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    The Spomenik at Kolašin PDF

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    FakirBilgearar
    This document summarizes the author's visit to a concrete structure in Kolašin, Montenegro called the Town Center. It was designed in 1976 by Slovenian architect Marko Mušič in the Brutalist style of architecture. The multi-purpose building currently houses some municipal offices and is showing signs of decay, though it was once a vibrant civic center. Nearby is an older 1947 monument in the Socialist Realist style commemorating soldiers who fell to fascism. While unique in appearance, the concrete Town Center now feels out of place in the picturesque town that no longer needs such a structure.

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    The Spomenik at Kolašin PDF

    Uploaded by

    FakirBilgearar
    130 views8 pages
    This document summarizes the author's visit to a concrete structure in Kolašin, Montenegro called the Town Center. It was designed in 1976 by Slovenian architect Marko Mušič in the Brutalist style of architecture. The multi-purpose building currently houses some municipal offices and is showing signs of decay, though it was once a vibrant civic center. Nearby is an older 1947 monument in the Socialist Realist style commemorating soldiers who fell to fascism. While unique in appearance, the concrete Town Center now feels out of place in the picturesque town that no longer needs such a structure.

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    This document summarizes the author's visit to a concrete structure in Kolašin, Montenegro called the Town Center. It was designed in 1976 by Slovenian architect Marko Mušič in the Brutalist style of architecture. The multi-purpose building currently houses some municipal offices and is showing signs of decay, though it was once a vibrant civic center. Nearby is an older 1947 monument in the Socialist Realist style commemorating soldiers who fell to fascism. While unique in appearance, the concrete Town Center now feels out of place in the picturesque town that no longer needs such a structure.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    130 views8 pages

    The Spomenik at Kolašin PDF

    Uploaded by

    FakirBilgearar
    This document summarizes the author's visit to a concrete structure in Kolašin, Montenegro called the Town Center. It was designed in 1976 by Slovenian architect Marko Mušič in the Brutalist style of architecture. The multi-purpose building currently houses some municipal offices and is showing signs of decay, though it was once a vibrant civic center. Nearby is an older 1947 monument in the Socialist Realist style commemorating soldiers who fell to fascism. While unique in appearance, the concrete Town Center now feels out of place in the picturesque town that no longer needs such a structure.

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    You are on page 1of 8

    30thJune2013 The Spomenik at Kolain

    "Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings."

    Agnes Martin

    [http://3.bp.blogspot.com/BMB_hc6NmSI/Ucys7v3nqTI/AAAAAAAAAbU/hnDr4RGykY8/s1600/IMG_5925.JPG]

    Or is it "concrete is the most subtle representation of our most artistic feelings"?

    Welcome to our first stop. This is a structure at the west end of Trg Boraca (Soldiers' Square) in the remote skiing
    town of Kolain in Northern Montenegro. The town, I might add, is far enough off the tourist track that my initial
    backpackladen walk through the town center was greeted with some bemusement, as if Neil Armstrong himself in
    full regalia had landed here instead of the Sea of Tranquility.

    [http://1.bp.blogspot.com/cfjXuOYWrKg/UcyqtVWLzXI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/NrCDELnzbg/s1600/IMG_5832.JPG]

    As an entry point into the Biogradska Gora National Park, Kolain and its surrounding area are stunning. The bus ride
    from Podgorica is beautiful, fdangerous[http://www.euronews.com/newsw res/2000690th rteenk lled nmontenegrobus
    crash33 njuredpol ce/] , and the area (like pretty much everywhere here...) is replete with equal parts military history
    and Yugos in varying states of repair.

    There is so much to see and do here in fact that when I told my local hosts Slobo and Jubinka Baik over a few
    glasses of the local poison that I was only here to photograph the spomenik they stared at me with the same blank
    stare that one might give a Neil Armstrong explaining his mission to collect rocks at the Northway Mall.
    [http://1.bp.blogspot.com/AkzpWqMUScY/UcyrJLO0cGI/AAAAAAAAAaM/K7O_sCk0WNo/s1600/IMG_5861.JPG]

    As for this monument, I fear I didn't do as much asking questions of real people as I should have. The amount of
    disinformation on the internet surrounding the Kempanaers book make the legitimate information difficult to find.
    Sources are linked. Here's my best shot:

