capital. It is interesting that this dis- tinctive form of architecture is becom- ing increasingly popular with the Ins- tagram generation, while parts of the city, such as New Belgrade (which was largely built according to the brutal- ist method), are actually tourist desti- nations for those who still admire this style of architecture that has long since fallen into oblivion. Interest in this ar- chitectural style grew particularly after the 2018 exhibition at New York’s Mo- MA entitled Concrete Utopia: Archi- tecture in Yugoslavia, 1948-1980. The unique modernist architecture of the former Yugoslavia is recognised around the world as having differed from both Western and Eastern buildings that were erected during the Cold War. These tall buildings, like the towers lo- cated on different sides of Belgrade, often have an emotional power, as they inform returning travellers that they’ve arrived home. Among them is also the Genex building, which it is im- possible to avoid seeing when travel- ling by road from the airport to Bel-
grade city centre. This tower is one of the most significant examples of Bru- talism based on rough, block forms cast from concrete. Brutalism was pop- ular across the Eastern Bloc, but the former Yugoslavia made the style its own – using it as a way to forge the
country’s own visual identity. With the country standing at the crossroads of the capitalist West and the social- ist East, Yugoslav architecture came up with a unique response to the con- tradictory demands and influences be- tween which it found itself.
Architecture » Arhitektura | 45
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