The Political Value of Anachronism: On Affective Logics of Yugoslavia’s Socialist Architectural Heritage

• In Event: Yugoslav Memories II: Remembering after Yugoslavia: Archives, Feelings, and Anachronistic Memories

Abstract

In the context of post-socialist, post-Yugoslavian Belgrade, every architectural project from Yugoslavian socialism is anachronistic. Housing blocks in New Belgrade, Miljakovac, Mirjevo, Cerak, sports centers, department stores, parks, urban environments that supported daily life in socialism all carry seeds of possible contemporary resistance to the rapidly installed neo-liberal order. Thanks to the continuous effort of architectural historians and heritage experts, some of this architectural stock has been recently placed under state protection as cultural heritage. The hope was that laws that govern cultural heritage might sponsor forms of pushback to developer bottom-line interventions, and further private enclosure of formerly commonly owned land. But over the last two years, as some major architectural works have found themselves on the chopping block (Hotel Jugoslavija, The Fairground, Generalštab, Sava Centar, Genex Kula), and as the legal protection has been stretched, overturned, or those in charge of the protecting institutions have resigned, both the architectural profession and citizens have gathered around these anachronistic buildings. Their privatization and demolition, as well as bogus renovations as in the tragic case of the Novi Sad Railway station, have had exceptional political significance. I argue that because these buildings constitute part of the affective history of Yugoslavian socialism, and thus serve to focus collective memories of everyday life in socialist Yugoslavia, they also provide access to thinking alternatives to the current neo-liberal transition reality, which in turn makes their anachronism politically vital.

Author

• Ana Miljacki, MIT