This research into former Yugoslavia’s spomenik (monuments) explores the critical
relationship between a series of material memorials, their mediatized
representations and their most recent appropriation in order to underscore the
transformative nature of historic signification as both a built and symbolic continuum.
Erected over the span of twenty years before Josip Tito’s death and just prior to
Yugoslavia’s disintegration, the spomenik currently epitomize a gradient of decay,
some fixed while others are in rapid flux at a critical point for conservation efforts. In
each instance, however, their contemporary condition in stark juxtaposition to an
original intended meaning points to the persistent power and allegorical potential of
counter-monumentality. 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 sp
