De/Construction of Monument
De/construction of Monument, multidisciplinary project, 2004 – 2007, composed as a series of panel discussions, lectures and seminars, artistic presentations, exhibitions and interventions in public space. This project involved particularly important examples of the post-Yugoslav counter-monument–works that re-thought the forms, objects and stakes of public memory. “De/construction of Monument” relies upon the need for systematization of individual artistic phenomena in the recent art in the environs of former Yugoslavia that use, as their referential material, different representations of past, aimed at its demystification, reinterpretation or re-affirmation. Dealing with monuments, artists appear through their works in the role of critics of the imposed selective perception and interpretation of past upon which today’s (weltanschauung) is constituted.
Attitude towards the past nowadays is the key for not/solving of numerous regional problems particularly in the countries of former Yugoslavia whose people have, almost through the whole 20th century lived in one common state and learned one common history. The process of overcoming past cannot be truly commenced unless history ceases to be identified with collective memory, national epic poems, tales of heroes, myths of eternal heroism and sacrifice. The project, whose basis lies with the more recent art practice, deals in all its segments with the clearing of mental space, or with overcoming the past.
Through art and culture one may follow the genesis of historical consciousness of peoples or societies. Art and culture may be indicators, but also generators of manipulation and instrumentalization of human consciousness. They can also be corrective – active participants in the process of individualization of thought and the formation of a critical, polemical, antagonized position towards the dominant forms of consciousness. It is this individual artistic attitude that we recognize as the corrective of society, the starting point of this project.
De/construction of Monument relies upon the need for systematization of individual artistic phenomena in the recent art in the environs of former Yugoslavia that use, as their referential material, different representations of past, aimed at its demystification, reinterpretation or re-affirmation. Dealing with monuments, artists appear through their works in the role of critics of the imposed selective perception and interpretation of past upon which today’s (weltanschauung) is constituted.
The works of the artists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, produced in diverse contexts, mainly within the exhibitions shown by the Center for Contemporary Art Sarajevo since 1997, as well as the new proposals and ideas, are immediate motive for this project. The theme of „monument” treated similarly and arisen from the same motives, is present in the works of artists from the rest of Yugoslavia as well. The genesis of the theme may be followed since the nineties ranging from Mladen Stilinovic, Irwin, Sanja Ivekovic, and Rasa Todosijevic to the youngest generation of artists-Erzen Shkololli, Kurt&Plasto, etc. What they have in common is, one hand, the critical interpretation of symbolic presentation of the old, the renewed or the new ideological constructs, or else the re-affirmation of „forgotten” figures and symbols, without which the fundamental values of contemporary society are challenged. On the other hand, emptying/clearing the field of meaning, the artists „monuments”, personal, virtual, imagined/imaginary realities; „monuments” that detect, with critical eye, the present manifestations of real and false power, or create parallel reality. In this semantically empty space new icons of contemporanity move in and settle down. The problem of individual as the subject or object of history, of collective-subjective identity-identification is also the subject of artists’ analysis and self-analysis.
The particular groups of works is represented by the interventions whose aim is to de-ideologize history and to re-construct its material traces.
This project has been envisaged as the work in progress, as the process of learning and interaction between the protagonists of different disciplines, different media, and targeting different audiences. The core of the project is made of the artistic, auteur works that have already been created or would be realized in the course of the project.
Thematic structure of the Project is open for new contents as well to be initiated by the new production.
Art works systematized in above mentioned thematic groups are the basis for the seminars, panel discussions and film projections where every topic would be analyzed from different viewpoints. These gatherings and other additional actions that imply the participation of people from different fields (historians, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers, art historians, artists, film and theatre directors, authors, journalists, professors / teachers, politicians), will be organized in collaboration with the printed and electronic media in order to assure a broader social /public impact and open up a public debate.
The works of the artists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, produced in diverse contexts, mainly within the exhibitions organized by the Center for Contemporary Art Sarajevo since 1997, as well as the new proposals and ideas, are immediate triggers for this project. The theme of „monument” treated similarly and arisen from the same motives, is present in the works of artists from the rest of Yugoslavia as well.
Project started with introduction of the artists who use the form of monument in anti-monument sense (Braco Dimitrijević, Sanja Iveković) or creating “monument to the negative past” (Jochen Gerz). Last faze of “De/construction of Monument” was contest for the “new monument”. Four monuments have been produced and installed one in Mostar and three in Sarajevo.
Project items
Local partners: Urban Movement from Mostar, Center for Information’s Decontamination from Banja Luka
German partner: Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (Berlin)
Project was supported by German Cultural Foundation (relations), Open Society Fund B&H (OSF B&H)