Bogdan Bogdanović: Dissident in life, architecture and writing

The paper analyses selected works of Bogdan Bogdanović (1922- 2010). This Serbian architect, writer and Professor of Architecture at

the University of Belgrade, was the author of numerous monuments devoted to the victims of fascism in former Yugoslavia (1952-81). As the Mayor of Belgrade (1982-86) Bogdanović was a liberal member of the Yugoslav Communist Party and later, a strong opponent of Milošević’s regime. This paper argues that Bogdanović has always been both a dissident and an avant-garde proponent of architectural surrealism and its wider culture. Living with the belief that the vocation of an architect presupposes lifetime devotion to learning and experimentation, Bogdanović carried on with this attitude throughout his life. This approach, spiced up with playfulness and mystery as presented in his early volume Zaludna mistrija (The Futile Trowel) 1968, is the focus of this paper. In this unusual book the narratives are an intrinsic part of the architectural realm including design, drawings of various kinds, and the built form itself.