Re-Building Skopje: The Curations of Past and Present in the ‘Capital of Kitsch’

Architectural investigation into Skopje provides us with the tools to understand both the Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav architectural and political events. The contemporary architecture of Skopje exemplifies of the architectural production in the post-socialist Southeastern Europe and its deeply intertwined relationship with politics. The examination of the re-production of politics and ideology through architectural construction, allows for an insight into events taking place in Skopje today, in the deeply problematic processes of both canceling and negating of the communist past. I study the two reconstructions of Skopje, the post-1963 earthquake period and the contemporary architectural events in the city, and I argue that both projects exhibit the shifting relationships between architecture and politics, as well as its perpetual re-negotiations, and the paramount importance of their contexts in understanding the conjunction of the past and present in the city.