BALKANS: Art Breaks Some Ice

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Jan 10 2008 (IPS) - An exhibition presented by Serbia in Croatian capital Zagreb is doing its bit to thaw icy relations between Serbs and Croats, who fought one another in the bloody war of disintegration of former Yugoslavia.

The exhibition presented by the Serbian National Museum does not present anything Serb. It goes under the unexpected title “A hundred Croatian top works of art from the collection of the National Museum in Belgrade”. It presents some of the best paintings and sculptures by Croatians 1850-1950.

“Many works by Croatian artists were acquired by the Serbian National Museum at a time when South Slav (Yugoslav) unity was just an idea, at the end of the 19th and early 20th century,” curator Ljubica Miljkovic told journalists in Belgrade after the exhibition was opened in Zagreb. “It was time to show those masterpieces to the broader Croatian public.”

When the first acquisitions began in 1904, Serbia was an independent kingdom, while Croatia was under the Austro-Hungarian rule.

South Slav nations came together as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, together with Slovenia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro, after World War I. The country survived World War II and then fell under communist rule, but broke apart in the bloody wars of the 1990s.

Serbia opposed Croatia’s war for independence which ended in 1995. The fighting between the two left bitter memories particularly in Croatia, where many still regard Serbs as “aggressors”, and believe that nothing good can come from Serbia.

Reconciliation has been slow, despite the fact that Croat wartime leader Franjo Tudjman and Serb leader then Slobodan Milosevic are both dead. New Serbian leaders have apologised to Croatia and its people for war crimes, but little more has been done to warm relations between the neighbours.

“This exhibition might be a turning point at least in our cultural relations,” a commentator on state controlled Croatian TV (HRT) said. “We are very glad that this exhibition got more media attention than the exhibition of (French painter of Russian origin) Marc Chagall works in Zagreb,” head of the Zagreb Art Pavilion Radovan Vukojevic told HRT.

The collection of Chagall’s works went on show at almost the same time in the prominent Klovicevi Dvori gallery in Zagreb.

“Our intention was to show how the Serbian National Museum respected the work of artists from all over former Yugoslavia,” Ljubica Miljkovic said. “Art is of universal meaning and only great artists such as Ivan Mestrovic can achieve that.”

Ivan Mestrovic (1883-1962) was the greatest Croatian sculptor. His works are scattered around the world. Serbia and Montenegro are home to his architectural designs. His son Mate who attended the opening of the Zagreb exhibition called it “a very emotional event.” Some of Mestrovic’s smaller pieces were transported to Zagreb, and Mate Mestrovic said he saw them “for the first time.”

Croatian works “had great influence on introduction of sculpture into Serbia, as artists of both nations were educated in Western capitals at the beginning of the 20th century,” Miljkovic said. “Serbia would not have had sculpture at all had it not been for Croats.”

Croatian sculptor Toma Rosandic (1878-1959) founded the Academy of Arts in Belgrade in the late 1940s. Several Croatian painters found cosmopolitan Belgrade more appropriate for their work, and were little known in Croatia. Their works are on show in their native country for the first time.

Besides these serious works of art that are re-establishing connections, co-production of television programmes in the Serbo-Croatian language area, that includes Bosnia, is making more broad-based appeal.

Young producers, writers and directors from all over former Yugoslavia have joined in the making of dozens of TV productions. These include serials such as Conspiracy, on imaginary political assassinations in Croatia, and Pride of the Ratkajs, a family saga.

“It is not surprising,” sociologist Ratko Bozovic told IPS. “Millions speak the same language, share a common culture and history. Boundaries are small, invisible, and due to fall. Cultural cooperation is a step in the right direction.”