Skopje: Building the City of Solidarity

Lecture
20/4 2023 6 pm
Museumsquartier

Prior to the opening of the exhibition No Feeling is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection we invite you to a lecture held in English.

The event is fully booked.

The admission is free.

In 1963, Skopje suffered a catastrophic earthquake that destroyed about 75 % of the city’s buildings and infrastructure. The aftermath of the earthquake propelled unprecedented international solidarity. The process led by the United Nations was high in ambitions – not only to rebuild Skopje, but to promote it as an exemplary global city.

In their lecture, Ana Ivanovska Deskova, Jovan Ivanovski and Vladimir Deskov will look at how this peripheral city became a site of international cooperation and a laboratory for testing the latest urban and architectural paradigms, resulting in one of the most powerful and controversial eras of Skopje’s recent architectural history.

Born in 1978, Ana Ivanovska holds a Master of Architecture and PhD from the Faculty of Architecture at the University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje. Her main research interest is the Modern Architecture of Skopje, particularly the city’s post-earthquake renewal. Deskova has authored numerous research projects on the topic, also curating various exhibitions on architecture, and was one of the authors of the National Pavilion of Macedonia at the 2008 and 2014 Venice Biennale of Architecture. She was a member of the curatorial advisory board for the New York’s Museum of Modern Art exhibition – Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980 and works as an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture in Skopje, teaching the History of Modern Architecture and Protection of Cultural Heritage.

Born in 1976, Jovan Ivanovski holds a Master of Architecture from the Institute of Architecture at FH Anhalt (Dessau-Roßlau) and a PhD from the Faculty of Architecture at the University Ss. Cyril Methodius in Skopje. He has won numerous local and international architectural competitions, and curated several exhibitions on architecture; most notably the National Pavilion of Macedonia at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2014. In 2006 and 2008 he was one of the authors of the National Pavilion. Ivanovski was a member of the curatorial advisory board for the New York’s Museum of Modern Art exhibition – Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980 and works as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture in Skopje.

Born in 1977, Vladimir Deskov graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje in 2004. His main research focuses on the city of Skopje and its architecture, the influence of economic, political and social transformations on how the city changes, and their impact on its architecture. Deskov was one of the authors of the National Pavilion of Macedonia at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2008 and 2014. He was a member of the curatorial advisory board for the New York’s Museum of Modern Art exhibition – Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980. Since 2007, Deskov has been working at the School of Architecture and Design at the University American College in Skopje, and he is currently completing his PhD at the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb.

 

Exhibition

  
 

RELATED CONTENT