Visions and Narratives of Large-Scale Projects of Socialist Vojvodina

Abstract

In this paper, three case studies of various natures, scales and positions within the discipline are identified and analyzed as exemplary of Vojvodina in the discussion of large-scale projects of socialist Yugoslavia. The interpretive-historical method is used to describe and interpret the case studies, while primary sources are subjected to qualitative content analysis in order to extract the underlying narratives of these projects, as well as to establish their position more firmly in the field. The first one is the Grand Canal Danube-Tisa-Danube (DTD waterway), the biggest spatial project of Vojvodina, conceptualized by the engineer Nikola Mirkov in 1947 and completed by the early 1980s. The second is the case of two plans for road and railway networks in Vojvodina by the architect Dimitrije Marinković, from his 1950 General Plan of Novi Sad, which proved to be more visionary than plans made by spatial planning institutions since. The third case is a network of memorial graveyards Rohalj Baze (1973) and Jabuka (1974) on the Fruška Gora mountain by the architect Milorad Berbakov, as an example of a new landscape-based paradigm of Yugoslav memorial architecture in Vojvodina. The questions discussed in this paper are as follows: 1) the importance of narratives for the success of a project; 2) the expanded definition of projects to include networks; 3) arts as networks (with Neoplanta Film as a showcase); 4) the creative output of individual creators versus institutions.

Keywords

• Vojvodina
• spatial planning
• Great Canal Danube-Tisa-Danube
• DTD waterways
• canals
• Nikola Mirkov