Print Email Facebook Twitter Media propaganda vs public dialogue: the spatial memorialisation of conflict in Belgrade after the 1999 NATO bombing Title Media propaganda vs public dialogue: the spatial memorialisation of conflict in Belgrade after the 1999 NATO bombing Author Staničić, Aleksandar (TU Delft Situated Architecture) Date 2021 Abstract Two events marked the turn of the millennium in what remained of former Socialist Yugoslavia: the NATO bombing of Serbia, and to a smaller extent Montenegro, in 1999 and the fall of Slobodan Milošević’s regime in 2000. This was the infamous epilogue of the turbulent 1990s, a decade of successive violent conflicts that torn the federal state apart, destroyed its heterogeneous culture, divided its territory along ethnic borders, and definitively rejected socialism to embrace an unhinged variant of neoliberal capitalism. Serbia played a complex role in those events, both as an aggressor accused and convicted for war crimes, and as the target of an asymmetric conflict with NATO that led to the separation of its southern province of Kosovo, and left deep scars in its urban environment. The effort to reconstruct these damaged buildings, therefore, poses deeper questions about understanding the past, facing unpleasant truths, and setting the course for an uncertain future. This article will illuminate those multifarious processes by examining the role of media propaganda and public dialogue in the reconstruction of two structures in Belgrade that were damaged during the 1999 NATO bombing. Both buildings, the Avala Tower and the television headquarters on Aberdareva Street, were in use by the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS). In a fragmented society that is still struggling to make sense of these difficult issues, I argue that state-controlled media has a decisive influence on steering public debate, creating the false image of social consensus, and weighing in on architectural design, while downplaying the role of architects. To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f33d71c6-ebd1-40ec-adca-641995f789c9 DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2021.1897645 ISSN 1360-2365 Source The Journal of Architecture, 26 (3), 371-393 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2021 Aleksandar Staničić Files PDF Media_propaganda_vs_publi ... ombing.pdf 5.66 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:f33d71c6-ebd1-40ec-adca-641995f789c9/datastream/OBJ/view