Icons of the nation

1) The publication icons of the nations is an interdisciplinary project dealing with the transformation processes in the early 90s of the national myths and their heroes and heroins in the ex-jugoslav region in the visual cultures. On the one hand the research project points out the mythic heroes and heroins who were implented by the government-related organisations to establish a new national conciousness and to legitimize the reinforcement of military operation. And on the other hand it presents the artistic critical movement, which ones tried to unmask the discursive mechanisms of the national domestic efforts. The end of the socialist Period of Tito caused not only a political but also a visual vacuum, which demands new narrations and visual articulations. Based on this fact the work opens up the the question: who or what fullfills the visual vacuum of Tito? The new/old growing grounding myths created new/old heroes and herions in Croatia (the Homeland War 1991-1995) and Serbia (the battle of Kosovo) which become in the late 80s and early 90s more important. 2) Out of the amount of new personalities who were labeled as heroes, the work will find out with the help of the Method of the intervisuality a generell stereotyp of a heroe or heroine and as well its impact on society and politics. This marginally considered topic provides a fundamental contribution to the understanding and the use of myths and visual icons in Croatia and Serbia, which played a crucial part in the process of the nationbuilding in this regions during the 90s and still in present times.