On February 19th, 2015, Clemente Padín, the elder statesman of Uruguayan art, replied to an email from his compatriot and young artist Francisco Tomsich with a fateful attachment:
The top scholar of Yugonostalgia, professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Ljubljana, and ex-Yugoslav National Army cook, Mitja Velikonja, discusses his military service, the good and the bad of Yugoslavia
The stronger [the] nostalgia, the emptier of recollections it becomes.
Graffiti dating back to the 1940s survive on walls of towns and villages from Ljubljana to the Istrian peninsula.
Across former Yugoslavia and beyond, songs of the Partisan struggle, resistance, and revolution reverberate anew in the public square.
A roundup of Yugoslavia-related news for the months of December 2020 and January and February 2021.
Artists have used Yugoslav World War II monuments as elements in their works to criticize official policies
In this installment of Diaspora Voices, an occasional series of conversations with ex-Yugoslavs living abroad, three people on three different continents—Australia (Parramatta, NSW), North America (Vancouver, BC), and Europe (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)—share stories of their journeys to and through life… Continue Reading →
How and when did the world’s fascination with Yugoslav socialist monuments begin?
More than a generation after Tito’s death, biographies of the Yugoslav statesman keep appearing apace. Why is that?
Historian Jelena Djureinović, PhD parses the trajectory and the many facets of historical revisionism in Serbia.
Lepa Brena was the most popular and best-selling Yugoslav singer of the 1980s, Yugoslavia’s Madonna. She continues to personify Yugoslavia for many to this day.
Travel writing about ex-Yugoslavia exploded in the 1990s as the country disintegrated in violence. The lessons the author of the first such account, Brian Hall, learned when he traveled through then-Yugoslavia in 1991 resonate today more than ever.
Two photographers born in former Yugoslavia and living abroad, Olja Triaška Stefanović (Novi Sad, Serbia / Bratislava, Slovakia) and Dragana Jurišić (Slavonski Brod, Croatia / Dublin, Ireland) have (re)claimed the memory of their disappeared homeland through their art.
…or New Yugoslavism in Contemporary Popular Music in Former Yugoslavia Parallel to Yugonostalgic enjoyment of Yugoslav-era music across the region, another related musical phenomenon emerged in the 1990s: original music glorifying Yugoslavia.
A roundup of Yugoslavia-related news for the months of October and November 2020.
There are surprisingly few polls across former Yugoslavia tracking people’s perception of that disappeared country and its breakup.
…or A Field Report from the Days of AVNOJ Every last Saturday in November, several thousand people from all across former Yugoslavia gather in Jajce for Days of AVNOJ, an official celebration of Yugoslavia’s founding
What has Dayton wrought and where do we go from here? Bosnian policy analysts and activists Gorana Mlinarević and Nela Porobić Isaković bring a feminist perspective to discuss the legacy of the Dayton Peace Accords after 25 years of implementation.
A Serbian and a North Macedonian graphic designer discuss Yugoslavian design as an inspiration for their work.
Two members of the Serbian diaspora share their experiences leaving former Yugoslavia, making a new life in South Africa and the United Kingdom, and staying connected with their disappeared homeland. Plus a listener’s letter from Australia.
Mitja Velikonja. Rock’n’retro: Novi jugoslavizem v sodobni slovenski popularni glasbi / Rock’n’Retro: New Yugoslavism in Contemporary Popular Music in Slovenia. Translated from the Slovenian by Olga Vuković. Ljubljana: Založba Sophia, 2013.
Donald Niebyl discusses the origin story and notoriety of his project, Spomenik Database, and the fetishization of Yugoslav-era World War II monuments.
Foreign-born, Belgrade-based tour operators, Ralph van der Zijden, from the Netherlands (iBike Belgrade & Yugotour), and Tiago Carruco, from Portugal (Into the Balkans), share the stories of their respective businesses and how the covid pandemic has affected them.
Historian Ivo Goldstein identifies the roots and actors of historical revisionism in Croatia.
Director of Ljubljana-based Institute of Culture and Memory Studies, Tanja Petrović, discusses the new lives of Yugoslav objects, Yugonostalgia, and the political potential of socialist Yugoslavia today.
A roundup of Yugoslavia-related news for the month of September 2020.
President Goran Gabrić takes me on a walking tour of Mini Yugoslavia.
Hrvoje Klasić discusses historical revisionism in Croatia and life as a celebrity historian.
The phenomenon of Yugonostalgia continues to elicit attention from the media and academics.
Elma Hodžić, curator at the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, discusses the museum’s memory-making activities and Bosnian post-war identity.
Art historian Vladana Putnik Prica of the University of Belgrade discusses inappropriate monuments, foreigners’ interest and generational differences in locals’ perception of spomeniks, and nostalgic songs.
A roundup of Yugoslavia-related news for the month of August 2020.
Petar Janjatović, author of Ex-YU Rock Encyclopedia 1960-2015, discusses the endurance of Yugoslav rock and the political power of music.
Martin Pogačar, PhD, a research fellow at the Ljubljana-based Institute of Culture and Memory Studies, discusses the subversiveness of Yugoslav pop-culture and Yugoslavia’s digital afterlives.
Sanja Horvatinčić, PhD, a researcher at the Institute of Art History in Zagreb, applies a bottom-up, heritage-from-below methodology to analyze Yugoslav WWII monuments and modernist architecture.
A roundup of Yugoslavia-related news for the month of July 2020.
Mario Milaković, the founder of Yugodom, a stay over museum of mid-century modern Yugoslav design, discusses his creation, tourism, and Yugonostalgia.
I, the creator, producer, and host of the Remembering Yugoslavia podcast, Peter Korchnak, tell the project’s origin story.
Ethnomusicologist Ana Hofman discusses the history and revival of Yugoslav Partisan songs, performed today by activist choirs around former Yugoslavia. Featuring Partisan songs by Zbor Praksa and KIC Pop Hor.
The inaugural episode of Remembering Yugoslavia is all about the Yugo car.
Remembering Yugoslavia started with an idea of covering various aspects of the disappeared country’s memory politics, from Tito to products to architecture.
Two years ago, Zagreb’s Tito Square was renamed Republic of Croatia Square.
Dino Abazović and Mitja Velikonja, eds. Post-Yugoslavia: New Cultural and Political Perspectives. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
Pinkove zvezdice is an American Idol-like program of the Serbian TV Pink in which children perform. One of the stars of recent years is Katarina Radulović.
Zala Volčić. Serbian Spaces of Identity: Narratives of Belonging by the Last “Yugo” Generation. New York: Hampton Press, 2011.
A number of companies in the capital cities of ex-Yugoslavia provide tours in vintage Made-in-Yugoslavia vehicles.
And, finally, a big farewell kiss to my beloved Yugoslavia. We probably won’t meet again, dear, but nothing will ever replace you in my heart.”
Srećko Horvat and Igor Štiks, eds. Welcome to the Desert of Post-Socialism: Radical Politics After Yugoslavia. London: Verso, 2015.
Vlad Beronja and Stijn Vervaet, eds. Post-Yugoslav Constellations: Archive, Memory, and Trauma in Contemporary Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian Literature and Culture. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016.
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