A trip to eastern Europe: revisiting the socialist monuments in Yugoslavia
In the process of visiting those hard concrete objects, we also personally felt some softness of the people in Eastern Europe. For example, we have breakfast in a farmer's house in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the four of us want everyone to order a different breakfast so that everyone can share it. Then we do everything we can to make the boss with poor English understand what we mean. After a dancing conversation, we were sure that the boss understood our intention. As a result, I didn't expect that she served sixteen breakfasts directly, and everyone had four different breakfasts. My first thought was being slaughtered by eastern Europeans.
However, when preparing to check out, the boss took out his mobile phone and wrote a paragraph with Google Translate to the effect that these foods were all made by himself, so the cost was not high, so they were free. (There is no breakfast set meal on their website. It's really surprising to see such a simple answer. Later, we gave them a little tip, and the boss's surprised expression reminded people of bertolucci's words: "The simple expression in the pre-consumer era."
As for the background of this visit to historical sites, they came from the mid-1950s to the early 1980s, and these sites showed the utopian passion left by architects and artists. Yugoslavia, as a multi-ethnic country, Tito achieved the separation and unification of the six major ethnic groups in the southern Balkans through a series of means, creating a complex racial balance. As a way to eliminate ethnic diversity, these monuments seek a brand-new value, that is, Yugoslavia. They not only have national financial support, but also local finance and private generosity.
These concrete monuments have a special name "Spomenix" (this word means "monument" in Serbian-Croatian), and they are scattered in the villages of the Balkans. Spomeniks has attracted attention because of its unique futuristic style and unrealistic aesthetics. For some people, they even think that these buildings are the products of alien civilization. Architects and artists often cooperate closely in these projects, so that the boundaries between them are blurred. These monuments were originally monuments to the common memory of the Yugoslav people against fascism, including thousands of war victims in concentration camps. They strengthened the common memory of people at that time with a utopian grandeur.
On the way to the UFO Monument by car, because the UFO Monument is at the top of the mountain, we met sleet from the warm foot of the mountain to the middle of the mountain, and finally reached the windy top of the mountain. This feeling is wonderful, although we are ready for the wind. As a result, when I got off at the UFO Monument, I almost drew my car back in fear. I found that the level of the wind should be no less than 10, so I crustily skin of head and said to myself, "The wind blows and the clouds fly, and the warriors go around."
Fortunately, the surprise brought by this behemoth completely suppressed people's physiological cold. In Bulgarian, the UFO monument is бузлуда, which comes from Turkish and means "glacier". Because it resembles a flying saucer, many people later called it a UFO monument. It is a building in the central Balkan Mountains of Bulgaria, with an altitude of 65,438+0,432 meters (4,698 feet). 1868, Bulgarian rebels fought against the Ottoman Empire here.
189 1 year, a group of socialists secretly organized socialist activities in this area and established the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party (Bulgaria * * *), so the Bulgarian communist regime built a monument here to commemorate this event. 1974 1 On October 23rd, the construction of the monument was started, and the height of the summit was reduced from 1, 44 1 m to1,432 m, which cost about 35 million dollars.
1981August 23rd, the property was officially opened. After the collapse of the communist regime, the building became a ruin and a holy place for lovers of ruins. Because the interior is in disrepair for a long time, the government is afraid of accidents, so the gate is locked, but there is a path next to it, but it is guarded by a special person to lock the curiosity of tourists. Because of the strong wind, it is difficult to walk around this abandoned UFO, as if it were about to be taken away. Its grandeur inevitably makes Shelley's poem Ozymandias roll up in my heart.
I met a traveler from an ancient country.
He said: There are two huge stone legs.
Shimada Hanzo is in the desert.
There is a broken stone face in the sand nearby.
Sipping his mouth, frowning, his face still dignified.
If you think of a sculptor, you must know how he feels.
That expression is still on the stone.
The people of Sri Lanka have passed away and turned to dust.
Look at the words carved on the stone base:
"I am the king of kings, Ozman Diaz.
Achievements cover things, and the strong are impressed. "
Other than that, there is nothing.
Around the ruins, there is only yellow sand.
Lonely and desolate, extending in all directions.
At this moment, I think the king of this world will or must succumb to another only king, that is, time, which commands everything and transforms everything, from the sharp corner of leaves to the top of power. Whether it is power or leaves, all roads lead to the same goal in the end, and they are all traces of time attached to this world.
