“It’s like a city within a city”, “a true playground”, “a park”, the work of stonemasons Brado and Mikelo from Dubrovnik, the monument that “communism had built for itself”, “a great metaphor for the old and new system”, and “a symbol of red terror” – that is how fourteen storytellers chose to describe the Partisan Memorial Cemetery in Mostar, after being asked to share their stories, memories, experiences and photographs. The Memorial was designed by famous Yugoslav architect Bogdan Bogdanović and was built in 1965 commemorating Partisans who were killed during the World War II. The Monument is nowadays exposed to frequent vandalism and it is a pretext for political clashes.
In order to document the present-day condition of the architectural space, diversify voices surrounding it and rethink approaches to the urban revitalization of the site, the group of local and international contributors set out the goal to assemble narrative and visual experiences and publish the book Mostar’s Hurqulya: The (Un)Forgotten city.
Thematically, the book is organized into seven chapters: Space, Art, Symbols, Politics, History, Emotions and the Future, aiming to open up new opportunities for a dialogue with fragments of the past, present and the future. The reflections that were gathered through series of conversations and meetings bring into focus the complexity of everyday encounters of people and the monument.
You can download the book for free HERE.