AbstractsNikola Samardžić
Belgrade 1714-2014: Utopianism and urbicideThe first war between Austria and Turkey began in 1714. In 2014 the memories of
the beginnings of the Baroque Belgrade associated with the period of Austrian
governance have fallen into the shadow of the WW I Centennial. Particularly
important in this matter could be the actual memory and value distortion
related to the historical failure that led Austria and Serbia to the opposing sides
in the unfortunate conflict. A whole of the cultural history of Belgrade during
the last three centuries could be considered in almost paradoxical continuity
of discontinuity of wars, devastation, irrational decisions and unfulfilled
visions. Belgrade was a central point in wars between Austria and Turkey
in 18th century that reshaped also its cultural background. During the 19th
century Belgrade became the most important benefit for the Serbian national
revolution, and a cultural challenge for the backward rural society faced
with the dilemma of modernization. The modernisation is almost an implied
acceptance of cultural conceptions of the late baroque urban experience along
the Danube region. In the role of the Serbian and Yugoslav capital, Belgrade
enjoyed only three periods of relatively peaceful development: from the final
liberation in 1867 until the beginning of WW I in 1914, between 1918 and
1941 when Belgrade built the shapes of its European identity, and from 1944
till the beginning of the Yugoslav disintegration in 1991. The first and third
period lasted 47 years each, the second one only 22 years. Even during the
occasional peaceful breaks, Belgrade has remained a battlefield of carefully
cultivated carelessness, neglect and barbaric treatment of public goods and
interests. Belgrade is a migrant shelter that offers only a rudimentary amount
of acculturation influence. Belgrade has suffered too much destruction,
migration, economic crisis cycles and identity crisis concussions during the
two centuries of its modern history. During the 20th century Belgrade was
the most common war aggression victim or even aggression promoter. The
history of Belgrade’s culture is an extraordinary chronicle of the struggle for
survival of the ordinary, usually anonymous individuals. The dramatic social
and economic changes included sometimes a self-destruction. Belgrade lasted
as its own illusion, as invisible, but discernible human energies of optimism,
of hope, of ups and downs. Belgrade was both a source of enormous creative
effort, and a black hole of futility and misfortune.