Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
Source: Vice
Cosimo de’ Medici, son of Giovani Medici, was a great patron of art and support to numerous artists. He devoted his life to making Florence more beautiful, and some of the greatest figures of that time worked for him: Donatello, Brunelleschi, Michelozzo, Fra Angelico and many others. According to some data, it is assumed that he spent over 600,000 florins for their works. During his rule of the city, famous architect Brunelleschi raised the dome of the Florence Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore – a true technical and artistic wonder of that era.
Zeljko Mitrović, the owner of Pink TV, in the clip in which he announces the opening of his imaginarium and the start of the new season of Zadruga reality show, and the first part of the explanation of his patron role, uses the terms such as: life’s work, imposing, a palace, renaissance, art and culture.
And then, in front of the huge statue of Cosimo de’ Medici (two times larger than the one in Florence) he talks about how de’ Medici is his inspiration and idol. If your eyes started burning, and your brain began to develop a blood clot after just a few seconds of the clip, here’s a brief description of what’s happening in it:
Željko Mitrović says he is creating a Serbian renaissance and saves Serbian artists by securing the bread on their table as they build this “monumental” building.
Željko Mitrović speaks of raising Serbia’s cultural life to a higher level.
Željko Mitrović says that Zadruga is his life’s work, and that he’s the savior of Serbian artists and sculptors – a patron of modern day’s culture and art.
This cringe worthy address, this gondola tour of the river Styx, all this together, can really be considered historic. But not because an architectural wonder was built in our country, which we will admire for ages to come, but because of the fact that Željko Mitrović finally explicitly urinated over this country and revealed the key to his successful business.
Cultural workers in Serbia probably felt like the worst lowlifes in the world, and they shouldn’t have. They should learn something about how an empire is built on the foundations of society’s downfall. They should learn how it takes fifteen years for reconstruction of a museum, while reality show empires grow within a month. In that sense, it may be surprising that Emperor Željko didn’t actually build Rome, only to ritually burn it down to ashes after the Zadruga show season ends, just to demonstrate that he can too build Rome in a day, and destroy it. Or at least a kitschy model of the city.
And he can because the system of this country allows him to. In that sense, the magnitude of Željko Mitrović really talks about how small we are. In a country in which dealing with art and culture is tantamount to suicide, he’s the one who employs this social silt, and shamelessly brags about it. In a country that has no bread, he will always offer games, and the fact that you don’t have bread is not his problem, nor of the country in which he lives. He is here to offer a solution and, like every other solution, it has its price.
The villa in Šimanovci, which is four times larger than the Bela Kuća, which cost 18 million euros, is not imaginary. The second season of Zadruga and several millions of viewers who will closely follow someone else’s lives and the various tortures they go through for a fee is also not imaginary. This pink apocalypse is really happening, and the launch of Zadruga might just be a Renaissance, as Željko says. The Renaissance of kitsch, trash, grotesque, vile and shamelessness.
Cosimo de’ Medici might have also been the emperor and political ruler, but his rule and patronage brought us Donatello’s David and architectural wonders that we will always admire and worship. Hopefully, nothing will be left behind Željko Mitrović – apart from cheap and pale remnants of an attempt to hypnotize the masses. Because he’s actually a peddler of counterfeits, and seller of hot air.