In the President's "Leap into the Future", there is no building of the Belgrade Philharmonic, even though it was one of his trump cards in the election campaign. Did he decide she wasn't needed, or did he simply forget her, overwhelmed by the Expo
"We have no information about a possible change in the status of the project," Jelena Milašinović, PR of the Belgrade Philharmonic, told "Vreme" about the uncertainty regarding the fate of the institution's new building.
The absence of the Belgrade Philharmonic from the list of new cultural facilities that will be completed by 2027 by Expo, as part of the "Leap into the Future" project, caused confusion. The president listed all kinds of things, but not the Belgrade Philharmonic, even though its building was one of the assets of his election campaign until less than two months ago.
It was also in August last year, during his first presentation of plans for the Expo.
"The first Museum of Natural History will be built near the Museum of Contemporary Art at Ušće in Belgrade, where the museum quarter, or culture quarter, will be built, because the Philharmonic will also be built nearby," President Vučić said at the time.
And, worst of all, she was in his plans for Christmas as well, just two weeks before it was revealed that there was no Philharmonic in Vučić's "Skok".
Then on TV Pink said that "in this Hall 1 of the Belgrade Fair, which is protected by the state, we have to create the most beautiful possible scene for opera and ballet, one of the most beautiful possible scenes in Europe." Let's build a magnificent concert hall, which will cost over 300 million euros, between SIV and Ušće. And we have to do it all within three years. Over 300 million euros, and then Belgrade will have opera and ballet, then Belgrade will have the best concert hall in this part of Europe".
Jelena Milašinović emphasizes that the Belgrade Philharmonic is not the right address for this topic and refers us to the Ministry of Public Investments, which, along with the Government of Serbia, is responsible for that project and reminds that Minister Marko Blagojević recently publicly stated that the new building is proceeding according to plan. He also states that the Philharmonic is in contact with the Working Group leading the project and that the preparation for obtaining a building permit is underway.
The Ministry of Public Investment believes "that the project can be ready for implementation in 2024, that is, for the tender for construction." They also state that the preparation of the Project for the building permit is in progress, followed by the preparation of the Project for execution, as well as the implementation of the procedure for issuing the building permit.
The initiative to build a new concert hall was initiated in 2010 by the late director of the Belgrade Philharmonic, Ivan Tasovac, and was supported by the famous conductor Zubin Mehte, who performed with the Belgrade orchestra at the time. At a concert on February 22, 2010, in front of a full hall of the Kolarc Foundation, the then President of Serbia, Boris Tadić, promised Mehta and the public that the state would build a new building for the Philharmonic.
Thanks to Mehta, Belgrade was visited a year later by the famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who, among other things, designed the iconic concert hall in Tenerife. On that occasion, Calatrava also met with President Tadić, who repeated the same promises as a year before.
The first concrete steps towards the construction of the new hall were made only in 2015, when Mehta visited Belgrade again. Then Mehta, Tasovac (who was the Minister of Culture at the time) and Acting Director of the Philharmonic, Darko Kostić, met with then Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić and announced the construction of the first concert hall according to world standards in the history of Serbia.
In recent years, the construction of a new concert hall seemed promising: a location was determined in Block 13 in New Belgrade, on the foundations of the never-built Museum of the Revolution, a Detailed Regulation Plan was adopted for that area, and an international architectural competition was organized, in which the British architect Amanda Levit won with an exceptional project.
But in Vučić's "Leap into the Future" there is not a single word about this plan.
In the meantime, did President Vučić decide that Belgrade does not need the Philharmonic, or did they not put it on "Skoko's" list, or did he, wanting to keep the people at St. Jovan (Vučić's "Leap" presentation was on January 20) accidentally skipped?
It is possible to expect that during the next televised address to the people, Vučić will explain everything within the next few days.
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