Deux nuits avant le nouvel an, plus de mille Macédoniens se sont réunis dans la neige à tenir la main et forment un anneau autour d'un grand centre commercial dans la ville capitale de Skopje. Cela peut ressembler à du début à une plaisanterie étrange, mais la foule a été Assemblée au sérieux, d'exprimer sa amour de l'édifice moderniste appelée GTC, et pour protester contre un plan gouvernemental de lui donner une nouvelle, façade baroque.

The plan, known as Skopje 2014, sounds at first like a coup for a city: the construction of some 20 new buildings in the capital, including museums, concert halls, and theaters, as well as the erection of over 40 statues. Except in a city whose architecture is mostly modernist, all of the Skopje 2014 building is being done in a strictly neoclassical style, from a brand new triumphal arch to a towering sculpture of a man on a horse — presumably, but not explicitly, Alexandre le Grand — atop a column adorned with lions, music, lights, and a fountain. It’s no wonder the project “has been criticized for constructing nationalistic historicist kitsch.”

“This is a crime against public space, culture, urbanism, and art — against the city and the citizen,” Miroslav Grčev, a professor of urban design and the creator of the Macedonian flag, told the BBC.

Skopje 2014 has also run up significant costs, with the government admitting last April that it had already spent €200 million (~$240.5 million); the budget was originally estimated at €80 million.

And so, Macedonians gathered on December 29 to “hug” their modernist shopping mall, and to try and protect it from going baroque.

by Jillian Steinhauer sur Janvier 2, 2015