18.03.2022 | 16:06

Radivoje Dinulović: The pandemics has made stronger any possible manipulation

Architect and Set Designer Radivoje Dinulović, professor at the Department of Stage Design at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, believes that pandemic wandering in the dark has led us to have some new guides and gurus of different worldviews, which is quite disturbing. Dinulovic finds it particularly worrying that the two pandemic years have strengthened all possible types of manipulation and totalitarian approaches.

“Like most of us, the situation of the pandemic caught me off-guard, because I did not expect anything similar. When it happened, I faced different reactions from people in my immediate environment – in the family, at college … If we talk about the architecture of the epidemic, it was spontaneous, it built itself and it was very unequal. Personally, I did not feel fear, nor did I take any special measures. In the beginning, I listened carefully to everything they said, and did everything sensibly. However, it quickly became visible that all this was not very clear or convincing, and it took several months for us to realize that we could not trust anyone’s opinion. Everyone had to manage on their own, to find a foundation and support, and that was very difficult. I know that many have been quite lost. It took many people a long time to come to their senses, it took various treatments to get out of it, and some did not even come out, such as Igor Vuk Torbica, who we know did not win, and we do not know how many anonymous people had the same fate….

On the other hand, some people did not pay attention to anything, as if nothing was happening, and these are some extreme planes in which our lives moved. I was touched by both…
 
I can’t follow the exact chronology of everything that happened, but at some point that little relaxation began, the number of infected reduced, we thought it was all over, the bars opened, we sat until evening, nice weather … It seemed that everything was as it used to be, and then all of a sudden, everything returned to the previous state of the pandemic … It was like a roller coaster that we lived all the time. After that second wave, I started going to the Faculty and that, I think, saved me mentally and psychologically. There was no one alive at the Faculty, I also worked online there, but that brought me into a rhythm in which I could experience myself, and my job as something more normal than the circumstances dictated. Since then, I have been continuously trying to return and get closer to a new life – whatever that means”, stated Dinulović.

“It wasn’t just the situation with us. The situation was completely new for everyone and everyone treated it differently. These differences in behavior show that everyone wandered in the dark and that no one knew what to do. It turns out, however, that this wandering in the dark has led to the fact that we now have some new guides and some new educators, gurus of different views of our world, and I don’t like that at all. As for the design of our lives, each of us has come to a situation where we consciously design our lives. If before we were partially aware of that – something was spontaneous, and everything seemed authentic, now we are aware that it is largely our decision and what we want and do not want, and that we pay the price for both” Dinulović added.

Dinulović is also worried that the pandemic has led to great divisions in society.

“I was vaccinated and revaccinated, but I understand people who could not accept it, although I do not agree, but I understand it as a kind of deviation from someone ordering us everything in life that we should and should not do. On the other hand, it irritated me a lot because my rights were endangered: the fact that someone thinks that he/she is not obliged to do something – endangers my safety, my actions, going to the theater, cinema, travelling…

This has brought us all into a strange context in which we are more divided than ever. All the old divisions remained, and some new ones came. This has led us to be divided according to various new criteria, even within the same group of people. It is no longer just a division between the left and the right, what has left along with some social division that has also remained, but also a new ideological one that is reflected in a plan that is surreal and absurd for me. It is about whether I will take the medicine and get the vaccine, which is absurd for my generation – I was born in 1957. Because who asked us if we wanted a vaccine? They stung us as they wanted, they just appeared at school … If I take care of my dog or cat today, and vaccinate them regularly, because the state prescribes that every domestic animal must be pelted with rabies that poses a danger to the community – then it is completely normal for me to vaccinate my child as well. It may sound banal, but it is essentially true”, stated Dinulovic.

On the social level, Dinulovic notes that what happened in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s is happening in the world today, and it is no longer possible to even guess whose concern this is.

“What happened to us in the 1990s is now happening everywhere … Now it can be seen that this regression actually somehow overlapped with radical destruction, I think first of all with the destruction of culture. This is the basic problem today and it will be very difficult to overcome, the destruction of the traditional culture of various environments. And when I talk about the traditional culture of our environment, I do not mean the medieval Serbian culture, but I mean Yugoslavia in the second half of the 20th century. It was a culture that had its own clear features, clear constants, periods, various personalities and creators who consciously or unconsciously were noticed. And that gave life and vitality. It was recognizable and it was possible to decide accordingly. Later it happened in other places and I think that the world – and when I say world, I mean those who have power – for reasons that I am not competent to assess, but it seems to me for the most selfish reasons – destroyed cultures like Lebanese, Iraqi, Iranian , Libyan, Syrian, meanwhile Afghan, etc…. Without any morals, thinking about the consequences, about what happens next? They did it only with their specific, particular interests to build, or protect some government, to win some power. As a result, many cultures have been destroyed. And now it is happening so radically again, and I cannot assess whether I observe it that way from some Eurocentric perspective from which it all seems even more dramatic to me, and maybe it was much more dramatic for the people in Afghanistan than for the people in Ukraine today. It is only clear that the whole thing has somehow got out of hand and it is no longer possible for us to focus and the things happening are very dangerous. This is a new level, which we can no longer assume who it is important to. It is obvious that the logical outcome is the destruction of individuality and some right to personal opinion, personal power that a person can have”, stated Dinulovic, author of more than a hundred architectural and urban projects, important books and a series of texts on architecture and culture of living, as well as countless exhibitions, who for ten years was, among other things, Technical Director of Atelje 212 in Belgrade.

The entire interview (in Serbian) can be found on this link.

(SEEcult.org)

Funded by the International Relief Fund for Organisations in Culture and Education 2021 of the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut and other partners, goethe.de/relieffund