I went to the opening of the Tito Effect (Efekat Tita) exhibition today at the Yugoslav History Museum (Muzej istorije Jugoslavije), which is also known as the 25th of May Museum (Muzej “25. maj”). The exhibition is a display of the presents given to Josip Broz Tito, the leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1945 until his death in 1980, by ordinary Yugoslav citizens and world leaders at the time.
Many of the gifts on display, which include torches, clothing, lamps and scale models, have never been exhibited before because they were deemed as not being of cultural value. One of my favourite gifts was the fish lamp (pictured above) from the President of the Communist Party of Mauritius, which I would put alongside some of the stranger presents, such as a stuffed snake, stuffed fish and a model dental surgery (see picture below).
There’s a large collection of portraits to feast your eyes on too. My favourite ones were made by the Apatin Shipyard workers in 1948 (left in the photo below) and the very funky black and white furry one made in 1980 by Prespa Rasen from Macedonia (on the right).
The exhibit also has large projections of letters and other gifts not physically on display, as well as video screens showing moments from Tito’s life and large, elaborate ceremonies dedicated to him.
The Tito Effect is on at the Yugoslav History Museum, on Boticeva street, until the 28th March and is open every day (apart from Mondays) from 10am to 4.30pm. Entry costs 200 dinars.
Trolleybus 41 from the city centre (or 40 from Zvezdara) and bus 91 from New Belgrade go to the museum.
Yugoslav History Museum website
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on Mar 16th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
These are great. I saw the “Silver” exhibit last summer–all gifts of silver that had been given to Tito. Also took in the permanent local/former Yugoslavia republics’ gifts in the same museum.
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