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The participants in the discussion panel “Monument” held as part of the XI Festival Mixer sent a letter to the media with a proposal to conduct a survey among all relevant cultural and educational institutions asking them to take a final position and comment on the Stefan Nemanja monument erected in Sava square in Belgrade.
Photo: BETAPHOTO / BRANISLAV BOZIC / MOWe are transmitting your letter in its entirety:
Dear all,
As is known, these weeks a huge and monstrous monument to Stefan Nemanja is being erected in Belgrade in Savski trg.
For many citizens of Belgrade and Serbia, this monument is very problematic because of the way the decision-making process was carried out, as well as financial, cultural, symbolic and aesthetic reasons.
Many Belgrade residents believe that this monument will further humiliate and destroy our city with its inappropriate proportions and mediocre artistic views, and point to non-transparent contracts, unknown and politically educated participants in the councils, uncoordinated views of the jurors. , as well as the illegal and unconstitutional concealment of financial data. declared a state secret, even though it is a public monument and a public budget.
It is not necessary to wait until the monument is assembled to the end to see its aesthetic, architectural, urban and artistic inadequacy: it is a manifestation of disgust and arrogance of corrupt power. If erected, the monument will firmly place Belgrade on the map of strange places visited in order to study the phenomena of urban dysfunction, political megalomania and identity gaps.
Before our eyes is a terrible abuse of history, the personality of Stefan Nemanja and the meaning that the ancestor of the Nemanjic dynasty has in Serbian culture, and whose representation with this monument is dangerously meaningless and deprives of its cultural matrix, traditional pattern, not to mention the space for modern interpretation.
More than three thousand citizens of Belgrade and Serbia signed a petition calling for the suspension of the erection works of the monument, and some experts who argued and publicly expressed their opposition to the construction of such a monument, the trivialization of history and the desecration of the city.
However, we believe that it would be necessary to hear in public the voices of those who represent and work in our most important institutions of culture and education, and who represent professional associations, federations and organizations.
Therefore, we are writing to you with a request and a proposal to initiate a comprehensive survey among managers and experts from cultural and educational institutions, such as museums, colleges, institutes, and various artistic, architectural, urban, security and conservation organizations and associations. .
All of them must be competent and invited to express their opinions and expert points of view, because it is their duty and obligation to defend their city from further collapse, protect their modernity from vulgarity and disgust, and their history, from misinterpretation and abuse. .
We believe that the major media should help to better understand the myriad of issues surrounding the construction of this monument, and we thank you in advance, hoping that you will respond to our initiative.
Signatories:
Prof. Dr. Irina Subotic, art historian
Prof. Milena Dragićević Šešić, PhD, Faculty of Dramatic Art, Head of UNESCO Department of Cultural Policy and Management, University of the Arts Belgrade
Goran Markovic, film director, prof. emeritus, Faculty of Dramatic Arts Belgrade
Dr. Branislav Dimitrijević, art historian, prof. High School of Fine Arts and Applied Arts, Belgrade
Mia David, architect, prof. Faculty of Technical Sciences, Novi Sad
Marko Lađušić, sculptor, dir. Prof. Faculty of Applied Arts, Belgrade
Dejan Atanackovic, visual artist and writer
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