An hermeneutic representation of Beograd after Yugoslavia’s wars : Applying Walter Benjamin's hermeneutic today

Our age is situated at the summit of three different trends: an exorbitant increase of the relevance of the city; the capillary diffusion of an almost infinite quantity of images and information; the difficulty of manage urban spaces with a complex and integrated vision. How can these three elements became a potentiality for urban planners in reading and planning a city? Between 1920 and 1939 W. Benjamin analyzed the Paris of half XIX century in it’s images and texts, retracing it’s face in the traces whom lets in Bibliothèque Nationale. Today, using internet, we can accede to an enormous quantity of first hand materials. Is it possible to use Benjamin’s method to gather a constellation of sense that can represent the identity, or the identities, of a space? The aim of this paper is to apply the hermeneutic method to find Beograd’s face after the Yugoslavia’s wars (1992-2002), deepening in particular four categories: the images; the relation with the wares; the biographies; the topographical representation. Is it possible to see a figure? Can this image be useful to understand and orientate the processes and the develop of this city?