Jets of water spurt into the air in front of the warriors: red,
yellow, blue, violet. The eight bronze men stare fiercely through the
spray of the fountain, while far above their heads, Alexander the Great
sits enthroned, raising one sword up at the sky. Wagner and Tchaikovsky
blare out of the speakers and the water shoots more or less in time with
the music.
Skopje has a new landmark: The Warrior on a Horse monument on the
Plostad Makedonija, a square at the center of the city, is almost 30
meters (100 ft.) high, cost €10.5 million ($14 million) and is about as
authentic as the imitation Grand Canal in Las Vegas. More heroes from
Macedonia's colorful
history
pose nearby, sculpted on a large, if somewhat misshapen scale. The feet
of the saber-rattling flag-bearer, for example, are disproportionally
large.
On the other side of the Vardar river, near the entry to the old
town, a statue of Philip II of Macedon -- Alexander's father -- shakes a
colossal fist at the sky, while bronze horses jump out of a nearby
fountain. New temple-like ministry buildings, a theater and a museum --
with its own line-up of 19th- and 20th-century poets and revolutionaries
-- have been built between the monuments to the two kings.
'Historical Kitsch'
And the construction project isn't finished: Numerous facades are
still obstructed by construction cranes. Buildings are being retrofitted
with the dictated sugarcoated new style that the local media
diplomatically calls "baroque" or "neo-classical," and architects call
"historical kitsch."
The redevelopment is called Skopje2014 and is costing VMRO, the
conservative and nationalist governing party, hundreds of millions of
euros. The official budget is €207 million -- which includes the
renovated ministry buildings, the new national theater and triumphal
arch.
Critics believe that's an impossible figure, that it won't buy half
of what the plans call for. Even Skopje2014's overall theme -- a
celebration of ancient and Slavic heroes -- has been condemned by
experts because it ignores many of Macedonia's ethnic groups and favors a
small section of the national fabric.
According to news reports, the contracts for the project were made
illegally. But the Macedonian media have been restrained in their
protest. "Too much criticism can quickly cost you your job. The VMRO has
long had control over the media," says one journalist, who does not
want to be named. There's a reason Skopje2014's monumental style has an
authoritarian feel.
The case of Tomislav Kezarovski is yet more evidence of this: The
journalist recently received a four-and-a-half-year jail term for having
allegedly revealed the identity of a witness in a murder trial in 2008
-- an accusation independent observers claim is an attempt to muzzle a
journalist critical of the government.
'Strong Message of Censorship'
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has been
sharply critical. The group's press freedom appointee Dunja Mijatovic
says she fears the court decision could become a "strong message of
censorship directed at other journalists in the country." The people in
power have long made their threats known, and countless critical media
organizations have shut down in the past few years.
The current economic situation offers little reason to build a
triumphal arch. The financial crisis has hit Macedonia hard. Every
second young person is unemployed, and the overall unemployment level is
one of the highest in the world -- almost 30 percent. Those who have
jobs are relieved when their salary tides them over until the following
month. The universities are underequipped, as are the hospitals.
Renovations are necessary in many places, but the government apparently
has other priorities.
The government and its construction project have provided people with
some strange stories. Two young architects, Boro Gadjovski and Filip
Dubrovski, stand in front of the recently erected Fallen Heroes of
Macedonia monument. Behind them, a torch-bearing young man glistens in
the autumn sun. "In the beginning you could only see his steeled
muscles," they say with a laugh, referring to its original nude state.
There were waves of indignation: Such a nakedly "classical" statue
wasn't allowed, and so the torchbearer was fitted with a pair of pants.
Failed Opportunity
The two men don't take any pleasure in the Skopje2014 prestige
project -- they'd rather remind people of another city construction
project which had come about after the city was destroyed in a 1963
earthquake. After the catastrophe, "the reconstruction was a unique
opportunity for modern city planning. Under the leadership of the United
Nations a number of countries were involved. Skopje became a symbol for
worldwide solidarity," says Gadjoski. "They were going to build a
humane yet utopian city," adds Dubrovski.
The master plan for the post-earthquake reconstruction was designed
by Japanese star architect Kenzo Tange, and resulted in angular cement
structuralist icons and sleek skyscrapers that diverged from the normal
apathetic prefab constructions of the time. Tange designed a train
station that was never finished. "He wanted to put up footbridges for
pedestrians to cross the streets going into the center. Pedestrians
treated as more important than car traffic -- where else did people
think so progressively in the 1960s?" asks Dubrovski.
The Gradski Trgovski Centar shopping center is the square's last remnant of that period. It won a national
architecture prize in Tito's Yugoslavia, and yet the Skopje2014 plan calls for it, too, to be "baroquized."
There is a group of architects in the city who oppose this
transformation. They demonstrate on the edge of the shopping center in
the evenings. Gadjovski and Dubrovski take part, along with another 30
allies. A woman sings lovely jazz in the cold autumn evening. Others
distribute hand-decorated balloons. Only a small local TV station sends a
team to cover the event. "In the summer we were still a thousand
people," says one of the demonstrators and shows the photos on his
smartphone.
But it's not just the protests giving the Skopje2014 planners a
headache. "The new buildings are much too close to the river," says Boro
Gadjovski. "When there's flooding there could be damage."
Είναι κάποιες νύχτες πιο μαύρες απ’ τις άλλες, όταν το σκοτάδι τους βαθαίνει απ’ το φως προβολέων
και τροχιοδεικτικών. Είκοσι, τριάντα χρόνια μετά, καταλαβαίνεις πόσο
κοντά είχε έρθει ο θάνατος να εξετάσει τα δόντια ή τα νεφρά σου και
φοβάσαι που τότε δεν φοβόσουν. Τι ξέρουν δεκαοχτάχρονα και εικοσάχρονα
παιδιά από φόβο; από οικονομία ζωής; - σου κόβονται σήμερα τα πόδια, αν ο
γιος σου τώρα ή η κόρη σου ήταν εσύ τότε, και
Εξαιρέθηκαν από τη διαθεσιμότητα στο δημόσιο οι αθλητές, δόθηκαν τα πριμ για τις διακρίσεις του 2011
