The Cursor is a comment on the current politics of representation in Macedonia. It is an intervention on the 66m high Millenium Cross built in 2000 on the mountain Vodno in Skopje. Vodno is situated on the south side of river Vadar which divides the city in two parts: the Macedonian southern part and the Albanian northern part. The cross which is seen from all over Skopje is supposed to be one of the biggest of its kind. In the original project a golden street should lead up to it. During the night the cross turns into a “burning” sculpture lit by thousand of little lamps. Regularly, the form of the cross is deranged by partial blackouts. The Cursor picks up these regular deformation of the cross and proposes another, new form: an upleading arrow.
In these days Macedonia is in search of its own identity and therefore rediscovering its religiousness. Signs and symbols play a major role in constructing this idea of a new collectivity. While the Millenium Cross is one of the realised signs (followed by numerous little copies all over Macedonia) a series of other projects is in the state of pre-materialisation. The construction of ideas now is of greater relevance than the construction of actual buildings. In this state the projects are developed by multiple authors: 3D-professionals, TV-stations, newspaper journalists, bloggers on the internet, government sites etc.. Individual imagination forms a collective idea.
Parallel to this Macedonian identity building the Albanian minority is following similar strategies of representation. New mosques and minarets are defining territories and marking borders. While the Macedonian idea-projects take a long time to develop, the pre-fabricated minarets pop up quickly. An odd competition is taking place.
Both Macedonian and Albanians officially run this politics of representation and differentiation. The hot spot where these attempts culminate at the moment is Plostad Makedonija. The main square of Skopje which is situated aside the river Vardar on the Macedonian side. In a few months a statue of Alexander the Great (“Alexander the Macedonian”) will be erected here. The collective imagination sees an eight-storey high statue, made of bronze, looking towards the north (and therefore towards the statue of the Albanian freedom fighter Skenderbeg, built in 2006).
Another project on the way is the new othodox church on Plostad Makedonija. In 2008 the Ministry of Culture announced a competition based on the idea that every European capital has its dome on the main square. While the process started with the consensual thougt that for this church the city of Tetovo (mainly inhabited by Albanians) will get a new mosque, the debate is going into a different direction now. Eveyday the call for an additional mosque on the square is getting louder and louder. At the same time Macedonians are organising protests for and against the church and the sacralisation of public space in general.
Interesting enough both the church and the mosque are legitimated by the idea of “reconstruction”. And again the power of the image (in this case of an “original state”) is stronger than the fact: neither place nor form are “original”. Rather do fictional reconstructions overlay fictional projects. At the same time the reconstruction of former conflicts is taking place.
Milan Mijalkovic commented on this situation with a competition entry which subtly enforces the provocation of the competition. It proposes a radical underdefined church which is composed by only three elements placed on the square (the tower, the ikonostase, the naos). During the main holidays the square turns into a temporary church, the rest of the year it remains in its secular state. The church is infiltrated by public life, by individuals of all ethnicities.
Macedonia today is in a crucial state where signs and symbols are set with banality and brutality. Things are happening, ideas are developed, projects are realised that would not be possible in any Western European state. The productivity of conflicts is enormous and thus to be understood as a huge potential for transformation. After a period of apathy Macedonia runs into exaggeration and excess. Provocation is speeding up the journey. The destination is unknown.
When The Cursor was first published on the internet “Bill Gates” generously promised to finance is realisation.
Milan Mijalkovic was born in Skopje in 1982. He lives and works as an architect / artist in Vienna and Skopje. He is currently working on a research project on spaces of conflict and negotiation in Skopje.
Posted by: Eva Prelovšek
