Monument 2.0 / 2018
Let me be briefly sentimental since this all feels very coming of age writing 6 years later.
This piece holds a dear place in my heart, not only for the fact that it marks a point of expansion or more percicely ignition of a relationship with my own practice
It also deals with a very important architecture in my own life,
The architecture in question being my birthplace and not only so, but the very square below the window of my grandparents appartment, the core of most of my childhood memory.
In order to fully understand the significance of this bunch of crumpled paper and duct tape we have to annotate two historical events crucial in the development of the square, i.e. The rise and fall of Titos Uzice.
Compiled in the next two paragraphs
The second monument follows the cycle fate of its predecessor , in a rather condensed version of history
Exhibit A, 1961
During the Second World War Uzice was the epicenter of many
events that largely determine social life of post-war state. Committee of the Association of Veterans of Yugoslavia decided to give the importance and the role that the city played in the National Revolution and the antifascist struggle. So this small town in western Serbia suddenly became a focal point in which has been developing "new heroic figure" of the time of the former Yugoslavia. This involved the construction of a new town center. Planned and executed by Stanko Mandic and Milorad Pantovic.The task was to create an architectural complex where dwellers could meet and relax. The square is designed as a center of the city, on its fringes groups all important(housing with 330 apartments), a department store, exhibition hall, shops, pubs, cinema, National Bank, Post office and a Memorial Building, home to The National theater and library The spatial arrangement of the square follows the topographic slope, which allowed the formation of platforms with stairways and ramps, decorated with fountains and smaller units for rest and relaxation. The dominant motif of the square and the entire urban area was is a monument of Josip Broz Tito, placed prominently on the Square in 1961 as a standing figure of 4.75 meters high, the work of Professor Frano Krsinic from Zagreb.
