Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies

Cultural policies, identities and monument building in Southeastern Europe
in the practice of intercultural dialogue, without creating trendy or “politically correct”
projects. Working in “difficult territories”, such as Kosovo, or bringing Kosovo artists
to Belgrade, or dealing with state terrorism (i.e. the work of Milica Tomić - XY or
reconstruction of the crime), they are living and experiencing cultural diversity from its
dangerous side in a xenophobic environment. By reinvestigating history, participating
in the Centre for Cultural Decontamination in the programme Politics of memory, they
are contributing to a large extent to the self-perception of different Balkan societies as to
their embedded multiculturalism, as well as historical and contemporary considerations.
Several of their public events happened within visual art manifestations (24 th Nadežda
Petrović Memorial, Politics of Image, Čačak and Politics of Memory, Prague Biennale),
producing participatory monuments made of distributive objects – publications with a
transcript of the Talk about an Artwork group under the title Politics of Memory.
An example of the third group of projects is the Monument to the International
Community of Nebojša Šerić Shoba, erected in Sarajevo 12 (steel, marble 2007), “by the
grateful citizens of Sarajevo”, thus referring to the official “policy of gratitude”, but in a
sarcastic manner. The Reuters report: “Sarajevo artists raised a monument to canned
beef on Friday in a gesture ridiculing donors for providing such an unpopular food as
humanitarian aid during the 1992-95 siege”, 13 shows a misunderstanding of the artist’s
intention (the artist in fact accused the international community of acting like a voyeur
at a gladiator fight – sending food to keep the fighters alive longer, but not preventing
the atrocities).
To what extent monument culture is a source of “inspiration” for contemporary artists
can be seen from the project of Jelena Miletić(In) visible dialogue. This “research” project
mapped monument culture in south-east Serbia, from the 19th century till today. The
research included municipalities which are outside of contemporary cultural debates
(Bor, Zaječar, Prokuplje, Zlot, Gornja Bela reka, Lenovac, etc.) and it ended with an
exhibition and public presentation in Bor. Jelena Miletić treated monuments as artefacts
gathering together different ideologies, memory politics, aesthetics and narratives of
collective and individual memories. This project is one of the many in Southeastern
Europe in which young artists are questioning official policies and practices of memory,
insisting that these questions should be openly and publicly debated.
Conclusion: Re-nationalization – the monument as a guardian of chosen
memory
The process of re-nationalization extensively used monument policies within the
culture of memory, as an essential pillar of identity building. Monument policies and
practices are acts of mediation which enable collective memory to be created and
safeguarded. Representing the value system of society they create a benchmark for
12
http://balkansnet.org/zamir-chat-list/transfer/nss/eng.html accessed 12 June 2010.
13
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKL0657786020070406 accessed 12 June 2010.
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