    This building, appearing to be less a spomenikthan it is some sort of lowrent civic center, was designed by
    Slovenian architect MarkoMu [http://www.sazu.s /osazu/clan /markomus c.html] (Mootzeech, not Mewzik) and
    opened n1976[http://www.eflux.com/announcements/unf n shedmodern sat ons/] . Google Maps refers to the building as
    theKola nTownCenter[https://maps.google.com/maps?
    q=kolas n&hl=en& e=UTF8&ll=42.824145,19.519079&spn=0.002188,0.005284&sll=37.0625,95.677068&sspn=38.638819,86.572266
    &t=h&hnear=Kola%C5%A1 n,+Montenegro&z=18] and also as the Skuptina Optine Kolain (Mun c palAssemblyofKola n
    [http://www.kolas n.me/] ), though the address listed for city offices is not this building. There is also a reference to a
    Centar za Kulturu(Cultural Center) which may or may not be related. The Mui website refers to his work as
    "Memorial and Cultural Center, Kolain, Montenegro."

    Whew!

    The town hall (as are the other things we're looking for) is designed in the Brutalist school of architecture. While the
    term brings a certain connotation in English, it comes from the Frenchbeton brut;rough concrete. Here isanother
    morelocalexample[http://modernthr fter.com/post/4018774078/brutal starch tecturechr step scopalchurch] for which I bear a
    certain nostalgia.

    [http://3.bp.blogspot.com/QmYPcNehWI0/UcysrlwfKgI/AAAAAAAAAbE/WqEBsQybYVY/s1600/IMG_5922.JPG]

    Chalk it up to the beginner's luck, but I was delighted a) to find it so easily, and b) to find willing staffers inside who
    allowed (or more accurately "were completely indifferent to") me taking pictures inside.

    [http://3.bp.blogspot.com/
    oDKmEmVArKA/UcysDsEjYoI/AAAAAAAAAas/vwe9cPtKyBk/s1600/IMG_5906.JPG]

    [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/
    YMMKxfbeyX4/UcyrzjsQLvI/AAAAAAAAAak/YSXWug3AEsQ/s1600/IMG_5902.JPG]

    As you can see, Mui's structure has probably seen better days. There is some uphill attempt to keep graffiti off the
    building, and it appears that the impracticality of windowwashing has trumped design. A small and unsatisfying
    urban climbing wall has been attached to the south side of the building. Inside are some offices, including those of
    the Socijalistika Narodna Partija (Socialist People's Party of Montenegro) and something which seems to translate as
    the "Department to Determine and Control the Charge of the Public Walk."
    [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/Gmfg51
    ZoU/UcysU096GfI/AAAAAAAAAa0/75KRL63eCk/s1600/IMG_5914.JPG]

    [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/
    n9Mf8nxrt7Q/Ucyq9avgzNI/AAAAAAAAAaE/7gpK2PbFMq0/s1600/IMG_5838.JPG]

    As we will see again when we get to Kadinjaa it's not uncommon for there to be an older (immediately postWWII)
    monument near or integrated with the more modern one. In this case, 1947's Monument to the Fallen (the plaque
    translates to something like Monument to the Soldiers and Victims of Fascist Imperialism Fallen in the District of
    Kolasin) is produced in the Socialist Realist styleconsistent with Tito's alliance with Stalin at the time. It was after
    the political break with the Soviets in 1948 that a modern and unique Yugoslavian style developed. It is at this
    monument and not Mui's building whereceremon alfunct ons[http://www.d jasporacg.me/ ndex.php/v jest /v jest zcrne
    gore/4093ukola nupoloen v jenc pal mborc ma] are held.

    [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/2ga9fYdomgk/Ucys5PNnXFI/AAAAAAAAAbM/XxqoF_DM7nE/s1600/IMG_5942.JPG]

    While still in use, the town center at Kolain feels like an albatross of concrete in a town that doesn't need
    concrete. Kolain itself is notably picturesque, and not in a way that is conducive to brutalist architecture. The
    building appears to be difficult to maintain and more importantly, nobody seems particularly interested in
    maintaining it. In spite of its unique appearance it reminds me in many ways of the concrete malls built around the
    same time in Anchorage: once vibrant, now decrepit. It's a pity, really.
    [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/38UGfDMeZw/UcysX41RaqI/AAAAAAAAAa8/SMQT2G8JZW4/s1600/IMG_5921.JPG]

    Next time. Jasenova.

    I think...

    Posted 30th June 2013 by JohnDePalat s


    Labels: 2013, Brutal stArch tecture, Spomen k

    2 View comments

    Jess caBayl August28,2013at11:11PM

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