Yugoslavia: From the Beginning to the End

Throughout the most of the 20^th century, in the Balkan peninsula, there was a country inspired by the desire to form a union of South Slavs. Yugoslavia, which was formed and disappeared several times, changed its name, borders, political and social systems, was marked by an exceptional diversity of ethnic groups, religions, cultures and customs existing in a comparatively small geographical area. Praised and disputed, built and undermined, it vanished from the geographical and political map of the world, in the late 20^th century, but it legacy still exerts a strong influence on the lives of people in the region.

The nature of our ambition, when preparing the exhibition was not encyclopaedic – to include all aspects of the social system or to present all available data. The aim of the exhibition is to create a space that will introduce the visitors to one of the most interesting and most controversial state-building experiments in the 20^th century, in a modern, attractive and objective way. The idea is not to show a timeline of crucial events, but to cover all the important phenomena that left their mark on the countries and the societies in the land known, for more than 70 years as Yugoslavia. The word Yugoslavia lingered on, until 2003, in the name of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the country in which only Serbia and Montenegro remained. It, however, was no longer built around the idea of Yugoslavism. The name was purely the result of a political decision, motivated by the wish to establish continuity with the former country, which is why that period of the life of Yugoslavia is not in the focus of the exhibition.

This exhibition has been a big challenge for us and we see it as a showcase for our research that we would like to share with you, our visitors. The research is not over, this is just one of the many stories about Yugoslavia, and for us it is another step towards a future permanent exhibition on the history of Yugoslavia. What do you think? We would love to hear your opinion!

Exhibition texts: Jovo Bakić, Srđan Cvetković, Ivana Dobrivojević, Hrvoje Klasić i Vladimir Petrović

Exhibition curator : Ana Panić

Timeline editor: Dragan Bakić

Research associate: Marija Vasiljević

Reviewers: Tvrtko Jakovina, Husnija Kamberović, Oto Luthar i Predrag J. Marković

Exhibit design: Marko Dimitrijević

Graphic design: Ivan Benussi

Partners:

Archives of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav Film Archive, Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past, Antun Augustinčić Gallery, Croatian State Archives, The Croatian History Museum, Croatian Radiotelevision, INFOBIRO – Mediacentar Sarajevo,  Historical Museum of Serbia, Museum of childhood in Belgrade, Belgrade City Museum, Zagreb City Museum, National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia, Museum of Arts and Crafts Zagreb, National Library of Serbia , National Gallery of Slovenia, National and University Library of Slovenia, National Museum in Belgrade, The National Museum of Slovenia, Educational Museum in Belgrade, Program Archives of Television Belgrade, Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection, Railway Museum in Belgrade

The exhibition has been made possible by: Balkan Trust for Democracy and Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Serbia