The Use of Arts and the Performativity of Architecture within the Culture of Resistance – The Case of Central Station in Novi Sad

Abstract

The paper focuses on the interconnection between the artistic means used within protests and the architectural performativity of the central station in Novi Sad, following the collapse of its canopy on November 1, 2024, which killed 16 people. It first presents theoretical approaches to the concept of performativity in relation to the commemorative function of architecture, pointing out the limitations of previous research on the topic. It is further argued that the Novi Sad central station expanded these concepts by demonstrating that a single architectural object can be performative beyond its spatial boundaries, in multiple locations simultaneously. For this purpose, the paper analyzes the artistic means used within the massive protests that enabled this – signs, a scale model, large marionettes, and an appropriated Monopoly game in which the Novi Sad central station appears as a property. The paper concludes that during the 2024–2025 protests in Serbia and abroad, which had a strong commemorative dimension, the Novi Sad central station became performative in the sense that it acted as a catalyst for social transformation and public engagement. It mobilized the wider public to empathize with the victims, preserve the memory of them, and demand transparency and accountability in political discourse. As such, it became an actant that transformed people, changed their behaviors, and co-created collective identity, knowledge, and meaning, in relation to other non-human and human entities.