In her essay Tina Potočnik connects the Centro Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela, and the Revolution Square complex in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She demonstrates that the Centro Simón Bolívar served as a model for the Revolution Square complex, meant to house the new government, administrative, and cultural center of one of the former Yugoslav Republics. The Revolution Square complex was intended as a built symbol of the new political and social order, reflecting ideas of revolution and freedom. The essay elaborates on the historical circumstances surrounding the design, the formal resemblance of both complexes, and the parallels between the reception of the liberator – Bolívar, in Latin America, and Tito in Yugoslavia. Potočnik argues that at the time when the Cold War brought about new concerns over imperialism worldwide, Latin America, Venezuela, and Bolívar in particular, offered a strong symbol of revolution and liberation.
Potočnik, Tina. 2016. “Centro Simón Bolívar: A Symbol of Liberation for Revolution Square in Ljubljana, Slovenia.” Simón Bolívar: Travels and Transformations of a Cultural Icon, uredili Maureen G. Shanahan in Ana María Reyes. University Press of Florida.
O knjigi:
»In this volume, an array of international and interdisciplinary scholars shows the ways Bolívar has appeared over the last two centuries in painting, fiction, poetry, music, film, festival, dance, city planning, and even reliquary adoration. They illustrate how Bolívar’s body has been exalted, reimagined, or fragmented in different contexts, taking on a range of meanings to represent the politics and poetics of today’s national bodies.
By critically analyzing many examples of cultural Bolivarianisms, or cults of Bolívar, this collection demonstrates the capacity of the arts and humanities to challenge and reinvent hegemonic icons and narratives and, therefore, to be vital to democracy.«