is/was

Spomenik in Flux

Spomenik in Flux surveys former Yugoslav Socialist memorials, considering the elasticities of commemoration, conservation, and reappropriation. Having conducted a series of large-scale, grant-funded research trips to sixty such sites, I’m now at work on a book of their taxonomy.

Constructed as part of the Yugoslav nation-building project, these memorials (spomenik) currently epitomize a gradient of decay. Some remain fixed while others are in rapid flux, placing them at a critical point for conservation efforts. Once sites of commemoration, cultural memory and significance, the monuments are now at worst, sites of neglect, disuse and abandonment, and at best, become invisible, losing significance, either by blending into overgrown landscapes or via purposeful erasure. As meanings change and interest fades, these monuments are relegated to the backdrop, little more than a place to picnic, a blip on the social media feed. The monuments’ contemporary condition sits in stark juxtaposition to an original, intended meaning. Drawing from 60 instances of spomenik documented through fieldwork performed across the region, I have built a taxonomy of conservation circumstances. Monumental decay writes a counter-narrative for the monuments, which have come to stand in opposition to what they originally signified through acts of vandalism, natural forces and neglect. Tracing the modes in which these contradictory and semantically charged sites operate in response to or in spite of contemporary preservation efforts, allows for reflection upon both authoritative and informal cooption of singular cultural connotation and speculation about the power of memorial elasticity. Within the Post-Yugoslav context, separate countries prioritized national heritage which focused on the demographic contrasts and regional diversity. Built as unifying icons, the monuments have been shaped by rapidly changing contemporary contexts, with abstract formal qualities they have withstood the test of time working as relevant cultural chameleons, shifting signification alongside changing Post-Yugoslav cultures. A re-contextualization of these sites through fieldwork situates the monuments in their current context as multivalent signifiers of memory.

Detroit Prairie

In Detroit Michigan prairie grasses now fill spaces that dwellings once occupied. Old trees remain among fragments of foundations, driveways, patios and walkways, marking the place where houses once stood. Empty fire hydrants and sagging utility poles offer a glimpse into the once thriving neighborhoods which existed here. New signs of life abound. Entire urban blocks have become prairie fields, some extending for blocks and spanning streets, root systems breaking concrete up as nature is left to take over, unrestrained. As abandoned buildings become overgrown and decompose, the fabric of the city changes. This is the greening of Detroit.