Instability and collapse!
I was born in Kikinda, Serbia in 1983. Serbia was then
a part of Federal People´s Republic of Yugoslavia and had been under the
socialist rule of Josip Broz Tito from 1946 to 1980. In the 1990´s political and ethnical conflict escalated
leading to the Yugoslav wars. The turmoil in the South-Eastern corner of Europe
is the backdrop to my childhood and teenage years.
During Tito´s mild dictatorship Yugoslavia became a
regional industrial power and an economic success. He suppressed nationalism
and promoted “brotherhood and unity”. With the development of the socialism,
the industry, the education and the healthcare systems were flourishing. In the
70´s healthcare was free, literacy was 91 percent, and life expectancy was 72
years.
He neutralized any opposition, including nationalists
and separatists while balancing between the east and the west. Taking enormous
loans and credits from several financial institutions he stimulated local
enterprises and the public sectors. The relationship between Yugoslavia, the
Non-Alignment Movement, the European Union and United States couldn’t survive
without Tito and it has been argued that his strong position and leadership
might be a reason for the Yugoslavian collapse and bloody wars during the 90´s.
In Tito´s model workers owned and managed the
companies and public services, such as health care and education, in a form of
workplace decision-making. In the inevitable meeting with western capitalism in
the late 80´s and early 90´s it became clear that this model couldn´t survive
and the economical collapse began. In addition the power vacuum created by
Tito´s death in 1980 gave way for nationalistic political ideology that brought
on the Yugoslav wars.
Part of my work for the BA show
