Sounding Spomenik: Traces of Memory
20
April
2026
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18
May
2026
You are kindly invited to the opening of the multimedia exhibition "Sounding Spomenik: Traces of Memory" at the Alkatraz Gallery on Monday, April 20, at 7 p.m. You are also invited to the other accompanying events of the exhibition featuring Beti Žerovc, Lina Rica, Manja Ristić, and Jernej Babnik Romaniuk.
Sounding Spomenik: Traces of Memory
Five years of research, documentation and reflection
Multimedia exhibition
20 April — 18 May 2026
Alkatraz Gallery / AKC Metelkova mesto, Ljubljana
Razstava On Thursday, 7 May, the exhibition will be open from 7.15 p.m. until the end of the event.
What does a monument sound like?
𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗸 is a long-term research project, dedicated to the sonic dimension of memory, inscribed in the abstract monumental memorials of the former Yugoslavia. Rather than treating them merely as visual objects, it understands them as resonant bodies — as spaces where material, history and environment intertwine.
The monuments dedicated to the revolution and the National Liberation Struggle played an important role in shaping collective memory in the era of socialist Yugoslavia. They were, simultaneously, political and symbolic, as well as part of a broader international artistic space. Nowadays, they are no longer ascribed unambiguous meanings. As Dr. Beti Žerovc points out, these monuments have lived many lives over time: from ideological symbols to abandoned structures or globally recognised sculptures, often severed from their original context. While the visual appearance of monuments has been thoroughly explored in recent years, their acoustic dimension remains largely overlooked. This is where the project comes in, wondering how a monument functions as an acoustic space.
Many monuments are built of concrete and steel, containing hollow structures that act as natural resonators. In contact with their environment — weather phenomena, living beings and distant traces of human presence — they create particular site-specific soundscapes.
The project, initiated in April 2021 by the producer László Juhász, is developing as an ongoing process of field recording, documentation and artistic interpretation across the territory of the former Yugoslavia.
The current exhibition combines field recordings, photography, video and performance into a comprehensive spatial experience that encourages visitors to listen attentively. At its core lies an embodied artistic practice: musicians perform directly on the monuments and explore their acoustic characteristics. The sound of the instruments intertwines with unpredictable environmental influences, resulting in recordings that highlight the uniqueness of each individual location.
One of the key examples presented in the exhibition shall be a multi-channel audiovisual performance based on recordings from the Popina Memorial Park featuring violinist Manja Ristić and sound engineer Jernej Babnik (Serbia, July 2024).
The monument, conceived by Bogdan Bogdanović in 1981, was erected in memory of the battle of the Trstenica detachment and the Kraljevac battalion against German forces in 1941. In Manja Ristić's words: »An acoustic miracle—the circular chamber in the central part of Popina treats sound in a truly extraordinary way. Being there and performing in it remains forever inscribed in my body.«
The monuments included in the project were built between the early 1950s and early 1980s as memorials to the anti-fascist struggle and the ideals of brotherhood and unity. Today, they exist in a tension between history, political heritage and contemporary interpretations.
Sounding Spomenik does not perceive them as static remnants of the past, but rather as active spatial and sonic entities. Through listening, it places them within a broader sensory framework where their meanings do not come to an end, but are constantly being reshaped.
The exhibition invites reflection on how the past of monuments dedicated to the National Liberation Struggle continues to resonate — not solely as imagery, history and ideology, but also as acoustic spaces.
𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲
𝟮𝟬 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 (𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆) 𝗮𝘁 𝟳 𝗽.𝗺.
𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁
Presentation of the project, including the research process, selection of participants and artistic approaches in the field and in post-production.
𝟮𝟯 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 (𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆) 𝗮𝘁 𝟳 𝗽.𝗺.𝗝𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗷 𝗕𝗮𝗯𝗻𝗶𝗸 𝗥𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘂𝗸: 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗨𝗻𝘂𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 (𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲)
A curated listening session of field recordings, exploring the soundscapes of selected monuments, along with insights into sound recording in unusual locations and acoustic conditions.
