Vangelis Vlahos /GR/ is an artist with a long-standing interest in comparing and confronting the language of architecture with that of politics and economic power in his exhibitions. This installation by Vangelis Vlahos, conceived for Monument to Transformation, is based on the funding of the renovation of the former Bosnian parliament building in Sarajevo by the Greek State and deals in general with Greece’s role in the Balkans over the last 15 years.
The parliament building in Sarajevo is a high-rise, built in 1974 in the American modernist style of the ‘60s & ‘70s. This building, which was badly damaged during the war in Yugoslavia in the early ‘90s and has been widely characterized as the last ‘war landmark’, will house Bosnia and Herzegovina’s government agencies.
Its renovation is predominantly funded (80.4%, that is 13.5 million euros) by the Greek government within the framework of the Greek Plan for Economic Reconstruction in the Balkans (ESOAV), a state project aiming to increase the influence of Greek foreign policy and economic diplomacy in Southeastern Europe.
The building, which remained abandoned and in skeletal form for more than 13 years, is currently under reconstruction will be renamed the Building of Friendship Between Greece and Bosnia-Herzegovina and will reopen at the end of May 2007.
The project itself consists of two architectural models and an archive focusing on the context of the specific renovation in relation to Greek policies in the Balkans from the time of the destruction of the building until today.
Vangelis Vlahos /GR/ is an artist with a long-standing interest in comparing and confronting the language of architecture with that of politics and economic power in his exhibitions. This installation by Vangelis Vlahos, conceived for Monument to Transformation, is based on the funding of the renovation of the former Bosnian parliament building in Sarajevo by the Greek State and deals in general with Greece’s role in the Balkans over the last 15 years.
The parliament building in Sarajevo is a high-rise, built in 1974 in the American modernist style of the ‘60s & ‘70s. This building, which was badly damaged during the war in Yugoslavia in the early ‘90s and has been widely characterized as the last ‘war landmark’, will house Bosnia and Herzegovina’s government agencies.
Its renovation is predominantly funded (80.4%, that is 13.5 million euros) by the Greek government within the framework of the Greek Plan for Economic Reconstruction in the Balkans (ESOAV), a state project aiming to increase the influence of Greek foreign policy and economic diplomacy in Southeastern Europe.
The building, which remained abandoned and in skeletal form for more than 13 years, is currently under reconstruction will be renamed the Building of Friendship Between Greece and Bosnia-Herzegovina and will reopen at the end of May 2007.
The project itself consists of two architectural models and an archive focusing on the context of the specific renovation in relation to Greek policies in the Balkans from the time of the destruction of the building until today.
Both of the architectural models depict the parliament building in Sarajevo. The first model was constructed using nothing but images found on the Internet (mostly depicting the building as having been destroyed in the war) while the construction of the second architectural model is based on the actual architectural drawings and illustrations presenting the building’s future image (given to the artist by the construction companies responsible for the renovation of the building).
The archive is displayed along with the two models and includes material from different sources (media, the Internet, state archives, etc.). More specifically, it includes found images of the building, technical plans and images that record the progress of the reconstruction work, monthly progress reports, news and texts on the renovation agreement between Greece and Bosnia, and newspaper articles and texts on Greece’s role in the Balkans recording—in parallel to the economic agreements—the activities of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the area from 1992 to now.
