Demolition debris and adhesive binder on paper
Hotel Jugoslavija
On July 31, 1969, Hotel Jugoslavija, originally conceived in 1947 by four architects from the Zagreb School of Modernism, was inaugurated in a newly developed district of Belgrade, located directly on the banks of the Danube River. Their style, influenced by leading figures of international modernism, aligned with the architectural vision of the newly built district, creating a unified and conceptually coherent ensemble. Despite its extended construction period, Hotel Jugoslavija opened as the most luxurious hotel in the country. It hosted prominent guests from both Cold War blocs, as well as from nations that resisted alignment, playing an important role in the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement.
With the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the building’s history rapidly changed: it was sold multiple times, partially destroyed by bombing, readapted, and finally totally demolished in February 2025, after regulatory changes led to the revocation of its protected status as a cultural monument.
This artistic work engages with the material remnants of the demolished building, incorporating them into a hand-printed series of graphic compositions. The pigment used for printing was made from the debris of the former structure, and is used to reprint archival imagery from the time of the hotel’s early years. In this way, the enduring ideological and socio-political transformations of this post-socialist context are directly imprinted in the work.