𝟯𝟬 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 (𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆) 𝗮𝘁 𝟲 𝗽.𝗺.𝗗𝗿. 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝗶 𝗭̌𝗲𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗰 – 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗟𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲)
A critical reflection on the high modernism of monuments in socialist Yugoslavia, focusing on their socio-political context, contradictions and contemporary understanding.
𝟭𝟰 𝗠𝗮𝘆 (𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆) 𝗮𝘁 𝟳 𝗽.𝗺.
𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮 𝘁𝗼 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗿)
A guided tour of the exhibition with the curator and producers Nataša Serec and László Juhász, offering insight into the works, the research process and the conceptual framework.
Participants:
𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗷𝗮 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰́ is a violinist, sound artist, curator and researcher working in the fields of electroacoustic music, improvisation and experimental sound practices. She studied at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade and at the Royal College of Music in London. In her work, she focuses on interdisciplinary sound, including field recordings and radio art. She is a recipient of several awards and is a founding member of the Central European Network for Sonic Ecologies (CENSE). /
manjaristic.blogspot.com𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗥𝗶𝗰𝗮 is an intermedia artist, working in the fields of conceptual, experimental and new media art. She creates installations that combine video, graphics, light, photography and animation, exploring the impact of social processes on the individual. She obtained her MA at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where she received an award for the best undergraduate thesis. She exhibits her work internationally. She received several awards for her work. In recent years, she has been participating in the Sounding Spomenik project, where she presented live AV works at Sonotopia and at the Osmo/za venue (with Milana Zarić), as well as at the Alkatraz Gallery. Her installation entitled WE ARE HOME is permanently installed at AKC Metelkova mesto in Ljubljana. /
linarica.com𝗝𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗷 𝗕𝗮𝗯𝗻𝗶𝗸 𝗥𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘂𝗸 is a sound engineer, sound designer and producer, specialising in documenting improvised, experimental and contemporary music. In his work, he focuses primarily on field recording, spatial acoustics and sound post-production in unusual environments, where he treats sound as an artistic element, rather than merely a technical record. He is the founder of the Murmur Institute and the author of music publishing projects, such as Spaces and Sonic Traces of Slovenia. Since 2021, he has been collaborating on the international project Sounding Spomenik as a recording engineer, sound designer and technical producer of multichannel works. As a sound engineer, he has participated in numerous domestic and international releases, as well as in film, interdisciplinary projects and sound installations. /
murmur.si𝗗𝗿. 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝗶 𝗭̌𝗲𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗰 is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her areas of research are visual art and the art system since the mid-nineteenth century, with a focus on their roles in society. She is the author of several books, including When Attitudes Become the Norm: The Contemporary Curator and Institutional Art (2015) and co-editor of On the Brink: The Visual Arts in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929–1941) (2019). She is also a co-editor and one of the authors of the book Shaping Revolutionary Memory: The Production of Monuments in Socialist Yugoslavia (2023;
https://igorzabel.org/.../Shaping-Revolutionary-Memory-2023).
𝗕𝗼𝗿𝘂𝘁 𝗪𝗲𝗻𝘇𝗲𝗹 has been working as a designer and cultural producer since 1989. He has extensive experience in graphic design, exhibitions, set design and cultural projects. After completing his studies at the University of Ljubljana and the University in Maribor, he co-founded several important cultural organizations and worked as programme director of the Pekarna Cultural Centre. As one of the most sought-after technical producers, he has realised numerous exhibitions at home and abroad, among others, at the Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, in the Cukrarna Gallery, MGLC – International Centre of Graphic Arts, MSUM – Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, the International Festival of Computer Arts (MKC Maribor), the Obrat Gallery, the ZDSLU Salon, Kibla and numerous other institutions.
