SERBIA - National review, No 98

Prologue

GALLERY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONTENTS 

 

Introduction
Ordinariness

Vitrage
NUMBERS, EVENTS, INTERESTING THINGS

Album
PAINTER RANKO KRSTAJIĆ FOR NATIONAL REVIEW
Primordial Reminiscence of the World

Ornamenting
EMBROIDERY, VIRTUE AND SKILL, EVER SINCE THE ANCIENT TIMES
Cyrillic Golden Threads
The exhibition opened in the Museum of Vuk and Dositej helped us take a more careful peek into the trunk and revise our knowledge. Embroidered initials and miniatures from Miroslav’s Gospel, lectures about the medieval embroidery skills, inspiration drawn from it by present fashion design, embroidered, not written, literary masterpieces, workshops for children and adults, where you imperceptibly ”step into the drop and seed”… All that, covered with a veil of old music, gently yet strongly reminded us who we are and what we’re made of

By: Gordana Simeunović and NR Press

Roads
IN BISTRICA, NEAR PETROVAC, A VILLAGE OF WINDMILLS
Legacy of Millers
Ten windmills and three rolling mills are located just a few kilometers from the Bistrica River. Preserved. Even today, the millstone is turned there and stupas are built, grain is ground and cloth is rolled. Since 1986, that area has the status of ”cultural good of great importance”. There is also a church, a grange, old houses, a school and a tavern. People gather there and celebrate, try to find important truths about themselves in the images of old times. That which does not change over time, that in which people have lived for centuries

Text and Photo: Dragan Bosnić

Notebook
IN ISLAM GRČKI, WITH VLADAN DESNICA
Not Everything Will Die
Versatile personality and great writer, polyglot, bibliophile, expert in music and philosophy, ancient and modern times, he was deeply related to his Uskok, Kotar homeland. As a young man, he founded the Cyrillic ”Magazine of Northern Dalmatia”, attempting to create an intellectual circle of those who would write about Serbian heritage in the most western parts of its existence. His ancestor was Uskok voivode and epic hero Stojan Janković, his uncle was Boško Desnica (writer of two-volume ”History of Kotar Uskoks”), father Uroš (editor and publisher of ”Naš List”)… Although the Tower of Janković Stojan was almost entirely destroyed and Vladan’s tomb desecrated in 1993 in the Croatian attack on Srpska Krajina, ”Desnica’s Days” are again held there since 2005, in a renovated space

By: Nikola Kovačević

Forgotten
JOSIF MIHAILOVIĆ (1887–1941), ARCHITECT AND VISIONARY, THE ”FATHER OF MODERN SKOPJE”
Creator of the City
The mayor who created the city. He found a degraded and musty Turkish village, and left behind a modern town, transformed by European standards. He arranged the finances, founded the ”City Savings Bank” which supported entrepreneurs, encouraged the launch of a daily newspaper. He created a general urban development plan and cadaster, listed residents and buildings, brought order to construction. Built a water supply system, a hydroelectric plant, and a sewage system. He designed the streets, squares and intersections that Skopje cannot live without even today. At his funeral, in March 1941, there were 10,000 people. But afterwards, in the newly proclaimed republic and nation, neither the house, nor the grave, nor the family of Josif Mihailović survived in Skopje

Text: Milutin Stančić, Miloš Stojković

Lyre
RAJKO PETROV NOGO (1945–2022), LITERARY GIANT, ETERNAL ORPHAN SETTLED IN LANGUAGE
Poet of the Serbian Heart
”What fairies took me then and how I stayed alive, I couldn’t understand to the very day”, he wrote. Versatile and complex personality, prisoner of homeland and folk life, imbued in tradition. Expert in modern world poetry, he loved Yates, Pound, Eliot. At times boy and witty rascal, at times quiet sage, he was able to gild with his language. He went through the ”stone books of ancestors”. His knowledge of theory and criticism was worthy of an institute. He immediately entered textbooks with his poetry for children. He became a star of Serbian poetry at the time Desanka, Popa, Erić, Brančilo and other wizards of poetry still walked the streets of Belgrade

