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# Macedonian Protesters Say No to Architectural Kitsch
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/macedonian-protesters-say-no-to-architectural-kitsch/
- Published: 2015-01-02T19:12:43.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:32:08.000Z
- Description: Two nights before New Year's Eve, more than a thousand Macedonians gathered in the snow to hold hands and form a ring around a large shopping mall in the capital city of Skopje.
- Author: Jillian Steinhauer
- Tags: In Brief, Architecture, Protest, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:08 (2014, 2015, part 2)

![Protesters encircling the GTC in Skopje on December 29 (photo by Vasilka Dimitrovska/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/skopje-protest.jpg)

Protesters encircling the GTC in Skopje on December 29 (photo by Vasilka Dimitrovska/Twitter)

Two nights before New Year’s Eve, more than a thousand Macedonians gathered in the snow to [hold hands and form a ring](http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/12/30/macedonians-hug-skopje-shopping-centre-to-protect-it-from-baroque-isation/?ref=hyperallergic.com) around a large shopping mall in the capital city of Skopje. That may sound like the beginning to some strange joke, but the crowd was assembled in earnest, to express its [love](http://gosakamgtc.blogspot.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) of the modernist building known as GTC, and to protest a government plan to give it a new, baroque façade.

![The new equestrian statue built as part of Skopje 2014 (photo by Pudelek/Wikimedia) (click to enlarge)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/alexander_the_great_statue_and_fountain_in_skopje.jpg)

The new equestrian statue built as part of Skopje 2014 (photo by Pudelek/Wikimedia) (click to enlarge)

The plan, known as [Skopje 2014](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skopje%5F2014?ref=hyperallergic.com), sounds at first like a coup for a city: the construction of some [20 new buildings](http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/skopje-2014-forges-ahead-despite-macedonian-crisis?ref=hyperallergic.com) in the capital, including museums, concert halls, and theaters, as well as the erection of over 40 statues. Except in a city whose architecture is mostly modernist, all of the Skopje 2014 building is being done in a strictly neoclassical style, from a brand new triumphal arch to a towering sculpture of a man on a horse — [presumably, but not explicitly, Alexander the Great](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/14/alexander-great-macedonia-warrior-horse?ref=hyperallergic.com) — atop a column adorned with lions, music, lights, and a fountain. It’s no wonder the project “[has been criticized for constructing nationalistic historicist kitsch](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skopje%5F2014?ref=hyperallergic.com).”

“This is a crime against public space, culture, urbanism, and art — against the city and the citizen,” Miroslav Grčev, a professor of urban design and the creator of the Macedonian flag, [told the BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28951171?ref=hyperallergic.com).

Skopje 2014 has also run up significant costs, with the government [admitting last April](http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28951171?ref=hyperallergic.com) that it had already spent €200 million (\~$240.5 million); the budget was originally estimated at €80 million.

And so, Macedonians gathered on December 29 to “hug” their modernist shopping mall, and to try and protect it from going baroque.

(To see a great set of photos from the protest, [go here](https://www.flickr.com/photos/fosim/sets/72157647661295103/?ref=hyperallergic.com).)