Естетика садржаја историјских чињеница – уметност презентације наслеђа
Esthetic Contents in Historical Facts – an Art of Heritage Presentation

Author(s): Igor Stepančić
Subject(s): Politics, History, Anthropology, Politics of History/Memory
Published by: Етнографски институт САНУ
Keywords: Museum “21. oktobar”; Kragujevac; shooting-range; esthetic contents; design of experience; art; history
Summary/Abstract: The memorial park “Kragujevacki oktobar”, in Kragujevac, is a unique spatial, artistic and historical unit which bears reminiscent to one of the most tragic events in the contemporary history- mass execution on October 21 in 1941. The central memorial place is the Memorial Museum “21. oktobar”, founded in 1976, by two architects, Ivan Antic and Ivanka Raspopovic. With its elaborated form and structure, this particular unit is an extraordinary piece of art, a unique example in the function of the memorial. For many families, it is a painful remainder of their respective loss. For wider range of people who visited the museum, the place represented a myth of 7000 executed pupils. The authors were faced with a serious task: to present death and suffering in a resident museum exhibition. After 12 years of fighting ideology and myth, in 2003, the museum founded new resident exhibition which presented facts in visually effective way hence integrating the contents in spatial structure in order to create a unique ambient of the museum. This new exhibition allows a more accurate representation on participants and events, multiple readings and unprecedented emotional “contact” with the events from 1941. A concept is simple, omits politics, explanations, ideology, guilt and responsibility, therefore, it is reduced to the fact that several thousand innocent people had died at the spot. It reminds of a temple, a place of epiphany, love of thy neighbor, and memories of the dead. The material is reduced with an aim to allow an easy reading into circumstances and chronological order of the events. A special place is given to the victims, their images and names, in order to represent an individual experience and suffering in war, making it so more contiguous to the public. The most important room, traditionally known as “Bloody tale” represents a repository, with the names and photos of the victims, a place to pay respect. This place is maintained by a temple and spirituality, rising above suffering and pain. For each deceased individual, there is a photo when available, while for those missing photographs, places were left empty. The authors named this room “A room of the soul projection”. So, a room becomes a repository where families of the victims can come and pay their respect, which is a universal human need that speaks a universal language. Here, esthetic of the facts is in a combination of facts being exhibited, means of handling information, ways of presentation and integration into the museum space, so that it in effect, communicates with an audience. The Memorial museum “21. oktobar” is a true example of such integration of material, space, esthetic and contents into a unique unit, which intertwines museum and reality outside the museum walls, perception requirements of an audience and adequate answers. Finally, due to this blending of the form and contents, the resident museum exhibition raised itself into a hymn dedicated to those poor people. Each of 2 794 killed men, women and children have their own place and eternal peace in the museum.

• Details
• Contents