Paper short abstract:

This paper will discuss ideological politics of official street and public space (re)naming in Serbia in 2000s, as well as political, artistic and other pursuits of countering that process or actions of alternative naming of those same significant urban places.

Paper long abstract:

With the onset of political overturn in Serbia in 2000, processes of the ideological reconfiguration of public places was simultaneously being put in motion. One of the easiest and most prominent means of this endeavor was naming and renaming of urban space, primarily of streets and squares, usually by designation of streets (but also of various public institutions) with the novel commemorative fund of historical public figures and their names, which replaced the dominant political and historical pantheon of the precedient period. This undertaking was especially prominent in Serbia's capital Belgrade. Such process was opposed several times by certain political parties and groups which organized street-actions of counter-naming Belgrade's thoroughfares. The power-play and identity politics of such proceedings will be analyzed. This paper will also discuss practices beginning as early as 2001, mostly by focussing on actions of the Spomenik group, Biro movement, Illegal Confectioners artist group, and ad-hoc gathering of political, NGO and artist groups in 2009, which carried out unofficial street-renaming actions and performances, and revitalized or reinterpreted old monuments/memorials, or discussed and proposed new ones. By (re)naming certain urban spaces, hegemonic political coalitions are trying to construct significant symbolic places, while oppositional counter-actions are seeking to overtake those same places and reinterpret them. This paper will sum up and inquire into Ideological politics of official renaming and artistic and political counter-politics and actions of opposition or alternative renaming, and discuss means of doing so.