Our Comrade, who is in heaven, 2011

Installaton

By uniting Yugoslavia, Tito abolished all existing religions and placed himself as the supreme deity. In order for the new faith to survive, rituals, festivals, symbols, prayers, oaths were regularly practiced … One of them was the celebration of the Supreme Being’s birth – May 25. The extreme cult of personality brought prosperity to the people during Tito’s life, but I consider this phenomenon to be directly responsible for the bloody denouement that followed. His death was a turning point, and his tomb was for a time a sanctuary of a religion that was slowly fading and giving way to the old immortal gods. The fact that there is no five-pointed star on Tito’s grave is especially interesting: it is as if it testifies to his greatness, which rises above the symbol he used to manipulate the masses.

Mića Stajčić (1977, Belgrade)