Comment

A Comment on Hanno Hardt's Images on Slovenia Today

Sabina Mihelj

As many other new states emerging out of the remnants of socialist federations after 1989, Slovenia is indeed often a target of stereotypical images of 'Eastern Europe' or 'the Balkans'. Hanno Hardt's photo essay in the 'gallery' skilfully avoids both the sensational images of poverty, war and backwardness usually associated with these regions of Europe, as well as the equally stereotypical self-aggrandising representations known from tourist brochures. Yet in this attempt to provide an alternative to stereotypical images, the photo essay, and even more so the accompanying introduction, glosses over some of the central contradictions and tensions of contemporary Slovenian society. This short commentary focuses on some of these tensions, taking into account not only the images present in the essay, but also its silences and omissions.

When confronted with the stigma of 'the Balkans' or 'Eastern Europe', inhabitants of these regions habitually highlight the distinctiveness of their respective nations and states, often to the point of denying even the slightest commonality with their neighbours. A particularly popular strategy of self-representation arising in such conditions is the attempt to insist on a particularly 'European' or 'Western' character of one's own nation, while deprecating one's neighbours as 'Balkan' or 'Eastern' - thus 'non-European'. One certainly cannot deny that the Slovenian cultural heritage has much in common with the cultural landscapes of neighbouring Austria, Hungary and other states commonly designated as 'Central Europe'. Several of Hardt's images are testimony to that: most clearly those explicitly focussing on architecture in urban environments (17), but also those showing scenes from various local festivals and rituals linked to the Catholic calendar (11) or partly relying on older, pagan traditions (20, 21, 23, 24), of which many have counterparts in the wider region, especially in former Habsburg provinces. Yet the selection also includes images of buildings and traditions normally associated with 'the East' or 'the Balkans' - for example the wedding at Ljubljana's Orthodox Church (10). These clearly indicate that Slovenia is far from being a culturally homogenous nation, and that any attempt at identifying its 'individuality' will inevitably end up trivialising, if not excluding parts of its internal heterogeneity.

This is not to say that Slovenians are not aware of the cultural mix that surrounds them. Yet while they are genuinely proud of traits that link them to Central or Western Europe, they are far less eager to embrace as their own those elements of diversity that link them to cultural traditions characteristics of regions further south and east. 'Yugo' or 'Balkan' culture is, as the photos clearly show, evidently present in contemporary Slovenia, yet most often marginalised and kept apart from the contemporary Slovenian mainstream, reduced to the status of monuments to a bygone era (4, 5), curious memorabilia impregnated with nostalgia (6, 29), exotic folklore (7) or immigrant and thus essentially non-Slovenian culture (10). Such a treatment of 'Balkan' culture is entirely consistent with dominant representations of the Slovenian nation - symbolised in the national emblems that inundated the public spaces of Slovenia in the 1990s (3). These representations tend to exclude immigrant groups, particularly those originating from other parts of the former federal Yugoslav state, who are a living testimony to cultural and political ties that the contemporary Slovenian society finds hard to accept as its own.

Ironically, a central trait, which indisputably links contemporary Slovenia to Western Europe, lies precisely in these attitudes towards 'the Balkans' and the socialist past. Arguably, the problems Slovenia is experiencing when trying to reconcile with the full spectre of its political and cultural heritage can be interpreted as a localised version of the large-scale struggle of Europe to both accept, acknowledge and overcome its turbulent past, recognise the multiple cultural sources of its traditions, and embrace the full diversity of its contemporary populations. Several moments and objects captured by Hardt's camera have functioned as foci for ideological struggles over the appropriate interpretation of the past and the right definition of what constitutes Slovenianness. The debate about the proper interpretation and recognition of post-World-War II massacres perpetrated by communist leaders is still at large, and the remaining monuments to communist heroes (4, 5) are often seen as blatant insults to the victims. On the other hand, the same monuments are defended and cherished as a tribute to Slovenians involved in the anti-fascist struggle.

An even more clear-cut instance of parallels between ideological dilemmas characteristic of contemporary Slovenia and Western Europe can be found in the prevalent attitudes towards religion and Islam in particular. The absence of any visual reference to this sizeable religious community in Hardt's photo essay replicates the dominant representations of religious diversity in both Slovenia and Western Europe. As other formerly socialist or communist states, post-1989 Slovenia has experienced a religious revival, with traditional religious communities and institutions - most notably the Catholic Church - becoming visibly engaged in public affairs. Although the revival has been somewhat less dramatic than in former Soviet satellites, and Slovenia has maintained a rather high percentage of self-confessed atheists, the majority of the population nowadays declares itself as Catholic. Hardt's photos cover some of the characteristic events that marked Slovenia's religious revival: John Paul II's visit to Slovenia in 1996 (12, 13) was one of the major events of the 1990s, and several local religious festivities linked to the Catholic Church (11) have been either revived or witnessed a marked increase in popularity. However, it needs to be noted that Catholicism was also continuously represented as the only truly Slovenian religion, rivalled perhaps only by Protestantism. This unavoidably led to a sidelining of other religious communities. This has been felt most acutely by the Muslims, who have been filing requests for the permission to build a mosque in Slovenia since the socialist period. Over the past few years, their efforts have provoked a range of adverse reactions, often accompanied by the argument that the mosque is an architectural element alien to the 'autochthonous cultural landscape' of Slovenia. Under the influence of the general raise of anti-Muslim prejudices across the Western world since 9/11, the mosque was occasionally feared also for being a potential site of terrorist cells. Obviously, religious pluralism in Slovenia has its clear limits - limits that are very similar to those that are characteristic of the whole of the post-1989 Europe and the Western world more broadly.

Another important aspect of everyday life in contemporary Slovenia that is somehow lost in the photo essay is the progressive stratification of the society. Images centre on the rather innocuous side of the developing market economy and accompanying consumerism (14, 25, 26), and eschew images of poverty. This may partly be a consequence of the fact that the images are mostly taken from the everyday life of the capital, Ljubljana, with only occasional glimpses at rural environments and regional capitals, many of which have been badly hit by mass unemployment and deteriorating living conditions. The rare visual visits to places and events outside of the capital are limited to local or regional festivities and traditions, steering clear of daily routines and contemporary trends. As Hardt rightly notes, the quality of everyday life in Slovenia meets, if not exceeds, that of Western Europe. It should also be noted that Slovenia, unlike most other post-socialist or post-communist states, maintained a fairly high standard of social services. Yet one cannot overlook the fact that the scale and span of these services have been gradually shrinking throughout the 1990s, and are likely to shrink even further in the near future, as Slovenia follows the pan-European shift away from the welfare state. As in other European states, the pleasant Saturday strolls (15), hanging out in city-centre cafés (16), and shopping in up-market boutiques (25, 26) are out of reach for a growing majority of the Slovenian population.