Michal Siarek's Alexander is a documentation of the brief but tumultuous history of the attempt to forge a new national myth uniting this legendarily ethnically and religiously divided Balkan country. The populist Macedonian government (between 2006 and 2016), in an attempt to cover its own passivity in the face of internal and external challenges, relied on a symbolic gesture: a historical policy breakneckly linking modern Slavic Macedonia with the ancient leader Alexander the Great. The project proved to be as absurd as it was dangerous. Greek nationalists (who claim a monopoly on everything associated with the name "Macedonia") mobilized crowds larger than those that took to the streets of Athens in the wake of the 2011 debt crisis in protest against Prime Minister Gruevski's policy.

Editing and designing this book was one of my best experiences as a photobook designer. Combinig photographs, illustrations, archival materials as well as six different types of captions and text was challenging but fullfilling.