What is the cost of the monument to Stefan Nemanja?

A group of professors from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade asked the Secretary for Culture of Belgrade for data about the costs of the realization and installation of an imposing monument to Stefan Nemanja on the Sava Square.

According to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, data on the costs of creating and installing of this controversial monument, authored by Russian sculptor Alexandr Rukavishnikov, were requested.

The request was addressed to the Secretary for Culture of Belgrade, being the announcer and orderer of the competition, at which Rukavishnikov was selected. Data were requested on all the costs, the entire process of competition, the construction, the transport and the installation of the monument to Stefan Nemanja, as well as on companies that were hired and individuals who performed those works, and also on the dates of all contracts and the source of funds for all those costs.

The construction of the monument to Stefan Nemanja is the center of public attention, so "obtaining complete information on all aspects of this process is extremely important," as it was stated in the request, submitted by professors Dubravka Stojanovic, Ognjen Radonjic, Sasa Brajovic, Nenad Makuljevic and Milan Vukomanovic.

Dubravka Stojanovic, historian, told the Danas that she had supported that request because of her complete disagreement with the aesthetics of the monument to Stefan Nemanja, and especially because the city authorities did not account for the costs of the said project to the public.

Pointing out that it is a monument of monstrous dimensions, that it represents kitsch and blocks the view upon the beautiful building of the former Railway Station, she added that it also seems that its price is a secret.

The deputy mayor of Belgrade, Goran Vesic, responded via Facebook to this request, concluding that they were sent by the "false elite".

"For Dubravka Stojanovic and the false Serbian elite, Stefan Nemanja is a MONSTER!? ...If we were to ask her, Serbia should not have a monument to Stefan Nemanja. If we were to ask them, Serbia must not have a history. If we were to ask them, Serbia does not need the Nemanjic, Karadjordjevic or Obrenovic dinasties, because we do not have the right to have a history ", Vesic wrote, among other.

More than 3,000 citizens, who signed an online petition in the beginning of August, asking for the works to be suspended, were against the installation of the monument to Stefan Nemanja.

"We are against the installation of an inappropriate and disproportionate monument, the abuse of history and public space, and the further transformation of Belgrade into a disgrace of progressive kitsch."

We see the act of installing this monument as violence against this city and its citizens, and as an expression of selfishness of the kleptocratic government. We demand the cessation of works and the annulment of all decisions concerning this megalomaniacal and meaningless project which illegally and insanely consumes the money of Serbian citizens ", as stated in the petition initiated by the visual artist and award-winning writer Dejan Atanackovic.

*Photo: Beoinfo

(SEEcult.org)

*Support: International Relief Fund of the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut, and other partners