Monday 5 July 2010

Skopje, Macedonia

I thought I'd finish today with something a little different...




These are from a swap with Marja in Macedonia. She decided to send me the whole collection of this awarded edition of postcards, made by young Macedonian artists for a competition related to the city of Skopje. It is a collection that rebels against the drastic changes of the city's looks.

These two cards are probably my favourites. I obviously don't understand Macedonian so I have no idea what the cards say... It looks like a very interesting collection, though, I really like the idea. They should do something similar in my hometown of Lappeenranta in Finland, too... They seem to be rather too eager to destroy all the old, beautiful buildings there and replace them with ugly modern ones. :(



I didn't scan the postage label on the envelope but I did scan the stamp... It was issued in 2009 and shows Yuri Gagarin, the first human in outer space.

2 comments:

Ana said...

The first caption says: "To see and yet not to believe", while on the second card, it says "Once upon a time, there used to be a square..."

Im also very much against this new project the government is trying to proceed with, as well as a lot of other people, but unfortunately, when the government has an interest in doing something ,they go all the way....instead of investing those money to do something about the high rate of unemployment or renovate the schools/hospitals/student campuses which are in awful condition, the government decides we need new statues...really absurd and no wonder people are bitter about all this


here is a link in English, about some points of view

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/blogs/25885/

at the bottom is the video presentation...it is in Macedonian, but just gives an idea of all the things that need to be build, and eventually make the city centre one cluttered space

Anu said...

Thank you for all the info, Ana, that was really helpful and interesting. It seems like the Macedonian government is a lot like the British one, then - here too politicians like to waste money on pointless crap when there would be far more important things to spend money on :S And I'm far from happy with some of the decisions a local council has made recently - and then they have the nerve to say they don't have enough money for things like creating jobs for the unemployed, or doing something about schools.. ggrr! It seems to be a universal thing, unfortunately. :(