2023-12-01 15:40:00
Portraits of loved ones, Russian flags, war criminals, nationalist declarations? On the walls of Belgrade the history of Serbia is depicted, painted and repainted to the rhythm of political upheavals.
At the end of September, a Kosovar police officer and Serbian members of a paramilitary commando died in one of the latest tensions between Serbia and Kosovo. A handful of days later, on the walls of the capital was displayed in red, blue and white “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia”, a slogan dear to the nationalists.
In the city center, upscale neighborhoods, on the side of the highway? like leaflets on concrete, slogans are constantly rewritten.
“Walls are becoming political? There has always been, to varying degrees, politics in graffiti. But in recent years after each major event, it has increased. You can see paintings of Putin, even Trump has his portrait in town, there was also a fresco representing fighters from the Wagner group, many Russian soldiers who died in Ukraine…”, explains Hana?uica, researcher, who is working on a book devoted to this subject.
“It’s a battlefield (?) a permanent war in which some come to desecrate the works, others come to repaint…”
The oldest fresco in Belgrade stretches several meters high in the heart of the city. We see a student from behind, dressed all in jeans, red notebook under his arm.
“Contribute to culture”
It was a professor at the Academy of Arts, ?edomir Vasi?, and his students who created it in 1984, in homage to May 25? birthday of Tito, the man who ruled Yugoslavia with an iron fist for 35 years.
Professor Vasi? was arrested and spent a night in prison, says Ljiljana Radosevic, an art history researcher specializing in graffiti. “I imagine the police didn’t really know what the frescoes were? It was seen as something new, potentially dangerous.”
Five years later, to celebrate the holding of the 9th Congress of the Non-Aligned, the authorities understood the interest, and artists from all over Yugoslavia were invited to come and paint frescoes – some of which still signify the identity of the city .
After a decade of the 90s marked by the collapse of Yugoslavia, the NATO bombings, the fall of Milosevic, the walls of Belgrade became the support for a new fashion.
In 2014, a punk group, Grupa JNA, gave birth to Grobarski Trash Romanism? giant black and white portraits of personalities? writers, poets, actors? often dressed in a Partizan Belgrade basketball club jersey. “For them it was about showing that you can be a supporter and not be a horrible person, that you can contribute to the culture of Belgrade, of Serbia,” says Ljiljana Radosevic.
The portraits are becoming so popular that other supporters? at the opposite end of the political spectrum? take up the codes to paint “troubled characters from our history, like Ratko Mladic”.
It’s all political
In March 2023, according to the initiative of Youth for Human Rights in Serbia (YIHR), there were more than 250 mentions in Belgrade – portrait or graffiti – of the former military leader of the Bosnian Serbs, sentenced to life sentence by international justice for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes during the conflict in Bosnia (1992-1995).
At the beginning of October, a woman was even fined 850 euros for throwing eggs at a wall fresco bearing her image.
To take in the walls of Belgrade at a glance, you have to stand in front of the University of Philosophy and look up.
Under one of the non-aligned frescoes from 1989 appears the black and white face of Zoran ?in ?i?, Serbian Prime Minister assassinated in 2003. Loved by the most progressive for the liberal vision he had of Serbia, he is hated by part of the country for having delivered Slobodan Milosevic to justice.
The fresco has been desecrated and smeared several times, to the point that it was repainted a little higher – to limit the risks, leaving room for more classic graffiti below – names, slogans… no controversial figure there. ‘horizon.
We may only see letters there, admits Ljiljana Radosevic, but here “all graffiti is political”.
01/12/2023 14:38:29 – Belgrade (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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