𝗔𝗻𝗮 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗿, 𝗠𝗔, is a curator who focuses primarily on feminist and socially engaged contemporary art. She obtained her BA and MA at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana, and completed her further education in the World of Art programme, a school for curators and critics of contemporary art at SCCA — Centre for Contemporary Arts Ljubljana. She has (co-)curated numerous exhibitions addressing issues of gender, identity, corporeality and social engagement. Since 2018, she has been the artistic director of the Alkatraz Gallery (Arts and Culture Association – KUD Mreža), where she actively supports independent and emerging artistic practices. Moreover, she is a member of the editorial board of
spol.si and the International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns collective, as well as the author of scholarly texts in the field of contemporary art. She has received a scholarship for shortage occupations from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia. /
galerijalkatraz.org𝗧𝗲𝗮 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗵𝗲𝗸 𝗟𝗲𝗯𝗮𝗿 is an interdisciplinary artist, working at the intersection of art, sound engineering, and the recording of cultural events. She initially trained as a healthcare worker before studying textile technology at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Maribor. Since 2014, she has been a regular contributor to Radio Student, where she developed skills in sound engineering, field recording and sound and video editing. For many years, she has collaborated with Arts and Culture Association – KUD Mreža, Kino Šiška – Centre for Urban Culture and others as a videographer and editor of concerts and artistic events, contributing to the documentation and archiving of the independent cultural scene. In 2017, she directed the documentary film The Heart of Music, an intimate visual story about Improcon 2017 and the broader context of improvised music.
𝗟𝗮́𝘀𝘇𝗹𝗼́ 𝗝𝘂𝗵𝗮́𝘀𝘇 is a freelance journalist, curator, producer and publisher, the founder of the label Inexhaustible Editions and its sub-labels Edition FriForma and SonoLiminal. His work explores the intersections of sound, space and architecture, with a particular focus on experimental music, sound art and site-specific acoustics. As a publisher and producer, he focuses on projects that transcend commercial frameworks and explore atypical, spatially and architecturally conditioned sound forms. He is a co-curator and producer of the long-term international research project Sounding Spomenik, which is dedicated to documenting and interpreting the sonic qualities of Brutalist monuments in the former Yugoslavia. /
onrizom.org𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗮𝘀̌𝗮 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗰 is a music producer and curator with over 30 years of experience in the fields of contemporary, experimental, sonic and public art. She is the founder of the FriForma and Sonotopia concert series and a co-founder of the Edition FriForma and SonoLiminal labels, as well as a co-curator and producer of the international research project Sounding Spomenik. As a curator and producer, she has realized over 200 public art interventions as part of the Gesamtkunstwerk Metelkova programme, and over 60 artist residencies at Studio Asylum. As the president of Arts and Culture Association – KUD Mreža and founder of the ON Rizom – Institute for Networking, Researching, Publishing and Promoting Contemporary Arts, she develops programmes at the intersection of experimental music, sound research and visual arts, and actively participates in international projects and programmes in cultural and arts education. /
kudmreza.org
Exhibiton:
Sound installation by Jernej Babnik Romaniuk, László Juhász, Tilen Lebar
Object installation by Borut Wenzel
Video installations by László Juhász, Ana Grobler, Tea Grahek Lebar
Photography exhibition by László Juhász
Events:
𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲:
Manja Ristić – music (violin, objects, field recordings)
Jernej Babnik Romaniuk – sound distribution
Lina Rica – live visualisation
𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻:
Jernej Babnik Romaniuk
𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲:
Dr. Beti Žerovc
𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗿:
Nataša Serec, László Juhász
Production: Arts and Culture Association – KUD Mreža / Alkatraz Gallery / Sonotopia, Ljubljana
Co-production: ON Rizom – Institute for Networking, Researching, Publishing and Promoting Contemporary Arts / Inexhaustible Editions / SonoLiminal, Ljubljana
Curators: Nataša Serec and László Juhász
Graphic design: Urša Rahne
Proofreading: Sonja Benčina
Translation: Ana Makuc
Financial support: The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the City Municipality of Ljubljana – Department of Culture, The Public Fund for Cultural Activities (JSKD)
23 April (Thursday) at 7 p.m.
𝕁𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕖𝕛 𝔹𝕒𝕓𝕟𝕚𝕜 ℝ𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕚𝕦𝕜: ℍ𝕠𝕨 𝕥𝕠 ℂ𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕 𝕚𝕟 𝕌𝕟𝕦𝕤𝕦𝕒𝕝 𝕊𝕡𝕒𝕔𝕖𝕤 (𝕃𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕤𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕝𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕖)
A curated listening session of field recordings, exploring the soundscapes of selected monuments, along with insights into sound recording in unusual locations and acoustic conditions.
