A Tank on the Streets of Osijek
27th June 2011 marks 20 years that this emblematic picture was taken just before the outbreak of the Croatian War of Independence. Namely, back then a red baby Fiat blocked an YNA (Yugoslav National Army) tank. The tank crushed it and that picture went around the world. Osijek is set to get a monument of that symbol of resistance on the twentieth anniversary of this incident.
*A shot of the legendary incident
The monument should be completely realistic: the President of the City Committee for Defenders Miljenko Kolobarić has already found two red baby Fiats that could be “fixed up”, while they’ll be requesting the Ministry of Defense for a tank T 55, the very same model which ravaged the streets of Osijek in 1991. This staging will be set up at the authentic location, on the corner of Trpimirova and Vukovarska Streets in Osijek. The only significant difference between the actual incident and its monument being that the baby Fiat will be over the tank, as opposed to the tank crushing the baby Fiat, depicting a literal symbolism of David’s victory over Goliath. The idea of a monument emerged from a citizens’ and defenders’ initiative, Miljenko Kolobarić tells the media, noting that they obtained consent from both the family of the late Branko Breškić, the driver behind the wheel of the baby Fiat that blocked the tank’s way, as well as from the Osijek Mayor. In addition to the monument a multimedia column is also set to be erected where a video clip of the “skirmish” between the tank and baby Fiat would be (dis)played. The author of the monument is unknown, aside from Kolobarić stating that the deputy mayor and President of the Osijek Architects’ Society Danijela Lovoković and he himself are “intensely working on finding a solution.” That certainly doesn’t seem as the best way to go about finding a good solution for the monument, if such a monument should even come into existence. Who would want to look at the original larger-than-life tank in full view on the city’s streets anyway?
*A simulation of the new ‘monument’
This could be the second monumental incident (pun intended) in Osijek following the incident when a figurative monument to Ante Starčević (a political activist form the 19th century, often called “The Father of Croatia”) was arbitrarily set up in the city’s center against all city procedures by then Mayor Anto Đapić. The competition for that particular monument was released back in 2006, but instead of the first-place winner, a conceptual work by Robert Jozić and Filip Tadin, the third-place winner Miro Vuco’s work was set up on the Ante Starčević Sqaure, which many considered third-rate at best. The new Osijek city authorities are now announcing that they’ll return Branko Ružić’s sculpture “People” that once stood there, better known as “A Group of Citizens.” In that case, there’ll be no space for the monumental Starčević, which deputy mayor Lovoković concurs with. However, the President of Osijek’s HSP (Croatian Party of Right) and treasurer of the Dr. Ante Starčević Association, Mario Opačak, announced that he’ll defend the monument with his body if need be. Give it a couple of months and tanks will be used as weapons of choice in Osijek’s Monumental Wars (no pun intended).
*The Ante Starčević monument, Osijek
