The 4th Balkan Architectural Biennale was opened in Belgrade today. The topic of this year’s Biennale is “Decoding Balkan”. Montenegro is partner country.
The platform that brought together numerous architects from the region countries, was opened by the Minister of Culture in Montenegro’s Government, Mr Aleksandra Bogdanović, who pointed out that Biennale’s topic offered a lot of room for discussion.
This seemingly simple slogan sums up complex motives and challenges and, essentially, motivates is to think in the direction of the achievement of a unique goal. This time, the goal is clear – finding answers that would lead to new trend, overcoming challenge that many regions in the Balkans share – how to find measure and ideal in the combination of tradition and innovation and how to achieve full compatibility between impressive cultural and architectural heritage and trends of the contemporary architecture.
“I am sure those questions don’t surprise us. We’ve been searching for answers for so long. However, I believe that this reunion is an ideal opportunity to touch on these questions together”, said Mr Bogdanović.
Award for the initiative on the protection of cultural heritage of the 20th century went to the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro.
Ms Sonja Radović Jelovac presented the concept of the Biennale itself.
“We want to emphasize the importance or responsible and successful partnership among the institutions, professional organizations and scientific community, in generating knowledge, quality and common values, and the showcased projects will partly show that”, said Ms Radović-Jelovac, the commissioner of the Biennale.
A documentary on the Montenegrin architecture, Montenegro Decoding Balkan”, was shown on the first day of Biennale. It was followed by a speech on the “Protection of the cultural heritage of the 20th century”, delivered by the director of the Protection of Cultural Heritage Administration, Mr Božidar Božović.
Discussion entitled “Montenegro-Internationalization and Visibility” will take place tomorrow in the “Balkan” cinema, followed by a presentation of the project of Montenegrin pavilion for EXPO Dubai 2020.
The Biennale will also see the discussion on the ski centers of Montenegro, infrastructure and architecture thereof.
In the segment entitled “Montenegro – institutional and professional collaboration”, Mr Filip Aleksić, the main architect in Podgorica, will present “Mikro 020” project, whereas Ms Ema Alihodžić-Jašarović and Mr Marko Stjepčević will present the “Kolektor” concept.
The finishing part of the second Biennale day, town urbanist, Mr Marko Stojčić, will talk about current projects in Belgrade, while Mr Aleksandar Zeljić, will talk about the “Arena of investment in architecture”.
Biennale finishes on Saturday, with “New concorde” panel discussion.
