This paper shows how the experts and the analysts of the Communist party/Communist Alliance (through their Youth Organization and interaction with artists and cultural workers) have traced the road of development of the Yugoslav popular music as an integrative factor of the socialist society of Yugoslavia.
Vuk’s Fair, a festival dedicated to the Serbian language reformer, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, has been held in Tršić since 1933. It is easy to follow, through the history of these fairs, all of the ever-changing cultural policies and ideologies that existed in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, post-war Yugoslavia, and modern Serbia. This paper, however, will focus on the period during which the first State Board for the Organisation of Vuk’s Fairs operated, from the late 60s to the early 70s – as one of the key eras in the post-war Yugoslavia. It was during this period that Vuk’s Fair gained all the characteristics of an “annual state-party ritual”.
At the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, one of the questions that used to divide the Yugoslav public and additionally inspire national disputes was the question of defining the terms “Yugoslav” and “Yugoslavism”. The leadership of the Communist Alliance of Yugoslavia and the state, considered Yugoslavism does not mean existence of the Yugoslav nation, and they did not allow any national or ethnic reading of the term. In Croatia and Slovenia particularly, any mention of Yugoslavism would receive a negative, unitarian connotation. The only Yugoslavism that was allowed was in support of the political course of the socialist self-management. However, the negation of the nationalistic Yugoslavism, which arrived from the top people in power, could not deter many former fighters, members of the Army, young people, spouses and children from mixed marriages, population of the multi-ethnic communities and some communists from declaring as Yugoslavs. Although the top Party members made some attempts to prevent this, the Communist Alliance of Yugoslavia had to allow the citizens their right to declare as Yugoslavs in the 1971 Census, even though they did not fail to insist that it did not count as nationality.
In the first post-WW2 years in the communist Yugoslavia, gradual abolishment of religious holidays started, diminishing the religious domain to the home and household members, and the church to its churchyard. Yugoslav legislation established new, federal republic and other holidays. Due to paper limitations, the manner of celebrating secular holidays will be reviewed on the example of the Fighter’s Day, which was announced federal holiday on April 26, 1956. Marking of the twentieth anniversary of the insurrection of the peoples of Yugoslavia will be viewed through three narratives: the first narrative (“a view from the outside”) consists of the data on celebrations of this holiday from the archives and press, while the second and the third narrative (“views from within”) consists of the data from interviews which the text author conducted in 2009 and 2010 with the producer and a participant of the celebration. Based on these data, the primordial event and its formal/structural characteristics and function of the subject holiday will be analysed.
This paper deals with the Houses of Culture in former Yugoslavia, which are anticipated as a reflection of concepts and goals of (new) Yugoslav culture, in the complex socio-political context of the Yugoslav socialist community. It builds on the assumption that a specific type of institution – House of Culture – was taken for a basic unit for developing infrastructural network for culture, and refined into specific, almost autochthone modalities. These modalities represent specific contributions within autochton type, considering its programme concept, its multiple socio-political functions and its aspirations to reflect particularities of the Yugoslav cultural project. Such a broadly set framework of Yugoslav culture opened up an equally wide interpretative field for architecture, through which the belonging to European (avant-garde) cultural space was emphasized. These works of architecture, whether just competition entries or actual buildings, have condensed the newly established social values through creative programme and visual researches of social realities and their reflections on the body of architecture. Various approaches of different authors, found between the two ends of the spectrum, the experiment and the social realm, have left behind some authentic layered works and designs, which are paradigmatic for understanding the relations of social realms, culture and architecture.
Inspired by the experience of the Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II, many cities of former Yugoslavia created the so-called children’s railways. These pioneer railways played multiple roles in the society at that time. Apart from the fact that their construction was ideologically motivated, another purpose of the pioneer railways in the post-war period was to provide a happy childhood to children. Also, the idea was for the young people to develop their orientation to technical professions from the early days, as well as admiration and respect for the railroad professions and traffic engineering in general. Although they did not last for long, analysis of the children’s railways can give us a picturesque insight into the ambitious cultural and educational policies of that time, the use of propaganda machinery to support the project, and in particular, it shows general social lethargy that has overcome the preservation and use of heritage. Specifically, the educational function of the pioneer railways was extremely emphasized, since they were intended to develop ethical values, the will for unselfish work for the community, and work discipline. This paper particularly case studies the reasons and origins of establishment, the duration and the factors for the disappearance of the Pioneer Railway in Košutnjak, Belgrade. In case of this particular railway, we actually do not have any doubts as to how such an ambitious educational vision happened to be overturned overnight – the answer to that is clear. Unfortunately, it did not become an unsustainable megalomaniacal project over time: it was like that from the very beginning. Also, the main question remains: Why did we allow lack of wider social care or in other words, how did we lose almost every memory of this educational vision?
Although the idea of the creation of the first travel agency in Yugoslavia existed in the middle of the 19th century, it took more than sixty years to establish the first travel agency, Putnik, in Belgrade in 1923. Founding of a tourist agency initiated numerous trips, both domestic and foreign, to the places of former Yugoslavia. The most popular destinations in Yugoslavia in the first half of the 20th century were in southern Serbia, Slovenia and the Adriatic. During 1930, business operations of Putnik were marked by cruises and thematic exhibitions in Paris, London, Nice, as well as the opening of a large number of branches in different cities, in the country and abroad. Until the beginning of World War I, important events for the development of tourist travels in Yugoslavia occurred: printing of posters, brochures, promotions of destinations, opening of the Belgrade Fair, making of the first tourist film in colour. After World War II, which had a very negative effect on tourism in the whole world, including Yugoslavia, a period of the country’s restoration followed and a golden age of tourism in Yugoslavia started, which by the number of tourists, their overnight stays and tourism revenues have never been exceeded. The appearance of agency activity in Yugoslavia contributed to the creation of a travel culture that has had multiple benefits for both travellers and hosts, but also for the society as a whole.
This paper deals with a re-reading of avant-garde and critical art practices that were emerging and developing in the interwar period in Yugoslavia, and their interrelations. Unlike dominant modernist art historical analyses that see a discontinuity and breakup with the avant-garde practices that pre-date it – in the “socialist art” of the fourth decade of the twentieth century – this research is trying to read the above mentioned art practices as a certain continuity and with organic coherence. Through a case study of artistic practices of Mirko Kujačić, the paper will show strong influences of Zenithism and Surrealism on the “socialist art”, defining it the art of “critical realism” (term by Lukács). It is stated that one can find avant-garde tendencies in the art of critical realism that take on different art methods and forms due to the changed socio-political circumstances, fast fascistization of the society and the proximity of war. In such political atmosphere, the avant-garde currents are reflected in the “temporal overlaps” of art and politics.
With its insight into the political, sociological and cultural discourse of the Yugoslav praxis, this research has an objective to show how management of the cultural productions in the function of an ideological apparatus has depended on actual public and cultural policies. An analysis of the interconnection and “flow over” of the public policy, its organizational instigators and the symbolic equivalent of transposing the political reality through cultural productions/rallies will discover the similarities and differences in the concepts of managing ideological projects in different historic periods in Yugoslavia. The purpose of this research process (involving an empirical method of case study on the example of cultural festivity/rallies in the period of existence of both Yugoslavia states) is to describe the existing forms and methods of organizing state scenic spectacles i.e. to describe the general understanding of the phenomena and the levels of management of cultural productions in the function of public policies.
Address: Rige od Fere 4, Beograd
Phone: +381 11 2637 565
Fax: +381 11 2638 941
Еmail: info@zaprokul.org.rs
