After the highly publicized Bruce Lee monument was erected in Mostar, a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2005, a series of similar ventures were initiated in rural Serbia. Some sociologists describe the glorification of nonpolitical celebrity figures as the result of an identity crisis caused by the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, a period when a once functioning multi-ethnic unity collapsed.
—
Turbo Sculpture is an essay by Aleksandra Domanović about sculptures of pop culture heroes, e.g. Bruce Lee, Rocky Balboa and Bob Marley, which have been placed or proposed in the nation-states that once comprised Yugoslavia. You can also watch a
photo-illustrated reading of the essay voiced by a dead-pan British man.
[via We Find Wildness]
posted by Kattullus
on Jan 18, 2012 -
5 comments
A hapless painter is endowed with the ability to understand the speech of forest creatures. Little does he know that the evil King Cactus is planning to destroy the forest using his monstrous grinding machine and an army of magically animated polearms, or that he will play an instrumental role in thwarting the scheming xerophyte. Released in 1986,
Čudesna šuma ("The Magical Forest") is Yugoslavia's first feature-length animated film. Created in collaboration with a US production company, it's available in English as (hold on to your hats, folks) "
The Elm-Chanted Forest."
[more inside]
posted by Nomyte
on Mar 7, 2011 -
7 comments
ESPN screened this great
documentary about the rise of the Yugoslavian basketball team in the late 80s, and the breakdown of relationships within the team, in particular Vlade Divac and Drazen Petrovic, as the country disintegrated in the 90s.
posted by jedro
on Oct 17, 2010 -
15 comments
It is not our role to take power. It is our role to make the powerful frightened of us. And that's what we've forgotten. Give up that dream! Chris Hedges talks neoliberalism and neofeudalism, the civil rights movement, Camden, Obama, Clinton, Tea Parties, moral nihilism, inverted totalitarianism and corpocracy, NAFTA, welfare reform, health care, labor, poverty, Yugoslavia, post-industrial capitalism, economic crisis, imperial collapse, socialism, and democracy, among other things.
[more inside]
posted by gerryblog
on Apr 24, 2010 -
51 comments
Hello to the Krilcic family. Ten years after we last saw you we are alive and well. And I hope you are. We would like to hear from you and see you. Goodbye.
In each episode of
Videoletters, two former neighbors, friends or colleagues separated by the Bosnian war exchange video messages. Since 1999,
two filmmakers have been helping people from across the former Yugoslavia find and reconnect with one another in this way, often with heart-breaking results. Watch a
sample episode here about two young men, Vlada (a Serb) and Ivica (a Croat), whose families were close friends when the war began. [Bit more inside]
posted by Ljubljana
on Apr 29, 2005 -
3 comments
Bosnia's horrific war memories There were countless horrors in the wars which led to the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. A Serbian army general has now surrendered to the authorities and will go to the United Nations tribunal in The Hague to answer war crimes charges dating back to 1999. But what happens once camp guards have served their sentences?
Dragan Kolundzija (Kole) stood trial in The Hague in Holland in 1999
Dragan Kolundzija, Kole to his friends, is sitting at the bar of the Hotel Prijedor when we enter....
posted by Postroad
on Jan 30, 2005 -
1 comment
Serbian premier assasinated
He was shot in front of government offices at around 1300 local time, (1200 GMT).
I know some people are going to cry Newsfilter, but I believe this is worth posting.
posted by tomcosgrave
on Mar 12, 2003 -
63 comments
Yugoslavia chapter closed: The
Archduke, the
Maverick Communist, and the
War Criminal. After a storied, and often violent, 20th century, the (nearly) all-encompassing Balkan federation is
no more, and what remains
may not survive. Even in the shadow of a violent breakup, though,
some former
republics are moving on,
though others remain a concern.
The roots of the region, of course, lie
much deeper.
posted by apostasy
on Feb 5, 2003 -
9 comments
In the midst of all the talk of possible terrorist deployments of Weapons of Mass-Destruction,
this seems like a somewhat dramatic, if effective, approach to pre-empting the threat of blackmarket nuclear proliferation. The co-operative approach adopted by the U.S and Russia - and presumably the Yugoslav Government itself - also seems encouraging.
Should this 'surprise-attack' approach now be used to negate the threat posed as nuclear facilities are decommissioned worldwide??
posted by Doozer
on Aug 23, 2002 -
3 comments
Apologies from the Left. Journalist Matt Welch compiles a few and opines: "Which "dictator" were we supporting when bombing Yugoslavia? Oh yeah, none. In fact, last I remember, Yugoslavia's dictator is now facing a trial for War Crimes, and tentative democracy is gaining a foothold in Belgrade and Zagreb." (via
Ken Layne)
posted by owillis
on Sep 17, 2001 -
30 comments
Wow! Got to give it to the people in Yougoslavia... This is damn impressive and it looks like the end of Milosevic. Europe is almost completely democratic now!
posted by TNLNYC
on Oct 5, 2000 -
16 comments
Not with a whimper, but a bang... The Belgrade parliament is in flames. The State television building is broadcasting for Free Serbia. If you can get a stream, FreeB92 is the place to be listening. The revolution may not be televised, but this it has its own
weblog
posted by holgate
on Oct 5, 2000 -
11 comments
West steps up threats against Yugoslavia -- "The Democratic Opposition of Serbia has signed up to the platform of the G17, a think-tank of market economists again funded by National Endowment for Democracy [an adjunct to the CIA]. This economic blueprint calls for the adoption of the German mark as the main currency for all of FRY, following in the footsteps of the Montenegrin republic last year. Other proposals include reduction of public spending, ending subsidies on food and other forms of social protection. The continuation of US and European economic sanctions on the FRY is being cynically exploited to bludgeon the population into accepting these terms as the condition for ending their economic isolation...." [more...]
posted by johnb
on Sep 25, 2000 -
11 comments
