Monuments of the former Yugoslavia - bizarre and fascinating relicts from the Tito-Era

Spomenik is the croatian/slowenian/serbian word for a monument. During the Tito-Era lot of them were built to remeber Yugoslavia's partisans leaving their life in the second world war. Today, after the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, most of them are lonely ruins lying forgotten somewhere in the landscape. In his book "Spomenik", the Antwerp-based photographer Jan Kempenaers documents these mysterious objects.

One of my favorites is "Spomenik revolucije" (Croatian for "Monument of Revolution") created in 1967 by Dušan Džamonja, one of Tito's most favorite sculptors. This monument is located on the battlefield of Podgarić near Berek, Croatia. It looks like a winged eye spaceships carrying the fallen soldiers to the sky.

Other bizarre looking giants:

Kruševo

Kosmaj (near Belgrad, Serbia)

Tjentište

More of these fascinating sculptures can be found in Kempenaers' book and on his website.