These structures were commissioned by former Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito in the 1960s and 70s to commemorate sites where WWII battles took place (e.g. Tjentište, Kozara and Kadinjača), or where concentration camps once stood (e.g. Jasenovac and Niš). They were designed by different sculptors, including; Dušan Džamonja, Vojin Bakić, Miodrag Živković, Jordan and Iskra Grabul, to name but a few, and architects such as Bogdan Bogdanović and Gradimir Medaković. In the 80s, these monuments attracted millions of visitors a year, especially young pioneers for their "patriotic education." After the Republic dissolved in early 90s, they were completely abandoned, and their symbolic meanings were pretty much forever lost.
From 2006 to 2009, Kempenaers toured around the ex-Yugoslavia region (now Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.) with the help of a 1975 map of memorials, bringing back a series of 25 melancholy yet strikingingly beautiful images. His photos raise the question: can these former monuments continue to exist as pure sculptures? On one hand, their physical dilapidated condition and institutional neglect reflect a more general social historical fracturing. And on the other hand, they are still of stunning beauty without any symbolic significances.
Concrete bliss.
