Parts of Don Džoni’s video filmed inside the Makedonium — site ceded for €500

Parts of a new music video by Kosovar rapper Don Džoni were filmed inside the Makedonium monument in Kruševo, and the site was reportedly ceded to the production for about €500 for several hours, museum officials confirmed.

Administration says no permit was submitted

Miha Odžaklieski, director of the Historical Museum “Kruševo”, said in a written statement that the interior space was made available based on a prior decision by the museum’s Management Board and that this is not the first time the site has been used for paid shoots. He argued that the word “rental” is too strong and described the arrangement as making the space available to the production.

Responding to questions about explicit scenes in the video that include beds and erotic play, Odžaklieski said those sequences were not filmed inside the Makedonium but at other locations across the country. "The scenes with beds and play were not filmed in the 'Makedonium', but at other locations, because the video was shot in several places in Macedonia. They have provided us with an explanation that the space will be used for shooting the video," he wrote in his statement to Sitel TV.

Vesela Chestoeva, director of the Administration for Protection of Cultural Heritage, told Telma TV that the Administration received no formal request to use the protected monument for the video shoot. She explained that the institution processes requests for photography and filming at protected sites and that applications can be refused if the Administration judges the event or content does not qualify as a cultural manifestation.

Odžaklieski said there is no fixed flat fee and that charges depend on the number of hours the object is used: "We do not have a fixed price, it is ceded by the hour, for example around 500 euros for 5-6 hours. Such a decision was previously made by the Management Board, that the space be ceded and charged an appropriate price. We use that money for the maintenance of cultural-historical objects, including the 'Makedonium'," he said.

The Makedonium complex, created by the husband-and-wife team Jordan and Iskra Grabulovski, opened on August 2, 1974, to mark the 30th anniversary of the first session of ASNOM and the 71st anniversary of the Ilinden uprising. The site includes the tomb of revolutionary Nikola Karev. The monument has long suffered leaks and damage; in September of last year the government announced an allocation of 2.5 million denars for emergency protection works, with a fuller conservation project planned afterward. This summer crews began installing metal supports on stained-glass windows to protect them from the weather, a move that drew public criticism that the monument now looks "behind bars."

The director confirmed parts of the video were filmed in February and that interior footage visible in the released clip shows areas of the complex used during the shoot.

Photo: Arhiva