The unbearable ease of depoliticization

 The unbearable ease of depoliticization

Marxism, as we know, separates people in two classes, working class and ruling class. Ruling class is profit motivated and flourishes in capitalistic society. Profit, as the only goal, blurs the lines of compassion, understanding and basic human decency. 

In his book “Spomenik”, Jan Kempenaers presented many pictures of Yugoslavian monuments, depicting them of every human sacrifice they were made of and presenting them purely as art. Art is one way to see them, but this art is sculpted of many lives, blood and loss that is still felt to this day in houses all around both our and neighbouring countries. Kempenaers, who owns a doctor's degree in visual arts, published this book on a thesis that said monuments are aesthetically and visually pleasing. This was both disrespectful and inconsiderate to people on the territory of ex Yugoslavia, but this wasn’t the only instance of such an act. His book inspired two others, “Spomeniks: The Monuments of Former Yugoslavia. Introduction to the work of Jan Kempenaers” by Willem Jan Neutelings and “Spomeniks” by Jonathan Jimenez. This is an act of logic of safety, which is based on recycling the same idea that has proven to be profitable. That’s how we ended up with three books with the same concept, repackaged and published again. 

This is not the only instance of cultural disrespect. Yugoslavian monuments are used in other commercial purposes as well. Australian sunwear company “Valley Eyewear” used the picture of Bogdan Bogdanovic’s monument in their advertisement. This is known as spectacle. Usage of these sacred monuments created the shocking, scandalous effect, causing, as much as outrage and disapproval, as well as traffic to the web site of the company and therefore, marketing. 

Another instance would be the movement “Secret Mapping Experiment” based on transforming “ugly” monuments into art. “Yunicorn” web store started selling shirts with Yugoslavian monument embroidery, monument pins and so on. Somehow, these memorials of sacrifice became a fun little badge to wear on your chest in the US. These monuments being used for commercial purposes, in the case of books, pictures and shirts stands for synergy. Synergy represents distribution of one thing into multiple items, created for the sole purpose of profit, the fuel of capitalistic society. 

Yugoslavian monuments are seen as mystic, mysterious and interesting by foreigners, easily replaceable and for entertainment, but for people here they are woven of painful memories and sacrifices and as such should be respected. Capitalistic society doesn’t stop at anything as long as there is profit involved.