After bidding farewell to the UFO monument, we went to a monastery in the mountains, "Lira Monastery". Lira Monastery was built in 10 century and is considered as one of the most important cultural, historical and architectural relics in Bulgaria. 1976 became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and 1983 became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since 199 1, it is completely affiliated to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. It is said that the monastery was founded by the hermit Saint Ivan of Lira during the reign of Tsar Peter I (927-968). The hermit actually lives in a cave, without any property, not far from the monastery. This complex was built by his students, who came to the mountains for education.
The main church of the monastery was built in the middle of19th century. Its architect is Pavel JoAnoff, who worked from 1834 to 1837. The church has five domes, three altars and two small churches. One of the most precious objects is the gilded icon, which is famous for its wood carving. There are many precious icons in this church, dating back to14th century to19th century. The porch in the courtyard has Mamluk's striped paintings and domes, which became more and more popular in the Ottoman Empire after the conquest of Egypt.
During the period of foreign rule, the complex was the preservation place of Bulgarian language and culture. During Bulgaria's national rejuvenation (18-19th century), it was destroyed by fire in 1833, and was rebuilt in 1834+0862 with the help of wealthy Bulgarians all over the country and under the leadership of the famous architect Alexis Lielitz. The establishment of residential buildings began at 18 16, and 1844 added a bell tower on the Heriyou Tower. During this period, Niofe Rilsky established a school in the monastery. Monastery is recognized as one of the hiding places of Bulgarian revolutionaries, such as Vasily levski, Gott Delcev and Peyo Yavorov.
The building itself is hidden in the deep mountains, and it will take some time to get there. Considering that it is such a remote and snowy season, there are certainly not many visitors. As a result, as soon as our car drove to the door, a tourist bus stopped at the left side of our car. Several China tourists with southern accents got off the tourist bus and thought it was really destiny takes a hand. Walking to the back hill of the temple, I saw a small stream flowing through the bridge, and the artistic conception was like the taste of a layman's poem: "There is moonlight in the pine forest and crystal stone in the stream." In my opinion, beauty should be the common nourishment of oriental buddhas and western gods, and only this kind of religion can last forever.
Fortunately, during my short stay, I met a believer who couldn't wait to pour the holy water he bought on his head and smear it on his cheeks. You know, the temperature at that time was at least three degrees below zero. Think about how the physical senses are overcome in faith, or that there must be something beyond the five senses in "believing" When it comes to five senses, I'm in a hurry to go to the toilet in the monastery. It still smells of uric acid when you enter the door. Its intensity is no less than that of a toilet in a scenic spot in China. Peeing is amazing. At that time, I suddenly wanted to find a spare machine to smoke in the toilet of this monastery for a few days, and then I went to the toilet of a temple in China to smoke for a few days. Finally, I am looking for an art gallery to mix the smells of two different spaces and spread them to the whole space, so that the audience can feel the same smell from different places of belief. To quote Zhuangzi, it is called "Tao drowned in shit".
But on second thought, what's the point? It is believed that at the moment when Duchamp brought the urinal named "Spring" to the art museum for exhibition, the "beauty" of the paradigm of contemporary art has been intertwined by the invisible flood in his urinal for a long time, which has brought the disaster of mediocre art, and at the same time, it can nourish new soil and bring new plains like many big floods. But what kind of plains do modern people need?
If it weren't for the fog curling next to the monastery, time would have disappeared in the viewer's psychological level. This is really a good place for people to think, not only believers, but also unbelievers. You will forget the time here, won't you? Tarkovsky told an interesting story that he and antonioni went to Uzbekistan to make a movie. At that time, he took a photo of three Muslim old people and showed it to them after shooting. As a result, the oldest one took a look at the photo and said to him, "Why did you stop time?" Tarkovsky and antonioni were stunned by this unusual rejection. The fog continues to wander slowly in front of us, just like a huge invisible clock over the monastery, warning believers and spectators that this is a different time zone. "The mountain is as quiet as ancient times, and the days are as long as off-year. The rest of the flowers can still be drunk, and a good bird might as well sleep. The taste of the world is often hidden, and time goes by. I often get a sentence in my dreams, but I forget it with a brush. " The time zone in the temple here may be one of the time zones mentioned by Tang Geng in the Song Dynasty 500 years ago.
