MoMA is to host exhibition exploring Yugoslavia’s concrete architecture
MoMA is to host exhibition exploring Yugoslavia’s concrete architecture
New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is to examine former Yugoslavia’s striking concrete structures and original urban planning visions that became one of the country’s symbols during its time being in the past century.
More than 400 drawings, models, photographs, and film material showing the region’s most impressive accomplishments in architecture are to be featured in the exhibition entitled “Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948 – 1980.” The opening of the exhibition is scheduled for July 15 this year and will close on January 13, 2019.
Located between the capitalist West and the socialist East, Yugoslav architects were frequently required to respond to contradictory demands and were under various influences, which eventually led to producing a distinguished postwar architectural output both in line and distinct from architectural solutions seen elsewhere in Europe and beyond, also writes MoMA for the exhibition announcement.
Tjentište War Memorial, commemorating the Battle of Sutjeska (1943), Bosnia and Herzegovina, work by Miodrag Živković photo credit
From brutalist “social condensers” to normal skyscrapers, the architects of Yugoslavia had manifested planning and building efforts that embrace the same traits that characterized the Yugoslav state itself: diversity, hybridity, and idealism.
Some of the architectural accomplishments that the exhibition is set to examine are for instance the huge public spaces such as Edvard Ravnikar’s Revolution Square (now Republic Square) in Ljubljana, or the Sava Center that can be seen in Belgrade. Besides Ravnikar, more names appear on the list of featured architecture, such as Bogdan Bogdanović, Juraj Neidhardt, Svetlana Kana Radević, Vjenceslav Richter, and Milica Šterić.
Ravnikar’s Republic Square in Ljubljana, photo credit
Other examples of notable projects to be provided by the museum include the post-earthquake rebuilding of the Macedonian capital, Skopje, which was based on Kenzo Tange’s Metabolist design. Also, the new town of New Belgrade’s large-scale housing and civic buildings development, or the sculptural interior of the White Mosque in rural Bosnia.
The country that once had the most powerful passport in the world faced internal conflicts in the 1980s. The political and economic crisis that escalated by the end of the decade resulted in a violent break up of the state, after which brutal civil wars in the region lasted until the mid-1990s.
“Kameni Cvet” (Concrete Flower) memorial in Jasenovac, work of Bogdan Bogdanović, photo credit
The consequences of these wars can still be felt in some regions to date, while the lasting architectural accomplishments serve as a reminder of the once peaceful and tranquil days. Concrete landmarks can be spotted across any of the former countries that composed Yugoslavia, from Slovenia on the north to Macedonia on the south.
MoMA has further acknowledged that the modernist Yugoslav architecture is something understudied, but whose forward-thinking design and spirit is still something that resonates today. The exhibition is organized by MoMA chief architecture and design curator Martino Stierli, while Anna Kats appears as a curatorial assistant, and Vladimir Kulić as a guest curator.
Comments
Post a Comment