A Memorial To The Monuments
YEAR
2019MATERIALS
research book and9 screen video installation
The research project follows the Yugoslavian post war monuments from their birth to their ideological death. It is a brief introduction into the turbulent history of the Balkan region, talked about through the monuments’ shifting narratives in relation to the changing power structures.
A video installation titled ‘A MEMORIAL TO THE MONUMENTS' delves into video archives to reconstruct the narratives around the monuments through three stages of their existence.
From their creation in the early days of Yugoslavia, existing as a vast network of cultural markers commemorating the fallen soldiers during WWII, to becoming the leftover artefacts of a fallen regime in the 90s and finally their ideological death through their misrepresentation in contemporary pop culture, the project layers and overlaps these narratives to construct a nonlinear tale of otherness and exoticization.
The project is supported by a research book titled ‘THE DIFFICULT HERITAGE OF A BROKEN PAST: YUGOSLAVIAN POST WAR MONUMENTS’ focusing on the intent of their creation. As there is debate within the region’s academia whether or not they were built as political propaganda, the research looks at 42 randomly chosen monuments, analysing when and where the money for individual monuments came from and cross-examining the findings.
For more on the research clickhere
