A tour of Belgrade, Serbia (photo: Ziv Reinstein editing: Noa Levy)
Street art, murals and graffiti are now found in every self-respecting city.
Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, which has long been considered one of Europe's most lively entertainment and nightlife destinations, reveals fascinating street art that is unique to it, and you can learn quite a bit about this city and its residents from it.
"It's a story in four moves," Liliana Radushevitz, a Belgrade resident, art historian and street art researcher, tells us, "meanwhile...".
It all started in 2014 in the fan club of the football team Partizan Belgrade.
A group of the club's fans, punk musicians, had a great idea: not all football fans are head-scratching hooligans, they said, and we want to prove it.
The group that calls itself JNA (an acronym for Jugoslav National Army, after the home stadium of the 'Partisan' built at the time by the Yugoslav army), invited skilled painters to paint on the walls of the city's houses the portraits of prominent writers, poets, journalists, directors and film actors in Serbia, who were also known as ardent fans of 'Partizan'.
One by one, 40 large black and white portraits, in a photo-realistic style, of beloved fans were painted on the walls in the city, mostly in the Dorchol district.
The poet and journalist Dushko Radovic was there,
Portrait of Mira, the flower seller (photo: Surfers Photos, Roni Eran)
Actress Tanya Boskovich (photo: Surfers Photos, Roni Eran)
Movie actor Sloboden Aligrudich (photo: Surfers' Photos, Roni Eran)
Undertaker's romantic trash
The project was a huge success.
"Everyone loved these portraits and the message came through loud and clear," Liliana said.
"A soccer fan doesn't have to be a bully. You can be a devoted soccer fan and also be cultured and tolerant."
In all the paintings appeared the letters
GTR
- the initials of
G
robarski
T
rash
R
omantizam.
Grubers in Serbian means "undertakers" - which is the nickname of Partizan fans due to the team's black and white uniforms.
"With this signature - the undertakers are making romantic trash here - they crossed the threshold of contemporary art to something much bigger and more sophisticated," said Liliana.
Here and there the faces of personalities who somehow inspired the punkists of 'Partisan', such as the writer George Orwell, Morrissey, the reggae singer Eddie Grant and the Clash vocalist Joe Strummer, also found their way to the murals.
One morning the residents of Belgrade woke up to a shocking discovery.
At night, two unknown people passed by and covered all 40 portraits with black paint.
The act set the city on fire.
The immediate suspects were fans of the Red Star team, the bitter rival of Partizan.
But the Red Star fans (called "gypsies" because of the team's red-white uniforms), denied it vehemently.
"These writers and artists are also our heroes! Why did you vandalize their portraits?! As far as we are concerned," they said, "No one will touch the 'Partisan' murals!".
Liliana Radoshevitz next to the mural commemorating Partisan player Milosh Milotinovich (Photo: Surfer Photos, Roni Eran)
"The Undertaker crossed the threshold of contemporary art to something much bigger and more sophisticated" (Photo: Surfer Photos, Roni Eran)
The portrait of the writer and Partisan fan Borislav Pakich (photo: Surfers Photos, Roni Eran)
Surprising magnanimity
It seemed that a world war was coming.
But the fans of 'Partizan', the initiators of the project, showed surprising magnanimity.
They did not call for blood in the streets and did not demand to find the corrupters and punish them.
"It was very unusual," says Liliana.
"It was expected that these two groups would attack each other and at least start a graffiti war followed by paint, but it didn't happen."
The initiators of the project at 'Partizan' announced - what will be will be.
We won't do anything and we will also restore all the paintings.
A bank account was opened, lots of people donated money and all the paintings were restored.
Everyone was satisfied.
The residents, the fans and also the media.
She praised and praised the restraint of the fans of both teams.
But that was just the beginning.
Another part of the 'Partisan' club, fans with an extreme nationalist orientation, saw the murals as an excellent formula for promoting their agenda.
Portraits in the same style began to appear on the walls of houses, of questionable people who were extreme nationalists, and not only that.
"From the moment they appropriated the walls of buildings, no one dared to erase them. It was clear that whoever went crazy with their paintings, would end the day in a hospital and maybe even end his life. It was a very bad turn."
Singer Eddie Grant (photo: Surfers Photos, Roni Eran)
"Everything is drawn in the same photo-realistic style" (Photo: Surfers Photos, Roni Eran)
Partisan and Chelsea player Peter Borota (Photo: Surfer Photos, Roni Eran)
Remember the flower seller
The beautiful project with the social message lost its touch of magic, and the third chapter of the saga began.
'Partizan' fans, and now also 'Red Star' fans, have started ordering portraits of fans who have passed away.
Most of the immortals turned out to be types who were the opposite of cultured intellectuals.
Some also parted ways with the world in clearly unnatural circumstances.
The people of Belgrade were outraged - these types do not deserve to be commemorated on our houses.
"Things got out of control, and then came the fourth chapter of the story," Liliana smiles, "and it is my favorite chapter of course."
"The residents of Belgrade's neighborhoods, who had nothing to do with this project, said to themselves - 'If this is the way to commemorate people you love - let's do it too.' The beloved flower seller on the corner of Strahinjića Bana Street in the Dorčol district. For decades she stood there with her buckets of flowers until she died a few months ago."
Today, a portrait adorns the corner, next to the portrait of a Partisan fan, the beloved film actor Sloboden Aligrodic (who appeared in Amir Kosturica's film, "Dad's Business Trip").
Joe Strummer, lead singer of the band "The Clash" (Photo: Surfer Photos, Roni Eran)
"This is how the local residents took over the mural project and created a completely new narrative," says Liliana.
"Nowadays it is no longer clear at all who did what. Everything is drawn in the same photo-realistic style and if you are not an artist or do not have a skilled eye you will not be able to recognize what is what."
How do you distinguish between the murals of the 'good' and those of the 'bad'?
"If the signatures GTR or JNA appear on the painting, it is a painting initiated by the 'good' partisan fans. The paintings of the beloved neighborhoods are drawn in the same photo-realistic style, but some of them are already colored," she concludes.
Sometimes a derby is just a derby.
Not in Belgrade.
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