Intellectuals against the Stefan Nemanja monument
A number of prominent intellectuals from the field of culture addressed an open letter to the public on the occasion of the installation of a monument to Stefan Nemanja on the Sava Square in Belgrade, stating that it is an abuse of history, Stefan Nemanja's personality and rendering senseless the importance he holds in Serbian culture as an ancestor of the Nemanjic dynasty.
After a panel discussion "The monument", held within the Mixer Festival, the participants pointed out in an open letter the consequences of the installation of a controversial monument, which was opposed by more than 3,000 citizens, signing an online petition and demanding the cessation of all works.
Pointing out that the "huge, monstrous monument to Stefan Nemanja" is problematic for many citizens - both because of the way the decision-making process was conducted, and also because of the financial, cultural, symbolic and aesthetic reasons, the signatories of the letter highlighted that many citizens believe that the monument will “further humiliate and destroy Belgrade with its inappropriate proportions and mediocre artistic conceptions.”
They also pointed out the "non-transparent contracts, unknown and politically instructed council members, uncoordinated positions of jury members, as well as the illegal and unconstitutional concealment of all financial data, declared a Government secret – regardless of this being a public monument and public budget."
“ A terrible abuse of history is unfolding right in front of our eyes, of the personality of Stefan Nemanja and of the significance the Nemanjic dynasty holds in Serbian culture, and whose image is rendered dangerously meaningless and deprived of its cultural matrix, traditional pattern, not to mention the space for modern interpretation ", stated in an open letter by Irina Subotic, art historian and professor, Milena Dragicevic Sesic, professor from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts and Head of the UNESCO Department of Cultural Policy and Management at the University of Arts in Belgrade, Goran Markovic, film director and emeritus professor of the FDA in Belgrade, Branislav Dimitrijevic, professor at the College of Fine and Applied Arts in Belgrade, Mia David, architect and professor at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad, Marko Ladjusic, sculptor and professor at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade and Dejan Atanackovic, visual artist and writer.
They pointed out that a number of other experts have also publicly expressed their opposition to the installation of such a monument, to the trivialization of history and the desecration of the city. As especially important, they pointed out that it would be necessary to publically hear the voices of those who work in the most important cultural and educational institutions, as well as the voices of representatives of professional associations, federations and organizations, because "it is their duty and obligation to defend their city from further ruination, to protect their modernity from the vulgarity and the distaste, and their history from misinterpretations and abuses.”
While participating in a panel discussion “The Monument", Dejan Atanackovic assessed that it is a monument that "the criminal regime raises for itself, a monument that celebrates corruption at all levels of the society." The only monumental thing there, as he added, is the defeat of civil society.
Irina Subotic, the vice president and member of the Board of Directors of the pan-European organization Europa Nostra and president of the Europa Nostra Serbia, believes that the idea of constructing a monument to Stefan Nemanja does not correspond to the idea of what a monument represents in 21st century modern society.
"It started from a wrong idea and ended with the disgusting construction that we will all be ashamed of at one moment," she stated, adding that now we need to talk about the future of such a monument, which should not be taken down, but used to educate young generations with such a bad example.
Milena Dragicevic Sesic pointed out that the policy of the monument is not that harmless, because it creates an atmosphere and a context, within which new generations are being educated.
"A monument is a visual expression of the culture of remembrance of one nation." Instead of building monuments to what should be remembered, like the genocide in Srebrenica – the same way the Germans build monuments to the Holocaust, even after decades, we construct monuments that are meaningless“, she stated, pointing out a few similar examples in the region, such as the antiquization of Skopje, the illyrianization in Albania...
The installation of the monument to Stefan Nemanja is only a "part and a symptom of the current political situation", which should be collectively opposed, because the individual reactions remain without an echo, Branislav Dimitrijevic believes.
Pointing out a number of similar examples from the post-socialist region, Dimitrijevic assessed that Serbia is very specific where the whole field of construction is "just one aspect of huge corruption" and this will be continued until the current government is opposed.
*Photo: Beoinfo
(SEEcult.org)
*Support: International Relief Fund of the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut, and other partners