We stayed in the monastery for almost an hour, and then went to Serbia to stay. The next morning, I set out for Nis, the largest city in southern Serbia. In Bubanjie Park, there is a famous Three Fists Monument, which consists of three concrete obelisks, symbolizing clenching fists and raising hands. These three fists vary in size and depict the hands of men, women and children who resist the enemy. They are also talking about the men, women and children who were brutally killed by the Germans in Bubani at that time. At that time, about10,000 Serbs and people from other regions were executed.
The three-dimensional relief in front of the monument reminds us of the British sculptor antony gormley. He said that all his efforts so far have been to explore how to express the existence of life in simple stillness. This sentence is very pure and accurate, and the relief in front of me also has such vitality, especially when I saw a bunch of roses in front of the relief, a memory inexplicably came to my mind. This is the scene I met at the Pantheon in Italy. A little girl with blond hair and blue eyes blew a kiss at Raphael's grave with a bunch of flowers in her hand. The girl's gesture actually reminds me of a poem by the German poet Hesse. He said, "Between the hourglass and the dead leaves, I don't want to deal with the spirit. I want impermanence. I want to be a child and a flower. "
After a short stay at Sanquan Monument, we went to the next Kosmaj Monument, which itself is located on the highest mountain in the region. It consists of six independent concrete structures, each about 40 meters high. The pictures seen on the spot are completely different from those seen on the Internet. It commemorates the 5000 soldiers who died in the battle between Serbian guerrilla fighters and German troops in World War II.
In my opinion, compared with design, the greatest charm of art lies in its uselessness, which is relative to the function of the body. For example, cups are basically used for drinking water, and sometimes they can be turned into other containers. But the greatest charm of art lies in its uselessness, or more simply, it is a kind of "nothing". Gombrich said: "There is no such thing as art, only artists." Therefore, the importance of artists, for a powerful thing, is the artist's pursuit of "nothing" More accurately, it is not for Party A, not for others, but for myself, truly being myself. It's hard, but only in this way can the power of art be released more and the world can be changed by the spirit. Monument is an object made of concrete, which is the common ontology of art and design. Utopian aesthetics contains the stories of the past and has witnessed the lives of many people, not only the past, but also the present and the future.
At present, various parties are sometimes held under the Red Star Monument, such as the special party held under the Monument by Time: Code in 20 18. By the way, this building is also a landmark of the military base of the Peace Elite. After withdrawing from the Red Star Monument, the next day we went to the Serbian village of Austera, where the Courage Monument is located at the southern end. 1967, Serbian sculptor Miodrag? Yves covey? And city planner Svitislav Lee? The courage monument jointly designed by ina was officially started and completed in two years. Commemoration 1944 Fighting near Austera Village.
The most interesting thing about this monument is that an Orthodox church was built near it in 2006. You know, the monument was built by the former Yugoslav government and is essentially a non-sectarian atheist. But the heavy snow in front of us brought the two things representing the two poles into balance. Not far from the two buildings is a cemetery, which is also the last habitat of the remains in the world. About a person's life, Su Shi said in Memories: "What is life like everywhere? It should be like flying in the snow. " Kawabata Yasunari added: "Life is a futile snow, and there is only illusory beauty." On the way to travel, Bob Dylan sang "Death is not the End" in the car.
Then we went to another monument in Serbia, the bullet hole monument, which was expanded on the triangular building complex of 1962. The monument in the triangular building is engraved with Serbian inscriptions, which are translated into English as follows:
"My dear country, do you know that the whole battalion died here?
Blood blooms in the snow, cold and white.
At night, the wind blows away the traces,
But still in the south, the army walked.
14 km dropped, but what about Katinga? Never! "
My motherland, do you know? Here, an entire battalion was killed ... blood bloomed in the falling snow, cold and white.
The night wind took away the traces.
But in the south, the army was advancing ... and fell 14 km, but Kadingacha never gave in.
This monument is in memory of the Serbs who fought bravely against fascism. 194 1 On April 6, 2000, the German and Italian fascist aggressors quickly occupied Yugoslavia with 23 divisions. On June 27th, the Central Committee of the Southern Communist Party decided to set up the Yugoslav People's Guerrilla Command, with Tito as the commander-in-chief, and launched a national uprising in July, establishing the first liberated area centered on Uzice in the western mountainous area of Serbia. Both the Central Committee of the Southern Communist Party and the guerrilla high command are located here, and Uzbekistan quickly became the center of the national anti-fascist movement and was affectionately called the "Republic of Uzbekistan".
