"Objects with an Imagined Home, Yugoslavia’s Heritage as a Diasporic Object"

Abstract

How do we approach an object that lost its country of origin, its context and source community? The violent dissolution of Yugoslavia left little room for the people of the newly formed states to share their living experience, therefore making it impossible to share the interpretation of the history and heritage remaining as the relic of the former state. During the past three decades the heritage field of the respected region operated manly with concepts of dissonant, mutual, and shared heritage when attempting to determine who, how and why should deal with the historic objects made during the Yugoslavia’s existence. This process had its limitations, and the above posed questions were largely left unanswered. Since the 2000s a clear demand for defining and managing these objects as the outsider interest in all-things-Yugoslav entered its growth phase. Still, the consensus on the status of these objects and the values they embody has not been accomplished. The question is, why? One possible answer lies in the disappearance of the source community. In its initial structure, it is gone, and the objects’ home is now only imagined. This paper attempts to investigate the notion of a diasporic heritage by approaching it as objects that lost their home but didn’t not change the place they inhabit. Today, highly popular Yugoslav memorials and monuments dedicated to WWII can be interpreted as diasporic objects: objects equally building the imaginarium of a home for the deconstructed communities in the region and for the actual diasporic communities that are still recognized as Yugoslav by their surroundings.