Nostalgia
A broken book for a broken Yugoslavia.
Since Yugoslavia disintegrated when I was five, I didn't have much time to develop a national identity. That's why this book is a reflection on behalf of a tourist coming back to a disappeard homeland he never lived in, without nation or belief.
I grow up with the idea that Yugoslavia was an ideal of union and brotherhood, a real paradise, as it is a reality that belongs to the past, an idea that lives in the thoughts of people. Their paradise was humble, a national and autonomous economy, access to education and healthcare, open borders, safe jobs, free loans, good pensions and above all, peace. When the idea of socialism got broke in Europe, Yugoslavia broke with it.
That's why I did a broken book about the broken Yugoslavia, the broken realtionships, the broken flags, the broken landscapes, the broken ideas, the broken people and the multicultural broken dream, that should remind us, that the irreparable past of some place can become the future of another.
You can order a copy through my Website
The logo at the cover breaks it in two parts, by breaking the star, we break the symbol of Yugoslavia and Socialism, half of the logo was at the front and half at the rear.
I used a stencil typeface, a broken typeface, but looking to take distance from a militar one that would be too symbolic. This was more classic, like lost in time.
The rear part of the book is a seen sew with red cord, I used this solution because looks like a broken staple.
The book starts with a small red star, without the name.
The Bridge on the Drina. 1945, Ivo Andrić.
I choosed the name Nostalgia thinking about the epithet 'Yugo-nostalgic', that is commonly used by people in two ways: as a positive personal description, and as a derogatory label. With a red star in the middle, the name gets another lecture, not only about the lost country but also about the lost ideas of socialism.
Left: Colors of the Yugoslav flag painted in a broken wall.
Right: The entrance of the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb.
From a croat wedding, across the whole Yugoslavia, many people had to marry a new flag.
Concept editing with WWII tanks and burning autumn landscapes.
Giant ERSTE Bank advert tries to hide the rubble of war.
'Sekcioner' signal for a track separation.
Same ERSTE Bank advert a couple of weeks later.
From the cover action Dismantling Former Yugoslavia, Recolonizing Bosnia-Herzegovina. 1996, Michel Chossudovsky.
Bosna, broken flag, broken country.
'Staklena Banka' or 'Crystal Bank'. I specially like this name, 'Crystal Bank', like the economy of Yugoslavia, was like glass, easy breakable.
I found this nice picture of how was the 'Crystal Bank' thirty years before at the left part of the picture.
An intentionally broken page.
The slow process of breaking the identity and culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
I used broken editings of broken buildings, dividing one imagen in two.
A paralized construction of a mosque.
Bobsleight rubble at Trebevic, that was build for the Olympic Games in the year '84.
I found this old picture of the Olimpics in Sarajevo '84.
From the You Tube sketch Niđe na Svjetu. 2012, Damir Nikšić.
While they are los in time, a McDonalds in the main street of Sarajevo was build in the street of Marshal Tito, the biggest symbol of the socialist Yugoslavia.
'Open happines' - Coca-Cola advert on top of a totally empty and broken building.
The engineers create the weapons, the artist create the reasons to use them.
People need a 'sacred reason' as anaesthesia, across the whole book I wanted to show different 'sacred reasons' to fight for, like a flag, a belief, a place...
From the cover action Dismantling Former Yugoslavia, Recolonizing Bosnia-Herzegovina. 1996, Michel Chossudovsky.
Closed border.
The final image is a broken UE advert from Mostar speaking about 'Changes' (Promjene).
The star, put it at the begining and at the end make a relation between the multicultural dream of the past Yugoslavia with the actual dream of the European Union.
A small speech about the development of the concept of the book that I gave at the Design Museum in Barcelona for the Pecha Kucha talks. (You have the whole speech subtitled in english).
