By: Duško Grbović, museum advisor
The exhibition “General Dušan Dodić – hero of the Great War” came to Trstenik again on its way. This time, it would be part of the celebration of the Day of the National University of Trstenik, which includes the museum collection, and it will also mark the liberation of Trstenik in the First and Second World Wars.
The exhibition was officially opened in the Art Salon of the National University of Trstenik on October 5, 2024. The directors of both institutions, Dušan Marković, acting director of Regional Museum Jagodina, and Danilo Vuković, director of the National University of Trstenik, addressed the audience first. Both emphasized the importance of inter-institutional cooperation. After that, the authors of the exhibition addressed the present audience, and the opening ended with poems by the poetess Danica Dodić.
The exhibition “General Dušan Dodić – the hero of the Great War” and the book “Dušan Dodić, War Diary 1918–1919” were realized as part of the project “The Century of the Great War 1918–2018” which was jointly realized by the Regional Museum of Jagodina and the National University of Trstenik, with the financial support of the Ministry culture of the Republic of Serbia. The authors of the exhibition and editors of the book are Duško Grbović, historian, museum advisor (Regional Museum of Jagodina) and Jelena Vukčević, historian, curator (Trstenik National University Museum). The idea to realize the project was born in 2014 during the hosting of the exhibition of the Regional Museum of Jagodina “Jagodina and its surroundings in the Serbian-Turkish wars 1876–1878” in Trstenik. Dušan Dodić was born in the village of Milutovac in 1883, and at the time of his birth it was located in the territory of the Jagodina district, which later became part of the municipality of Trstenik. His war diary, which was published as part of the mentioned project, is preserved in the Regional Museum of Jagodina.
The opening of the exhibition in Trstenik was the twenty-first presentation of the exhibition and book about Dušan Dodić, so the authors of the exhibition decided that the exhibition will symbolically last until October 21, 2024.