Retro-Futuristic Monuments in Ex-Yugoslavia

As a child of former Yugoslavia (now Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.), I would like to present some amazing retro-futuristic monuments in my motherland. The structures were commissioned by former Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito in the 1960s and '70s to commemorate sites where WWII battles took place (Tjentište, Kozara, Kadinjača), and where concentration camps once stood (Jasenovac, Niš).

The monuments were designed to convey the confidence and strength of the Socialist Republic. Sculptors include Dušan Džamonja, Vojin Bakić, Miodrag Živković, Jordan and Iskra Grabul, to name a few. Bogdan Bogdanović and Gradimir Medaković were the architects.

In the 1980s, the monuments attracted millions of visitors each year, especially young pioneers for their "patriotic education." After the Republic dissolved in the early 1990s, they were completely abandoned and their symbolic meanings faded away.

Photo credit: Jan Kempenaers
Photos via [arch daily]

Tags: architecture, concrete, future, monuments, past, sculpture, yugoslavia

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Comment by Visnja V on May 3, 2011 at 11:59am: Whoa! What kind of Welcome! Thank you ALL! A few days ago I accidentally 'stumbled' on this article, and quickly spread over the internet (yet they don't write every day about ex-yu art). About these sculptors and architects, I learned in college, so they gave me another reason to publish. Out of excitement I totally forgot to check the photographer (sry @Bert) and TNX theMET team for editing! You're AWEsome! ;)

Comment by Milos Marcinek on May 3, 2011 at 8:58am: Wow! Fantastic monuments! Thanks for this post :-)

Comment by Eugene on May 2, 2011 at 3:54pm: @Bert- Thanks for the heads up. We edited the post and credited the photographer.

Comment by Lea on May 2, 2011 at 3:05pm: most of these monuments are not forgotten. it's just that they're set in the middle of nowhere so it looks that way.

Comment by Bert on May 2, 2011 at 2:04pm: It's a big shame that you put these photos on this blog without mentioning the photographer Jan Kempenaers. The series is called Spomenik, and the colours are much better on the originals. There's a better blogpost about this at Foto 8: http://www.foto8.com/new/online/blog/1268-spomenik

Comment by sAm on May 2, 2011 at 12:43pm: Incredible. Thanks for sharing these!

Comment by Alyssa Anda on May 2, 2011 at 11:52am: @Matthew- I agree one hundred percent!

Comment by Kevin on May 2, 2011 at 10:22am: These are great!

Comment by Matthew Palma on May 2, 2011 at 1:21am: WOW these are amazing! its sad to see that they were forgotten about. i would love to go see these in real life