Post-Yugoslav Intellectual and Artistic Diaspora Examined

Following the October 1993 meeting 'Destruction of the Image, Image of Destruction' at La Fonderie in Le Mans, which gathered artists from the former Yugoslavia living in exile or traveling from Belgrade, Ljubljana, Zagreb, and Sarajevo, art press commissioned Bojana Pejic, Rada Ivekovic, and Dunja Blazevic to assess the state of the country. Rada Ivekovic, a philosophy professor, describes the intellectual and artistic diaspora through the stages of rising hatred and autism. She does not absolve these intellectuals of responsibility, noting that while the diaspora allows an opposition nucleus to form only abroad, it was intellectuals who first propagated nationalist ideas and programs.