The Role of Ideology and Power in Building Skopje

Centre for Southeast European Studies

 

UNI Graz

 

visiting lecture

 

 

Location:

Schubertstr. 51, HS 31.11

Date:

 

Wednesday, 1 June, 2016 – 13:00 to 15:00

Speaker(s):  Branimir Staletovik,

 (Armina Galijaš u. Hrvoje Paić)

Description:

 

The political and ideological interventions in the urban spaces have been part of the power and state-building processes both across time and space. A good example is the phenomenon of “mass producing traditions” (Hobsbawm) on the urban spaces in 19th century Germany and France. A similar trend took place in the post-colonial, socialist and post-socialist spaces, where the state and power-building processes have been accompanied by ideological promotion in the built environment (such as city of Ashkhabad for example). As Lawrence Vale has observed, national ideology stands as a dominant form of expression in the post-colonial urban remaking. Similarly, in the region of south-eastern Europe there are interesting examples of ‘politicization’ and ‘nationalization’ of the public space. A case in point is city of Skopje, which currently undergoes a significant revamp of its downtown area. More than 130 monuments and a dozen of new buildings have been built (mostly in neo-baroque and eclectic style) in the course of five years as a part of the large urban project dubbed “Skopje 2014”.

The lecture will centre on the interrelation between power, ideology and architecture in the context of Skopje 2014, focusing primarily on the relationship of nationalism and architecture as well as on the question of how the state’s organizational capacities and its semi-authoritarian nature have been employed in disseminating government’s vision of “new European Skopje”. The lecture will also address the urban development of Skopje under different regimes and ideologies.

http://www.suedosteuropa.uni-graz.at/en/event/2016/role-ideology-and-power-building-skopje