The Yugoslavia home page begins with Tito's socialist form of authority,
and follows through his death, the end of the regime, transition
to another form of authority, and consequences of this particular
end. The first section presents the public and martial (the personal
and distant) sides of his authority. Both individual identification
and military discipline were integral to this authority.
Click on any of the six small photos and you are linked to an enlarged
image. Listen to the associated music or sound by clicking on the
small ear icon in the upper right. (Please be patient as sound files
take some time to load.)
Tito provided a possibility for Yugoslav identification around
the political slogan "Brotherhood and Unity" by superceding other
local and regional ethnic and religious affiliations. We chose to
portray the ambivalence surrounding his death and legacy by juxtaposing
his "martial shadows" with the profound mourning of the masses and
leaders around the world. Our soundscapes juxtapose air raids and
gun salutes with the live music from Tito's funeral that had played
on Yugoslav television.
The caption on each enlarged image does not direct you outside
the photo but rather to the image itself. What is included and excluded
from view? What does this image and juxtaposed sound say about authority?
The three longer "home page" texts that accompany the images and
sounds of each section attempt a succinct narration of the theme.
They simply point to the story, told in more detail in the book
and film.
The third section, Consequences, implies no causal relationship
but alludes to key events in the construction of political authority,
two decades of experience, following the regime's end. What was
the nature of the rupture in political authority following the death
of the Father? We juxtapose images of the personal trajectory of
ethnic cleansing with the military destruction of the Mostar bridge,
which linked Muslims and Croats. To this we play the now-ghostly
reminder of Tito, a speech on "Brotherhood and Unity," and the sound
of Tito's funeral train. Our selection of ongoing historical events
merely suggests ways into how the "death of the Father" continues
to haunt successor forms of Yugoslav authority.