Les Symboles invisibles

Between the 1960s and 1980s, the Federal States of the former Yugoslavia erected monuments of an imposing size. These spomeniks ("monuments" in Serbo-Croatian) were raised in memory of the local populations who resisted the atrocities of the 20th century and would praise the experience of a more egalitarian and antifascist socialist society. In the 1990s, the wars of Yugoslavia broke out and resulted in the dislocation of the country into several independent states. Some monuments were abandoned, others were destroyed. This series depicts the main spomeniks that have survived through time, located in Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. The series proposes to highlight these monuments by wondering if their messages have survived through time. Indeed, the resurgence of violence between the states of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s raises the question of the scope and impact of these symbols of peace, based on solidarity between peoples. This question can also be transferred to the whole of Europe where tolerance and living together are once again undermined. History would lead us to wonder whether these symbols would not have become invisible.