The total area of the liberated area is 1 0.5 million square kilometers, and the population is about110,000. Hospitals, arsenals and logistics supply bases were established, making it the first base in the former Yugoslavia to resist fascist aggression. Later, the royalist army colluded with the German fascists to jointly attack Uzzice, and the new regime that existed for 67 days was brutally strangled.
The monument is huge, and the most striking thing is the concrete monument full of bullet holes, which is also the origin of the name of the monument. Standing under the magnificent monument, there is a sense of time and space dislocation, as if standing on another planet, looking at human civilization that has long been destroyed by war. Einstein once said, "I don't know what weapons will be used in World War III, but I know that World War IV will use sticks and stones."
Next stop, we went to another country, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and visited the Kozara Monument in Nacionalni Park. Its construction began at 1969, Du? And then what? Amonja's project won the first prize. The monument was completed on 1972. In memory of 2,500 Yugoslav guerrilla fighters and about 69,000 Serbian civilians killed by Nazi Germany in World War II.
The designer described the monument as the interaction of light and darkness. This cylindrical monument consists of twenty vertical parts, each of which has a deep concrete column (front) and a hollow (negative) feature. Negative represents death, but positive represents victory and life. Horizontal concrete blocks symbolize unsuccessful enemies who try to destroy life and victory. This is one of the most clearly stated monuments I have ever seen. Walking through the concrete blocks, there is a feeling of walking in Giorgio de Chirico's paintings. In the frozen wilderness of time, it is both romantic and rational.
On the first day of the new year, we came to Nikki (Nik? Me? ), the second largest city in Montenegro, next to the capital Podgorica, is an important industrial, cultural and educational center. In this city, a memorial to the soldiers of the Second World War (Spomenik Palim Borcima u Druglom svjetskomratu) was set up and officially opened to the public on September 1987 and 17 to commemorate the 43rd anniversary of Nikki's liberation from the Axis forces (mainly the Italian army).
The whole monument is reminiscent of revolvers, especially those "gear-like" pattern elements. Its base is decorated with many gear-like shapes, and there are 32 carved round black marble slabs. These stone tablets are engraved with the names and life spans of 32 guerrillas executed by Italian troops during World War II. At the same time, in the groove in front of the central monument, there is a tall rectangular black slate with a circular pattern on it and a paragraph engraved in the middle to the effect that "your bravery will be respected by your descendants for centuries." On the interpretation of the symbolic meaning of gears, one implies war, and the other represents flowers, which are widely used in memorial halls all over the former Yugoslavia and often represent "rebirth" and "renewal".
Then we drove to the only seaside monument in this trip-Freedom Monument (Spomenik Pobjede/споменикпоб? еде/ Permendorja eLiris？ ), located in Urzini, Montenegro, completed in 1985. Shaped like two inverted wings, concrete structure, with a height of 1 1m and a width of about 15m. It is not only to commemorate the fallen soldiers and civilian victims in the city and its surrounding areas who died in the national liberation war. In addition, it was established in memory of Yugoslav pilots who fought in World War II. When we arrived at the monument, it was just noon, and the Muslim salutation sounded in the distance. Facing the sacred sea at this moment, I think of the beautiful paragraphs written by Shen Congwen after facing the sea and life.
"A proud person, withdrawn, may not be able to become a soldier! We should always remember it and be careful. You arrived at a deep seaside. The body won't fall into the sea. If a heart falls into the fantasy realm of dreams, it is also quite dangerous. It is not easy to struggle out! " Writing here, he immediately retorted: "Why struggle? If that's where I want to go, there's no need to struggle. I must give up any desire to resist and continue to sink. Whether it is salty sea water or bitter life, I will sink to the end. It's like life. This is life. What I need is absolute conversion and seeing God through conversion. As a countryman, I always take a ruler and a steelyard with me everywhere, which is always out of place with ordinary society. Everything in my life has my size and weight to prove the value and meaning of life. I don't need that' society' thing you made. I hate the general standards, especially the standards set by thinkers to distort human nature. "
Looking at the monument by the sea and Shen Congwen's words reminds me of the classic story of Icarus's fall in Greek mythology. Because there are two completely left-wing views on the interpretation of this story, one is criticism and the other is praise. The story tells that Daedalus, a Greek architect and inventor, built a maze with ingenious route design for Minos, the king of Crete island, to trap Minotaur, the son of Minos, the bull's head. But the king was worried about the secret of the maze, so he ordered Daedalus and his son Icarus to be put on the tower of the maze to prevent them from escaping.
