engleski

Between Memory Politics and New Models of Heritage Management: Rebuilding Yugoslav Memorial Sites ‘From Below’

This paper offers an overview of current local, regional and international status and physical condition of Yugoslav monuments dedicated to the Second World War Peoples’ Liberation Struggle and socialist revolution, completed with the analysis of their changed heritage status and challenges provided by the new social, economic and geo-political context of the post-Yugoslav/post-socialist space. Having in mind various regional policies and the general lack of institutional supervision and maintenance of these historic and memorial sites and buildings, caused by the drastic outcomes of the changed political circumstance in the former Yugoslav region, while at the same time observing the arising international interest that may lead to uncritical investment into their contemporary political and social re-use, this heritage face challenges that appear to be particularly alarming when it comes to protecting the interests of local communities and immediate stakeholders. The paper aims to indicate the main challenges concerning the perception and management of this heritage provided by local and EU heritage politics, while emphasize the importance of small-scale, local initiatives, thus looking beyond the authorized heritage discourse, and into the heritage practices that emerge ‘from below’. While the paper introduced the general historical context and main features of this large group of public monuments and memorials, the main focus of the analysis is the analysis of their “post-socialist” condition – the conflicted positions from which they are being perceived, (mal)treated and (mis)handled as heritage in their immediate cultural, social and political environment. It focuses on the tension between their official disinheritance or new forms of historical falsifications and political appropriations (often initiated and sponsored by official memory politics), on the one hand, and the grass-root, activist initiatives or locally supported small-scale renewal projects, that challenge or subvert the dominant politics of both memory and heritage management, and – in some cases – even constitute or fertilize new, counter-hegemonic heritage approaches and practices.

Socialist Yugoslavia, Heritage Destruction, Heritage Protection, Heritage from Below, Memorial Sculpture, Memorial Architecture, Second World War

nije evidentirano