George Grylls’s critique of a survey of Soviet social building was highly commended in this year’s Observer/Anthony Burgess prize
In truth, the exhibition has been teasing us for its big finale. And just when you were about to ask for your money back, you get what you came for – spomeniki, lumbering onto stage like the Rolling Stones dutifully returning for an obligatory encore. Spomeniki is the name given to the multifarious memorials that dot the former Yugoslavia. In the final section – Identities – curators battle the received opinion that these morbid follies were centrally commissioned, advancing instead that each one is culturally distinct.
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MoMA has channelled social media popularity and produced a strong case for the sustained appreciation of a marginalised culture. Even Jeck’s photographs finally come into their own. His image of Miodrag Živković’s Tjentiste War Memorial is indeed poignant. The angular concrete interrupts the Bosnian snow harshly, like a scar, recalling Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin. One inevitably thinks of the battles fought subsequently on this land. It feels an appropriate point at which to leave- reflecting upon the consequences of this empire’s dissolution, yet enlightened as to its dedication to good design.
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