By: Dragan Lakićević

Bastions
CENTER OF SERBIAN STUDIES IN BANJALUKA, THREE VOICES AND SIX YEARS
Strength in Self-Creation
Without thunderous proclamations and self-praises, two university professors and a poet from Banjaluka, together, in a short time, published more than eighty important books, held more than fifty programs throughout the Serbian cultural space and established the ”Serbian Review” magazine. The presented authors include Zaharije Orfelin, Njegoš, Ljubomir Nedić, Stojan Novaković, Slobodan Jovanović, as well as many contemporary ones, such as Lompar, Basta, Danojlić, Nogo, Nenadić, Sladoje… They realize that the essential problems of Serbian culture today are the absence of connection and pressures for deserbianization. And that there is a lot to do, to create

By: Bane Velimirović

Life, Novels
NATAŠA VELJKOVIĆ, PIANIST, PROFESSOR IN VIENNA, AND HER SERBIA SHE CARRIES WITH HER AROUND THE WORLD
Music Is Born in Silence
Music is a language of feelings and purification, a view into the internal mirror. Unconditional connection with God (like in Bach and Beethoven). Belgrade is, she says, her alter ego, both when it mocks and when it loves her, disapproving and gentle. Serbia is her self, her family and damnation, a country which still has its taste and scent, its folklore and mentality. It is the source and stronghold of our creativity, our ascensions. The more distant from home she is, the stronger her awareness of her roots. Her children, born in Vienna, speak perfect Serbian and write in Cyrillic. Milica and Miloš. And she further unravels the mystery of melancholic major and joyful minor, and paints a yellow house in Vračar, in 7, Podrinska Street

By: Branislav Matić

Arena
MIJAT GAĆINOVIĆ, SERBIAN FOOTBALL PLAYER FROM THE CHAMPION GENERATION
Fighting as the Law in Sport
With roots in Trebinje, born in Novi Sad, he was the European champion (2013) and world champion (2015) with the young Serbian national team. He achieved important results in ”Vojvodina” and ”Eintracht”, then through ”Hoffenheim” he arrived in Athens ”Panathinaikos”. Today he wears the jersey of AEK. His family taught him that success must be achieved through work and dedication. He is still playing at the southern peak of the Balkans, hoping that it will bring him back to the national team, whose current game and philosophy he is delighted with

By: Dejan Bulajić

Care
ASSOCIATION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES IN BELGRADE
A Decade of Help
They include their members in a regular education program, help them acquire knowledge, discover and develop their talents. They hire them. They change the public’s attitude towards people with disabilities, their needs and abilities. They do not create ghettos, but gather and unite people with and without disabilities. They are particularly focused on the removal of architectural barriers. They represent students, provide literature in special formats, advise, transport. Their applications, such as ”Availability” and ”App to a Diploma” are a big support... A lot has been done, but no less work is yet to come

Knowledge
THE SIXTEENTH ”BELGRADE DAYS OF ENGINEERS”
Sciences, Skills, Creativity
The meetings, as always, had an educational and competitive part. They opened with the Innovation Fair, continued with training workshops, and crowned with a competition in innovative design and case study. Every year, this event attracts more and more students, because it provides them with multiple excellent opportunities and professional tests

Gatherings
”SPRING SQUARE” IN RUMA, FOR THE FIRST TIME
The City of Joy
Easter and spring customs, care for health, family and nature, humaneness, creativity and team spirit. These are the themes that marked the event. Children played the prominent role. There were lots of colors, flowers, decorations, lots of light and togetherness. This enocunter, they say, will become traditional

Destinations

IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF DEVELOPMENT IN VRNJAČKA BANJA
Panorama of Progress
The big Ferris wheel is one of the attractive novelties. The cabins are air-conditioned, the ride takes fourteen minutes, the experience is exceptional. Aqua-park ”Raj” (Paradise) has been completed with new slides, twenty meters high. A new luxury hotel with a rooftop helipad will open soon. The first two sections of the Moravian Corridor have been opened, which, along with the airport in Lađevci, will bring Banja significantly closer to all of Europe. By the end of the year, the construction of Novak Djoković’s large gondola will also begin

Connections
NEW COLLABORATION AND NEW GUESTS IN ”MERKUR”
Macedonian Recognition
In Skopje, at the end of April, at the presentation of tourism opportunities of Serbia, the offer of Vrnjačka Banja aroused great interest. ”Merkur’s” concept, which combines spa treatment and rest, turned out to be a complete hit. Already in May, during the visits to ”Merkur” by representatives of Macedonian travel agencies and businesses, a lot of things were made concrete