Partners & Friends
The following is a list of groups, organizations and institutions who have either provided generous help to this project, partnered with me on collaborations, offered promotional assistance or shown themselves to be friends of the Spomenik Database. I'd like to extend to each of them thanks for all they have done for this project, as well as linking to and describing each in the following section.
Based out of Berlin, Germany, the 'Soviet Tours' agency is among the premier groups in Europe for the organization of "off-the-beaten-path" guided tours across and around the many states of the former Soviet Union, including many other destinations as well (including the former Yugoslav region). As their website explains, Soviet Tours aims to "deliver an unforgettable travel experience that goes way beyond the usual sightseeing. Our tours go straight to the core of the culture and traditions of the regions we journey through.
The Berlin-based database known as "Architectuul", founded in 2010, is an amazing education resource and architectural community which sets out to compile information and history about global architecture, particularly the modernist architectural movement. Their website explains it is their effort to share "exciting building projects and promote their creators - from the acclaimed to the forgotten, from the classic to the contemporary, from the beautiful to the bizarre - we are building a home for the built environment on the internet."
Billing itself as 'not your average travel site', the Bohemian Blog is an alternative travel journal, dedicated to exploring the bizarre, the macabre and other secret wonders of the world. This fascinating website is contains fascinating articles, essays, histories and insight into some of the most unusual and off-the-beaten-path locations in the world. The Bohemian Blog also offers a wide range of tour offerings to some of the unique locations the project explores and describes.
If you have ever been curious to explore the world's odd and curious offerings, then Atlas Obscura is certainly an amazing resource to explore. With detailed listings on amazing sites across the entire globe, you will never get bored and inspired browsing through this website. In addition, Atlas Obscura also offers tours across fantastic locations around the world, while also collaborating with the Spomenik Database on Yugoslav monument tours.
If you are interested in brutalist or concrete architecture, then This Brutal House is a website you might enjoy. Examining all facets of design and architecture as it relates to the brutalism movement, this website, along with its many social media extensions, explores the many incarnations of this often misunderstood architectural form over the decades.
Virtualni Muzej Dotrščina (The Dotrščina Virtual Museum):
The Dotrščina Virtual Museum is an amazing online database full of a vast array of documents, information, photos and event calendars regarding the Dotrščina Memorial Park in Zagreb, Croatia. This organization works to not only bring greater attention to the memorial park, but it also arranges and plans special events and art exhibits at the park.
Muzej Istorije Jugoslavije (Museum of Yugoslav History)
The Museum of Yugoslav History is a massive museum complex in Belgrade, Serbia which hosts several buildings worth of exhibits on the history and culture of Yugoslavia. In addition, this complex contains the "House of Flowers", which is the final residence of the former Yugoslav President Josip Tito, which now acts as his final resting place and memorial center.
Spomen područje Jasenovac (Jasenovac Memorial Site)
The Jasenovac Memorial Site is the organization tasked with overseeing and managing the museum and monument located on the spot of the former concentration camp that existed here during WWII. Jasenovac is a place in which visitors will discover the exceptional suffering and incredible courage of the Jasenovac victims, but also learn of the strength of hope in life and faith in humankind, as emphasised in particular by the survivors.
Located in London, England, the mission of the Calvert 22 Foundation, which is a not-for-profit organization, is to nurture and celebrate the contemporary culture and creativity of the New East – eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia and Central Asia – enriching perceptions of the region and furthering international understanding. In 2018 they graciously hosted a speaking engagement for the release of my 2018 publication on the memorial sculptures created during the Yugoslav era.
Founded in 2009 by Derek Lamberton, Blue Crow Media is an independent publisher dedicated to creating thoughtfully designed and carefully curated city maps that highlight architectural points of interest which are often overlooked in other similar projects. Their publications include a series of food and drink city maps and apps, and since 2015 we have published a series architecture and design guides. Blue Crow Media's maps are available in independent bookshops worldwide.
#SOSBrutalism is a growing database that currently contains over 1000 Brutalist buildings. But, more importantly, it is a platform for a large campaign to save our 'beloved concrete monsters'. #SOSBrutalism has also led into an exhibition which has been jointly organized by the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) and the Wüstenrot Stiftung.
Музеја Војводине (Muzeum of Vojvodina):
The Museum of Vojvodina, located in Novi Sad, Serbia, contains a remarkable variety of departments, houses a rich museum collection of about 400,000 objects relating to the history, culture and art of the Vojvodina region. The scientifically complex permanent exhibition presents the development of the human kind in the present territory of Vojvodina, covering the span of eight thousand years.
Музеј Козаре (Muzeum of Kozara):
The Kozara Museum, located in Prijedor, Bosnia and built in 1954, contains records pertaining to the National Liberation War and the memory of Battle of Kozara. For this reason, most of the historical collections are made of exhibits and documents from this period. The History Department includes items and documents for the following periods: Late Middle Ages, Turkish period & Austrian period.
Arhiv Znaci (The Znaci Archive)
The Znaci Archive is a massive Serbo-Croatian language database freely hosting thousands of papers, books, articles, photographs, maps, etc, which pertain to the National Liberation War (WWII) which took place in the Yugoslav region from 1941 to 1945. I cannot stress how much this amazing archive assisted me in my research and investigation on the history of the spomeniks and the events related to them.
Award winning Skopje-based photographer Giulio Zanni has a vast portfolio of amazing black & white images he has taken across Europe. However, one of his favorite subjects to shoot are the monuments of the former-Yugoslavia. In capturing this subject, he has created some of the most evocative and inspiring photographs of these structures. He occasionally operates photography tours which travel around the Balkans. Zanni recently released a photo book on the Yugoslav monuments which is worth exploring!
The SAAB Voyage an family exploration and travel project where Polish-based partners Marcin Gabrowski and Agnieszka Bohosiewicz-Gabrowska travel across Eastern Europe writing and posting about various sites in the region, with much of their interest being focused on the Yugoslav-era monuments explored by the Spomenik Database.