Long before news crews transmitted shots of revelers storming the palace of former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic two weeks ago, photojournalists were documenting the daily atrocities in the Balkan region.
That visual timeline is on display this month in the Adell McMillan Art Gallery on the second floor of the EMU. On Wednesday, the University Cultural Forum will bring Dr. Michael Parenti, a political analyst, noted author and lecturer, for a free lecture titled “Yugoslavia and the U.S. Global Domination.”
The photo exhibit, called, “Collateral Damage: The Destruction of Yugoslavia,” documents 11 weeks of NATO bombing in the region.
The lecture will begin at 7 p.m. in the EMU Ballroom and a reception will follow in the gallery. The event is open to students, faculty and the general public. More than 300 people, including local groups and sponsors, are expected to attend.
Parenti said he went to Yugoslavia over the summer and saw the bombing. He will also address the problems in American democracy, U.S. imperialism, and economic power in his lecture Wednesday evening.
“The roll of U.S. leaders in the attack of Yugoslavia was not in the interest of the American people or the people in that region,” Parenti said. “U.S. global domination is really intended to make the world safe for the Fortune 500 ­­ the giant transnational corporation.”
Parenti said he hopes the photographs offer viewers context and an explanation to why the bombing occurred.
Parenti has lectured at college campuses, both nationally and internationally, and is frequently heard on the radio. His latest book, “To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia” will be available in approximately three weeks.
Daniel Karp, a senior art history major and visual arts coordinator for the University Cultural Forum, helped bring the exhibit to the University from the Serbian Unity Congress. He said the presentation is intended to demonstrate what really happened in Yugoslavia, and that the bombing was led by the American military, under the auspices of NATO, with the intent of altering the public’s conscious of the Milosevic regime in Yugoslavia.
“Whether or not you agree with it, this is the documented proof of what happened,” Karp said.
Karp said that while the pictures are exceptional, the nature of the pictures are absolutely morbid.
“It’s not pretty pictures. It’s death, carnage and destruction,” Karp said.
Karp said due to media censorship, most of the images have never been seen by the public.
“We saw Milosevic military refugees being destroyed,” Karp said. “But what we didn’t see was the destruction of civilian structures and Albanian refugees and innocent families.”
Karp said the stunning collection was brought to the University to engage people in discussion and address different perspectives of international politics.
“I hope the University and Eugene campus can take advantage of something visually unique and politically important,” Karp said.
Pete Mandrapa, a teacher at Jefferson Middle School in Eugene who is originally from Yugoslavia, said he followed the events in Kosovo and Yugoslavia and was emotionally impacted by the exhibit when it was on display at Portland State University. He said the pictures offer an accurate portrayal of the human suffering that occurred.
“Human beings were the collateral damage. Houses, schools and hospitals were the collateral damage,” Mandrapa said.
Mandrapa added that some of the photographs were so disturbing in nature that they were not exhibited. The collection has been on display in Detroit, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay area. The pictures were re-matted for a more presentable visual appearance.
The exhibit is sponsored by The MacKenzie River Gathering, the University Office of International Affairs, Oregon Peace Works, Eugene Peace Works, Alliance for Democracy, the Eugene Coalition to Stop the Bombing, Lane County Women’s Action for New Directions and Fellowship of Reconciliation.