The listening lecture by Jernej Babnik Romaniuk, titled How to Record Sound in Extraordinary Places, approached sound as a means of expression rather than just a technical medium. By presenting field recordings that he made in the monuments, the participants were able to examine the specific acoustic properties that emerge through their construction, materiality, and context.
Babnik Romaniuk referred to his experience with the Sounding Spomenik project in order to demonstrate the way that such places work as natural resonators due to factors like weather, environment, and the occurrence of unforeseen sound events. As stated in the exhibition catalogue, monuments should be viewed as “resonant bodies” since sound becomes a way of uncovering layers of history.
𝗝𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗷 𝗕𝗮𝗯𝗻𝗶𝗸 𝗥𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘂𝗸 is a sound engineer, sound designer and producer, specialising in documenting improvised, experimental and contemporary music. In his work, he focuses primarily on field recording, spatial acoustics and sound post-production in unusual environments, where he treats sound as an artistic element, rather than merely a technical record. He is the founder of the Murmur Institute and the author of music publishing projects, such as Spaces and Sonic Traces of Slovenia. Since 2021, he has been collaborating on the international project Sounding Spomenik as a recording engineer, sound designer and technical producer of multichannel works. As a sound engineer, he has participated in numerous domestic and international releases, as well as in film, interdisciplinary projects and sound installations. /
jbr.si
30 April, at 6 p.m.
𝕒 𝕝𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕓𝕪 𝔹𝕖𝕥𝕚 ℤ̌𝕖𝕣𝕠𝕧𝕔: 𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕦𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕤 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕠𝕝𝕦𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟
Beti Žerovc will deliver a lecture on the monumental high-modernist memorials of the socialist Yugoslavia, dedicated to the anti-fascist National Liberation Struggle and the socialist revolution. She will present the complex socio-political context of this Yugoslav monumental production, including its internal contradictions. In light of the question why and how to revolutionise the masses through monuments, Žerovc shall also touch upon the contemporary challenges in scholarly research and artistic engagement with such politically charged objects. Why, for instance, does the global contemporary art scene praise these monuments, yet, at the same time, generally refers to them as 'the Spomeniks' rather than by their actual name, Monuments of the Revolution, thereby consistently failing to acknowledge their inherent anti-capitalist nature?
Beti Žerovc is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her areas of research are visual art and the art system since the mid-nineteenth century, with a focus on their roles in society. She is the author of several books, including When Attitudes Become the Norm: The Contemporary Curator and Institutional Art (2015) and co-editor of On the Brink: The Visual Arts in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929–1941) (2019). She is also a co-editor and one of the authors of the book Shaping Revolutionary Memory: The Production of Monuments in Socialist Yugoslavia (2023;
https://igorzabel.org/.../Shaping-Revolutionary-Memory-2023).
