Revamping Skopje
重塑斯科普里
Stones of contention
竞争与炫示的雕塑
Macedonia writes a new story for its capital
马其顿首都的新篇章
Colouring the future
描画未来
IN 2010 a computer-generated video of plans for the Macedonian capital was released to journalists.
2010年，一份电脑生成的视频规划被公布给记者，展示了马其顿首都未来的面貌。
There were to be statues and monuments, new museums and civic buildings, a triumphal arch, even an eternal flame. After decades in hibernation Skopje's turbocharged planners seemed determined that the city should make up for lost time. While Nikola Gruevski, the prime minister, was in office they planned to erect as much public art as some European capitals have put up in three centuries. Many assumed it was some sort of joke.
视频规划里的首都，有无数雕塑和纪念碑，簇新的博物馆和市政大楼，壮丽辉煌的凯旋门，以及熊熊不熄的火焰。规划者们野心勃勃，决意一扫几十年来斯科普里的寂寂无名。尼古拉格鲁耶夫斯基任总理后，计划在首都建造和陈列的公共艺术作品数目之巨，达到了欧洲一些首都三个世纪以来才缓慢积累起来的总量。起初，很多人认为这不过是痴人说梦而已。
Three years later, the project is nearing completion and this corner of the Balkans is suffering the shock of the new. For this is more than just a city rejuvenation project. Almost every structure and statue is part of a wider ideological scheme to recast Macedonia's identity. The heart is Skopje's central square, which for decades was a bleak and empty space. Now it has been crammed with statuary. There are 19th-century Macedonian heroes, the medieval Tsar Samuel and Justinian, a Byzantine emperor who was born near Skopje. Nearby are two saints, Cyril and Methodius, the fathers of the Cyrillic alphabet. Centre-stage goes to a giant bronze Alexander the Great. He is encircled by warriors, who in turn are surrounded by a fountain, with music, roaring lions and lights that change colour.
然而三年之后，规划已近峻工。其影响和冲击席卷了这个位于巴尔干一隅的国家；因为它已经远远超越了单纯城市复兴工程的范畴—它是一幅意识形态宏图，旨在重塑马其顿身份；几乎每一座建筑，每一尊雕塑都是这幅巨图的一个符号。其核心是斯科普里广场。该地几十年来都荒凉破败，空旷无人，如今却雕塑林立，石碑处处。除了在此济济一堂的19世纪的马其顿英雄雕像外，还有中世纪的撒母尔，生于斯科普里附近、后成为拜占庭皇帝的查士丁尼以及创制最早斯拉夫字母的两位圣人，西里尔和迪乌斯。广场中心，被武士雕塑众星拱月般环绕着的，是亚历山大大帝的巨大青铜像。武士外围是音乐喷泉，怒狮塑像穿插其间，无数彩灯斑谰变幻。
Ever since Macedonia became independent in 1991 Greece has fought a bitter diplomatic war with its northern neighbour. The new state, created from a former Yugoslav republic, it argued, was a thinly veiled territorial claim on its own northern region of Macedonia. Worse the Slav Macedonians, said the Greeks, were trying to steal their Hellenic history and culture.
马其顿共和国1991年独立。自此之后，希腊与这位北部邻居外交倾轧不断。希腊称，这个由前南斯拉夫共和国独立出来的新国家，对于马其顿北面希腊领土的觊觎之意，简直是司马昭之心，路人皆知。更让人不齿的是，这帮斯拉夫-马其顿人居然肖想窃取希腊的历史与文化。
Until Greece blocked Macedonia's accession to NATO in 2008, the government in Skopje never really took the history bait from Greece. Since then, however, the nationalist ideologues have become louder.
对于希腊人后一个控诉，马其顿从未与之一较长短。然而，2008年马其顿加入北约的意图被希腊挫败之后，马其顿国内的民族主义呼声愈发高涨。
Far from the Macedonians being an invented nation, as the Greeks argue, Vangel Bozinovski, one of the architects working on Skopje's revamp says that it is in fact the Greek nation that was invented in the 19th century, and hence it is they who are stealing Macedonian history, including that of Alexander the Great. Just to make the point, a statue of Alexander's father, Philip of Macedon, has been erected and several of his mother, Olympia. A neoclassical archaeological museum is nearing completion and a new foreign ministry with a classical temple-style portico has just been completed.
