Entretien
| 19/02/2008
Bogdan Bogdanovic was born in 1922 in Belgrade.
He was involved in the Yugoslav resistance from 1941. During his long post-war career, Bogdanovich was commissioned by Tito as architect of more than 20 monuments to the victims of war and fascism.
Among his major works, Jasenovac's "Flower of Stone" and the Vukovar memorial (destroyed during the Serb-Croat conflict) were recognised internationally.
As well as an architect of Yugoslav national memory, Bogdan Bogdanovic is an original thinker on cities. He taught "urbanology" at the University of Belgrade and has published several essays on the aesthetic, historical and philosophical aspects of cities. Most of these have been translated into German (Wieser / Zsolnay Verlag).
Bogdanovich became mayor of Belgrade in 1982. His mandate ended during the rise of Slobodan Milosevic, and he later became a dissident. His frequent denunciations of nationalism, and in particular its violent and "anti-urban" face, earned him hostility from the government. At the outbreak of war he was forced into exile.
We met him in the working class neigbourhood of Favoriten, in Vienna, where he has lived with his wife since 1993.
Articles by
Alexandre Mirlesse :