7 May, at 7 p.m. and 8.15 p.m.
𝕄𝕦𝕝𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕟𝕖𝕝 𝕒𝕦𝕕𝕚𝕠-𝕧𝕚𝕤𝕦𝕒𝕝 𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖: ℙ𝕠𝕡𝕚𝕟𝕒 / 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕊𝕡𝕠𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕚𝕜
𝕄𝕒𝕟𝕛𝕒 ℝ𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕔́ – 𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖, 𝕤𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕 & 𝕗𝕚𝕖𝕝𝕕 𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕣𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕤, 𝕥𝕖𝕩𝕥
𝕁𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕖𝕛 𝔹𝕒𝕓𝕟𝕚𝕜 ℝ𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕚𝕦𝕜 – 𝕗𝕚𝕖𝕝𝕕 𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕣𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕤
𝕃𝕚𝕟𝕒 ℝ𝕚𝕔𝕒 – 𝕝𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕧𝕚𝕤𝕦𝕒𝕝𝕤
"The Popina monument, designed by Bogdan Bogdanović and completed in 1981, stands on Nebrak Hill above the village of Štulac as a sculptural meditation on one of the earliest and most symbolically charged confrontations of the Second World War in Yugoslavia. On 13 October 1941, vastly outnumbered Partisan units from the Vrnjačka Trstenički detachment and the Kraljevački detachment engaged the advancing 717th German Infantry Division in what is often described as the first full frontal clash between Partisan forces and the Wehrmacht. The battle was fierce, brief and costly. It marked the beginning of the German counteroffensive against the short-lived Republic of Užice, the first liberated territory within the German Reich’s borders.
Bogdanović’s response to this history was not triumphalist. Instead, he shaped a landscape of stone sentinels carved from dark gabbro and arranged in a sequence of alignments that open and close like apertures. The forms, triangular, circular, pierced and massive, evoke both ancient necropolises and futuristic ruins. They resist literal interpretation, because Bogdanović believed that monuments should provoke reflection, rather than dictate meaning, offering a space where memory can be approached, not consumed.
His monuments often function as instruments of perception and Popina is no exception. It is a place where the visitor becomes part of the composition. The central chamber, an acoustically remarkable circular space, acts as a resonator. Its geometry gathers sound and folds it back into the body of the visitor. The stone absorbs heat, light and vibration, creating a sensory density that is inseparable from the monument’s architectural logic.
The subtle hum of the road in the distance gently glides down the crevices between large granite blocks. The July sun is merciless, yet the zenith holds the space around the monument in a dense vellum of heat and light. The nature is neglected, yet lush and mysterious. Strange paths through an impenetrable forest hold the shadows in their pockets.
Brutalist monuments of Yugoslavia are not only memorials, but rather political statements encoded in stone. Built during late Yugoslav socialism, they reflect a moment when the state sought to articulate a collective antifascist identity through art. Yet, Bogdanović, who later became a vocal critic of nationalism and authoritarianism, infused his work with ambiguity. His monuments resist propaganda. They refuse to monumentalize war itself. Instead, they monumentalize the fragility of human struggle, the cost of resistance and the ethical imperative to remember.
In today’s fractured political landscape, where the memory of the Second World War is often contested, instrumentalised or neglected, Popina stands as a reminder that memory is an active cultural practice and cannot be a static inheritance. The monument’s partial abandonment, its overgrown paths and the fading of its once clear symbolic program all speak to the shifting politics of remembrance in the post-Yugoslav space.
The Sounding Spomeniks project offers a profoundly contemporary mode of engagement. By activating the monument through sound, improvisation, resonance and attentive listening, the project reanimates the site without imposing a new narrative upon it. It treats the monument as a living acoustic organism capable of dialogue.
We came here to offer our presence, to examine the knots where past, present and future intersect. We came to Popina out of respect for the struggle against evil, for the lives sacrificed for freedom, and to bow to the culture that preserved memory in such knowledgeable and grandiose ways.
The gesture of presence, of listening, is political in its own right. It resists the erosion of meaning that comes with neglect. It abandons the perception of a monument as a silent witness.
An acoustic marvel, the round chamber of the main Popina chamber treats sound in truly magnificent ways. Being and playing inside is forever inscribed in my body.
The essence of Bogdanović’s vision was that memory should be felt, not merely known. Popina reveals to us that memory is a willingness to stand at the threshold between times, a place where the past resonates into the present and where the future depends on our capacity to remember with care and complexity, to be open to absorb its demands for healing and transformation. Our contribution was deeply engaged, gentle, but resonant, and the gallery performance of the gathered experiences and materials will transpose a glimpse of this otherworldly encounter that opened new portals in our minds, never to close them."
Manja Ristić, April 2026