In order to escape, Daedalus designed a flying wing. But the flying wing is made of wax combined with bird hair and can't stand the high temperature. Before the flight, Daedalus warned his son: "If the flying height is too low, the flying speed of the wax wing will be blocked by fog and humidity; If the flying height is too high, it will burn due to the high heat of strong sunlight, causing the wax wing to melt. "
After the warning, their father and son spread their wings and fled from the stone tower on the island. Young Icarus flew higher and higher because of the joy of his first flight. Because he was too close to the sun, his wax wings melted, and finally he fell into the sea and died. Seeing this, his father, Daedalus, flew home sadly, hung his wax wings in the temple of Apollo on Mount Olympus, and never wanted to fly again.
Andre gide praised in theseus: "Let's just say that everyone is lost in his own maze. For my son Icarus, mental disorders are extrasensory. For me, there are huge buildings: palaces overlap, corridors and stairs are intricate ... Icarus, as early as before his death, remained the image of human anxiety, exploration and poetic soaring in his short life after his death. He gambled on his own game according to the rules, but no one stayed alone. So do some heroes. Their behavior continues, from poetry and art to an eternal symbol. "
It was five o'clock in the afternoon and it was getting late when we arrived at the Sutjesk Memorial. I feel that what I see is not a monument, but a rocket ready to go. The top of the rocket is decorated with a star. This star is not only a symbol of guerrilla uprising (the side is engraved with the year of 194 1- 1945), but also the completion year of the monument is 1984. Just as we got off the bus to shoot the monument, a car drove out of the mysterious building complex in the distance. Later, we learned that the mysterious buildings in the twilight turned out to be famous monasteries.
The car approached us slowly, and a nun came down and asked us why we came. Then we explained it and she left. Ten minutes later, three cars arrived, and another nun seriously told us that it was not safe to take pictures here at night because of the recent religious problems in Montenegro. I hope we can cooperate. This sudden remark made us a little nervous and soon agreed to leave at once. So the three cars started immediately and went straight to the front, which was quite a gangster. Looking at the back of their vehicles, we dare not stay any longer. We wanted to go out safely, so we left.
The next afternoon, we went to a special mosque in Albania. This mosque is called lead mosque because its dome is covered with lead. Because the mosque is often flooded, a small bridge was built at its entrance for people to pass.
It's already ten minutes after dusk, which is the most sensitive moment in the sky, and every minute is unpredictable. Suddenly far away and near, the sky in eastern Europe was covered with rose gold. Suddenly there was a call from the mosque in front of us, and the believers staggered past us until they reached the temple. Compared with the thrilling night before, this moment is sacred. What else can I say? Everything in front of me is speechless. To really appreciate it, we must admit its greatness and be in a daze, and lie down completely. There is nothing else to do and nothing else to do.
The last stop is the monument in Krushevo, northern Macedonia, which was built in 1974 to commemorate the national liberation of Macedonia and all the soldiers and revolutionaries who took part in the 1903 Ilinden uprising. It looks like a spaceship, but the commentator inside said that the building was inspired by a melee weapon similar to a mace. In fact, its overall feeling reminds me of the British Pavilion at the 20 10 Shanghai World Expo.
In a blink of an eye, 1 1 year passed quickly. At that time, there were many magnificent national pavilions at the World Expo, but now there are not many in my mind. On the contrary, the relatively small British Pavilion (Seed Pavilion) has always been remembered and rooted. The weight of the so-called memory is not proportional to the size of the real entity. Looking at the old photos at home in black and white, there is enough magic to make life memories have infinite thoughts in a very thin two-dimensional space.
The trip to eastern Europe ended like this. In fact, there are many interesting things on the trip, such as the cats in Mostar, the buses in Sofia full of memories of the 1980s, the second-hand shops in Belgrat, and the pungent smell of coal in Pristina. But what I miss most is the way of sunset in various countries during my trip. Whenever the windshield is covered with gorgeous things, my heart is shouting, this damn beauty, don't tempt me, I want to concentrate on driving. Please go around!