Identity Crises and Confusions: Metamorphosis Constantiniana

Abstract

Public monuments are the materialization of historical events or persons chosen to be remembered by a society, official factors of collective and cultural memory, elements of the chosen identity and the ways in which the community aims to be perceived by the outsiders. In the series of identity searches of the current representative monument culture in Serbia, rare are the examples that include the archaeological imagery. The paper examines the ideas and motifs of one such sculpture – Metamorphosis Constantiniana, not from the artistic perspective, but from the viewpoint of archaeology and cultural heritage, as well as the meanings ascribed to it by the participants of its ceremonial unveiling, and finally the reception of this public marker by the current citizens of Niš. Although the sculpture is erected on the occasion of the jubilee of 1700 years from the Edict of Milan, and although tolerance, acceptance, and cooperation are deeply rooted in the Christian ethics, these principles are rejected and not represented by this monument. The possibility is also rejected that the monument is aimed to promote the linear connection between the Roman state and today’s Serbia – our “Roman-ness” equated to the European roots and “civilisation”, the narrative that pervades the public discourse, at the same time being a flagrant abuse of the Roman past, both in the political and disciplinary domains. The main value promoted by the monument is identified in the “Primal Parent” – in the “beginning” from which stems a specific spiritual vertical, continuity and the celebration of the people with history. Valorisation and sacralization of the past are also discussed, and the influx of pseudo-scientific interpretations, images of ignorance contributing to the current identity crisis