Video: Forgotten monuments to the heroes of World War II
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In memory of the heroes and battles of the Second World War throughout the territory Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 70s, huge futuristic memorials were erected. After the collapse of the USSR, they were abandoned, and now they rather resemble the scenery for a fantastic film.
Once, into the hands of the Belgian photographer Jan Kempenars (Jan Kempenaers) fell into the hands of an art encyclopedia, which included an article about the monument (Spomenik), built on the territory of Yugoslavia. Reading further, he learned that in the middle of the last century there were a huge number of such sculptures in the country, but over time, most of them were destroyed. The photographer decided to travel to Yugoslavia to document what was left.
In the 1980s, these sculptures were visited by millions of people. Excursions for the pioneers were especially often arranged for the purpose of "patriotic education." Unfortunately, after the collapse of the Soviet Republic of Yugoslavia, these monuments were abandoned, and their symbolic meaning was lost.
In his works, the photographer shows how the massive concrete sculptures are organically integrated into the surrounding nature. Installed sometime in order to remind! they, forgotten, now live their own lives.
After his trip, Jan Kempenars published a book entitled “ Spomenik: The End of History"(" Spomenik: the end of history "). He placed pictures of massive memorials in it. On the one hand, these are already dilapidated sculptures, personifying the departure of an entire era. But, on the other hand, in these monuments you can still feel the strongest energy and power put into them by the leading sculptors of that time. France also has an original monument dedicated to the fallen heroes.
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