republic of Yugoslavia. Their primary intent was to honor the victims of the fighting in 1941-1945, what was called in the region the National Liberation War. What we refer to as World War II. Unlike typical war memorials and monuments these were erected to honor the victims, not the victors - that is the generals and other war heroes.
With an eye to the 3 lens of memory I explore the uniquely Yugoslav space these monuments occupy through the built environment. Further, it is an investigation and documentation of the manifestations of an ideology that no longer exists.
It was Proust who so succinctly, elegantly even, outlined essentially three types of memory:
The subjective. Memory that is intentionally or willfully recalled.
The collective. Memories one "subjectively" remembers but did not necessarily experience.
The involuntary. Memory that is provoked or maybe invoked by something.
The images in this show represent but a handful of the monuments in the former Yugoslavia. And the hundred or so remaining are but a fraction of the thousands created in the era following WWII.
Spomenik is the word for "monument" in the languages) of Yugoslavia. The root of the word, "spomen," means "memory."
The first and probably most important thing to understand about the spomenici (plural of spomenik) is that like most everything in this region, they hold different meanings for different people. To some they are the legacy of a bygone era, or the markers of past suffering. They are the physical manifestation of hope in the future of a generation, or objects of defiance.
They are proof of triumph or symbols of resentment. For as many monuments as exist there differing ideas, feelings, reasons as to their existence.
What is incontrovertible is that they are a series of memorials built from the 1960s-1980s during Tito's Republic of Yugoslavia. Their primary intent was to honor the victims of the fighting in 1941-1945, what was called in the region the National Liberation War. What we refer to as World War II. Unlike typical war memorials and monuments these were erected to honor the victims, not the victors - that is the generals and other war heroes.
With an eye to the 3 lens of memory I explore the uniquely Yugoslav space these monuments occupy through the built environment. Further, it is an investigation and documentation of the manifestations of an ideology that no longer exists.
