The Saturday Paper: Stanislava Pinchuk on architect Bogdan Bogdanović Bogdan

9 Nov 2023

The surrealist anti-fascist monuments of Serbian architect Bogdan Bogdanović are a ‘North Star’ for artist Stanislava Pinchuk.

“I was always aware of his work and when I moved to the Balkans, I got to startseeing it in person. He was in a league of his own as a surrealist and an arch-romanticist. He was staunchly opposed not just to fascism but to [formerSerbian president Slobodan] Milošević and the rise of genocidal nationalism.He was exiled for his opposition. He was an incredibly punk-rock, free-thinking man. Seeing his monuments and feeling the relation of my body tothem is absolutely extraordinary. Then, when I was approached to dosomething in Mitrovica in Kosovo last year, he became a North Star for me.Not a bible but an Ikea guide of what to do.” shares Pinchuk with Neha Kale of The Saturday Paper.

For Pinchuk, poetics are intertwined with politics. The internationally acclaimed Ukrainian-born artist is best known for intricate installations, drawings, films and sculptures that use data to map conflict zones. Some of her most profound work includes Borders, which envisioned the destruction of the Calais migrant camp, and The Wine Dark Sea, which couches the leaked Nauru and Manus Island cables in a retelling of Homer’s Odyssey and will be exhibited in December at Yavuz Sydney.

Image: Bogdan Bogdanović’s Croatian anti-fascist monument The Stone Flower. Credit: Ferdinando Piezzi/ Alamy