Bogdan Bogdanović

Description

Bogdan Bogdanovic, born in Belgrade in 1922, was not only the leading and most outstanding monument architect of the former multi-ethnic state of Yugoslavia, but also an unconventional urbanologist, essayist, writer, philosopher, and much more. Bogdanovic can also boast a political career: from 1982 to 1986 he was mayor of Belgrade. The quote from Friedrich Achleitner gives an indication of how versatile Bogdanovic’s talents are. Between 1951 and 1981 Bogdan Bogdanovic realized 19 memorials in many parts of the former Yugoslavia as a sign against war and extermination. Bogdanovic opted for a cross-cultural architectural language, free of ideological insignia. For each of these sites, the tireless draftsman developed new forms – always in dialogue with local conditions. None of the 19 memorials resembles another; each is unique in itself. In his self-image as a “master builder,” it was extremely important to him to work out the various memorials in a kind of “work-in-progress” in exchange with the stonemasons. His poetic yet pathos-free approach to sites of destruction culminated above all in the famous Flower of Jasenovac, which stands on the site of a former concentration camp. The partisan necropolis in Mostar/Bosnia-Herzegovina and the memorial cemetery fair for the victims of fascism in Sremska Mitrovica/Serbia are among the most important of these memorials.