JOVANKA BROZ, 2011
Exhibition view: 1st Time Machine, The Biennale of Contemporary Art, D-O Ark Underground, Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Curators Branislav Dimitrijevic & Petar Cukovic), 2011.
Description
JOVANKA BROZ
The young Partisan girl from Lika, Jovanka Budisavljevic, married at the age of 28, in 1952, the president of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito, 32 years older then herself, and thus became the first lady of the country.
Their relationship deteriorated in the early 1970ties and became fodder for fierce political debates. Jovanka claimed she was trying to protect her aging husband from various agents – she considered ten of his eleven party State Secretaries (Ministers) to be agents of some sort. Her enemies suggested the opposite, that she was the one working against her own husband.
According to a 1988 report written for the SFRJ Presidency, between 1974 and 1988, Yugoslavia’s highest political forums spent 59 meetings solely discussing Jovanka. This process was actually started by Tito’s own decision on January 21, 1974, when he ordered the Communist League to form a special commission to look into “the case of comrade Jovanka”.
On July 27, 1980, not even three months after Tito’s death, men broke into the residence at 15 Užička where she was living. They ransacked the place, confiscated her property and forcedly moved her to 75 Bulevar Mira, where she was placed under house arrest.
Ever since then, Jovanka has stayed away from the spotlight. Recently, in a rare 2003 interview, she absolved Tito of responsibility for what happened to her, saying he did everything possible to save her life.
The first lady of Yugoslavia is still remembered by her typical hairstyle referred to as Jovanka’s updo.
I invited woman from all former Republics of Yugoslavia to donate a part of their hair to create a crown-like wig in the form of Jovanka’s updo. Jovanka’s haircolor is dark brown, a color very frequent in ex-Yugoslavia. Her hair crown is the only jewellery and status symbol that she was able to keep after her marriage. The wig was placed in the bunker under spotlights, on the level of eyes, as if it was a crown.
Installation
Exhibition view: 1st Time Machine, The Biennale of Contemporary Art, D-O Ark Underground, Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Curators Branislav Dimitrijevic & Petar Cukovic), 2011.
The Wig
Archival Images
Jovanka Broz (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia:
Jovanka Budisavljević Broz (Serbian Cyrillic: Јованка Будисављевић Броз) (born December 7, 1924; died October 20, 2013) is the former First Lady of Yugoslavia and the widow of Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito. They were married from 1952 until his death in 1980. She now lives in Belgrade, Serbia.
As an immediate witness and insider of the entire turbulent epoch in the history of the Balkans, she is still the subject of immense regional media interest. For her part, Jovanka maintains an extremely low-key existence and rarely gives interviews. Most think her secluded lifestyle comes as a consequence of the enormous trouble she went through following her husband’s death, when all of her property was nationalized and she was placed under house arrest.
She was reported to be living in relative poverty as of 2006, after a government inquiry found that her house in Dedinje, a suburb (next to the Royal Palace) of Belgrade, had received no maintenance since her arrest. Efforts are now being made to improve her living conditions.
Jovanka Broz (née Budisavljević) is of Serbian ethnicity. She held the rank of major in the Yugoslav People’s Army.
… The married couple’s relations started to deteriorate in the early 1970s. Their relationship became fodder for fierce political debates. Jovanka claimed she was trying to protect her aging husband from various agents – she considered ten of his eleven party State Secretaries (Ministers) to be agents of some sort. Her enemies suggested the opposite, that she was the one working against her own husband.
According to a 1988 report written for the SFRY Presidency, between 1974 and 1988, Yugoslavia’s highest political forums spent 59 meetings solely discussing Jovanka. This process was actually started by Tito’s own decision on January 21, 1974, when he ordered the Communist League to form a special commission to look into “the case of comrade Jovanka”. The commission was presided over by Rato Dugonjić, with Stevan Doronjski, Todo Kurtović, Fadilj Hodža, General Miloš Šumonja, Džemil Šarac, and Ivan Kukoč as its members.
The long list of accusations Jovanka faced in those years reads like an ambitious spy novel: being a Soviet spy, giving up the highest state secrets, scheming with Serbian generals, firing and hiring high-ranking politicians, taking part in a conspiracy against Aleksandar Ranković, planning a coup d’état with General Đoko Jovanić, etc.
Many believed her to be a victim of the ambitions of various politicians who managed to manipulate the aging Marshal into turning against his wife. According to Ivo Eterović, a writer and photographer with unprecedented decades-long access to Yugoslavia’s ruling couple, “the main culprits for the Tito-Jovanka split are that pig Stane Dolanc and General Nikola Ljubičić“.[2]
…On July 27, 1980, not even three months after Tito’s death, men broke into the residence at 15 Užička where she was living. They ransacked the place, confiscated her property and forcedly moved her to 75 Bulevar Mira, where she was placed under house arrest. Her younger sister Nada, who was present while all of this was happening, was threatened with death if she mentioned what she saw to anyone.
In a letter Jovanka wrote in 1985 to Yugoslavia’a Federal Assembly, she described the ordeal:
“They rummaged through my belongings for 11 hours, before taking it all. I was all alone when they came because the entire staff had been sent away somewhere. When they started breaking down the front door I called my sister to come. I was surrounded by 10 unknown men and I was afraid. I was even afraid for my life. As they were leaving, that man named Nikolić came up to me and threatened my sister would be killed if she speaks about what she saw“.
Ever since then, Jovanka has stayed away from the spotlight. Recently, in a rare 2003 interview, she absolved Tito of responsibility for what happened to her, saying he did everything possible to save her life. In the same interview, she singled out Stane Dolanc (“he hated the fact I’m Serbian“) and General Nikola Ljubičić (“I immediately saw through his posturing and recognized his struggle for power”) as the main reasons why her life hung in the balance during late 1970s and early 1980s.
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jovanka_Broz