Garavice Spomenik / Monument:
This spomenik at Bihać commemorates the estimated 12,000 ethnic-Serb and Jewish civilians, including children, that were executed on this hillside by Ustaše forces in July of 1941. […] In the words of Bogdan Bogdanović, the creator of this monument park, "My philosophy very
abstract, inspired by the ancient dualistic thinking of good and evil..." This approach was very much used in Bogdanović's design of the #spomenik here at Bihać. Firstly, the obvious dominating element of this complex is the 15 identical bihacite stone column megaliths arranged around the Garavice hillside ( and wider area), which Bogdanović referred to as his 'Mourning Women'. Looking at these sculptures as female figures lamenting the loss of their loved ones, the way the top-most block on each
column is situated slightly over the edge of the one one beneath it could be interpreted as these figures hanging their heads in sadness, while the carvings on each side of this head-block could be viewed as tears flowing from these figure's eyes. Looking at the spatial arrangement of the figures, we see them further apart as you go down the hill, but clustered tightly at the hill's summit. This arrangement may represent the figures at the place of burial engaging in 'collective mourning' (as Friedrich Achleitner points out in his book 'A Flower for the Dead'), while those figures who wish to engage in more personal isolated mourning find themselves in more lonely locations on the hill's lower slopes. (SOURCE: @spomenikdatabase)
abstract, inspired by the ancient dualistic thinking of good and evil..." This approach was very much used in Bogdanović's design of the #spomenik here at Bihać. Firstly, the obvious dominating element of this complex is the 15 identical bihacite stone column megaliths arranged around the Garavice hillside ( and wider area), which Bogdanović referred to as his 'Mourning Women'. Looking at these sculptures as female figures lamenting the loss of their loved ones, the way the top-most block on each
column is situated slightly over the edge of the one one beneath it could be interpreted as these figures hanging their heads in sadness, while the carvings on each side of this head-block could be viewed as tears flowing from these figure's eyes. Looking at the spatial arrangement of the figures, we see them further apart as you go down the hill, but clustered tightly at the hill's summit. This arrangement may represent the figures at the place of burial engaging in 'collective mourning' (as Friedrich Achleitner points out in his book 'A Flower for the Dead'), while those figures who wish to engage in more personal isolated mourning find themselves in more lonely locations on the hill's lower slopes. (SOURCE: @spomenikdatabase)
