Political iconography and a sculpture serving the memory of the folk king: monument to King Petar I Karadordevic In Bijeljina

Abstract

The monument to King Petar I Karadordevic in Bijeljina was revealed in front of the municipal building on St. Peter's Day in 1937. After the death of King Aleksandar Karadordevic, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was faced with strong separatist tendencies, thus the erection of a memorial in Semberija could be interpreted as an attempt to visualize the idea of unitary Yugoslavism. At the same time, the act of creating a monument to the Serbian king tells us also about the continuity of Serbian national idea among the Semberija residents. This monument is a work of art of Rudolf Valdec, a distinguished academic artist and sculptor who launched a series of sculpture images in honor of the Karadordevic dynasty. As a socially engaged national artist and an admirer of the Yugoslav idea, he was thus a logical choice. The monument in Bijeljina represents the king on horseback killing a three-headed beast with a sword. Iconographically, the composition varies a theme and motif of St. George. Like his typological model, the ruler is defined as a fearless, Christian knight who symbolically kills evil. He is a symbol of justice and truth, and an advocate of the libertarian ideals of the Yugoslav nation. The presentation hints also at the folk song motive of Prince Marko's battle with Musa Kesedzija. Visually, the popular myth is revived and the King Petar becomes the new Prince Marko. Thus the king becomes a symbol of strength and vitality of the folk spirit and a guarantee of the national vitality preservation, while the three-headed Arab (three-headed monster) symbolizes the political and cultural enemy and his weakness under the impact of the brave ruler. During the WWII, the monument was destroyed by the occupiers. The devastation of the monument indicates an attempt to obliterate the collective memory of the local population. given that the monument represented the visual holder of ideological and national values. After the breakup of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. the monument was restored. The replica of the monument, unveiled in 1993, testifies about the endurance of collective memory and the power of collective mental images that caused the monument to be revealed again.