Yugoslav Socialist Modernism, AzW, October 25th–November 12th

Zlatko Ugljen: Šerefudin fehér mecset, Visoko, 1969-79 © Wolfgang Thaler

Text: Rudolf Klein

In the interwar period the central power supported the character, the supposed spirituality and the architectural equivalent of the „Yugoslavian ancient race” with neo-Byzantine motifs. Massive monuments, quasi-Byzantine public buildings were erected in the age of the Bauhaus. However, in practice the western and central part of the county was built by students of Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos and their followers. Modernism was even more characteristic of the Vajdaság than the architecture representing the neo-Byzantine „Dinari arche-power”. Tito managed to make an advantage of the variety and the geopolitical position of the region and thus to create a unique culture the most important medium of which was the „socialist modernist” architecture. The exhibition in the Vienna-based Architectural Centre (AZW) gives an insight into this rich and unique architectural termés by presenting the socialist architecture of Yugoslavia.