Vangel Bozinovski是参与重建斯科普里的建筑设计师。他说，希腊人一直指责马其顿是个虚构的民族，事实上，希腊才是个在19世纪被虚构出来的民族，并自此一直在盗用马其顿的历史，包括亚历山大大帝。为了昭示这一点，他们还雕刻了一座亚历山大的父亲腓力二世的塑像和好几座他母亲奥林匹娅斯的雕像。一座新古典主义风格的考古博物馆已近完工。新建的外交部官邸则采用了古典圆形柱廊式的庙宇风格。
Neoclassicism is not the only style being reused. Mr Bozinovski, who has built a “memorial house” to honour Mother Teresa, the Skopje-born nun who found fame caring for the dying in Kolkata, speaks of “eclecticism”. He is working on a plan for redeveloping a building which he says “is going to be real baroque”. In 1689 the then Ottoman city was torched by the Austrians. Mr Bozinovski claims that by building baroque he is only restoring this style to its rightful place; before the fire, he says, Skopje was as baroque as Prague.
新古典主义不是唯一被重新使用的建筑风格。Bozinovski说这里的建筑风格是“兼收并蓄”式的。他曾建造过一座特蕾莎修女的纪念堂，用以铭记这位生于斯科普里，在印度加尔各答照顾垂死者的著名修女。目前，他正在着手重建一座巴洛克风格的建筑。在斯科普里还属于土耳其时，它和布拉格一样充斥着巴洛克建筑，然而在1689年它被奥地利人付之一炬。Bozinovski称，巴洛克风格的建筑将使城市恢复到大火前的面貌。
But the city also wants to reclaim its more recent past. Close to the parliament building, on top of which new glass cupolas are now sprouting, is a war memorial for Macedonians killed fighting guerrillas from the country's Albanian minority in 2001. Albanians make up at least a quarter of the population and many loathe what has been done to the capital. “I hate it,” says Lura Pollozhani, a young Macedonian-Albanian journalist. “I don't see me here.” By concentrating on ancient Macedonian themes, she believes, Albanians are being told: “We were on this land first.”
当然，这座城市也想展示其更近的历史。议会大厦上崭新的玻璃穹顶正在施工，它的旁边就是一座战争纪念碑，用以铭记2011年在抵抗阿尔巴尼亚少数民族游击队入侵时牺牲的马其顿勇士们。作为占该国人口四分之一以上的少数民族，很多阿尔巴尼亚人憎亚斯科普里的大改造。“我恨这些。”一位年轻的阿尔巴尼亚族记者说，“在这里我找不到自己的民族。”她觉得改造过分集中于马其顿历史，好像在告诉阿尔巴尼亚人：“我们才是头一个来这儿的。”
But Albanians have political clout in Macedonia and a new square in the predominantly Albanian part of the city is also being built. A statue of Skanderbeg, their medieval hero was already here, and more monuments will follow. A 30-metre statue of Mother Teresa, an Albanian, is planned for the city's main square. The reconstruction of a church destroyed in 1963 was stopped as part of a vicious quarrel in which Albanians, for their part, demanded the reconstruction of a mosque.
但是由于阿尔马尼亚人的政治影响力，在斯科普里的阿尔马尼亚人聚集区，一座广场也正在兴建。一座阿尔马尼亚中世纪民族英雄斯坎德培的雕像已然完工，更多的纪念碑将紧随其后。修女特蕾莎是阿尔巴尼亚人，她的雕像足有30米高，将被矗立在城市的主要广场上。一座焚毁于1963年的教堂的重建工作被迫叫停，因为阿尔巴尼亚人想重建一座清真寺。
Macedonians have mixed feelings about the government's cultural aggrandisement. Something needed to be done, they say, and something has been done, even if sometimes it is over the top. But Macedonian liberals and the opposition feel aggrieved. Questions are being asked in parliament about how much the projects are costing. Saso Ordanoski, a veteran commentator, is especially critical. “It is a catastrophe. It is a Disneyland. They consider Macedonia to be the ancient cradle of civilisation and not a normal, small, modern European country. That would be below their standards.”
对于政府好大喜功式的文化炫示，马其顿人喜忧参半。他们觉得有些事儿该做，也确实做了，虽然过头了些。但是马其顿自由主义者和反对派则心怀不满。有人在国会公然质疑该计划所费几何。一位叫Saso Ordanoski的资深评论员极为尖锐地指出：“这是一场灾难。这简直是个迪斯尼乐园。他们自诩马斯顿为文明的摇篮，却忘了它只是一个普遍的欧洲现代小国——仿佛承认这一点有损品格似的。 |