Pedo-Satanist elites and all that: How to make it as an Eastern European creative?

It rarely happens that I am transfixed by art, however almost two decades ago, I could not stop staring at very haunting painting of Santa Clause on a morgue table, and portraits of children, blankly looking at me while sitting uncomfortably, scantily clad, in a slaughterhouse-like setting. I was in one of the public art galleries in Central Belgrade, which, as galleries around the world … Continue reading Pedo-Satanist elites and all that: How to make it as an Eastern European creative?

Srdjan GarcevicNovember 28, 2022November 29, 20222 Comments

Balkans, Culture, Politics, Travel

Non-Western Balkans: an identity struggle

Some time ago, overcome by a listicle-making urge, I considered putting together a playlist of highly orientalist Yugoslav songs with entries such as Bebi Dol’s Mustafa and Brekvica’s “Loša”. While trawling though YouTube I realised the absurdity at the heart of the endeavour: much of our pop music is “oriental” in the sense that it was influenced by Turkish (or wider Silk road) rhythms and … Continue reading Non-Western Balkans: an identity struggle

Srdjan GarcevicOctober 12, 2022Leave a comment

Life, Politics, Serbiana/Srpska posla

Tragedija ličnog u totalnom sistemu

Najgadnija pojava u medijima, odnosno širem propagandnom kompleksu, koji sve više uključuje i akademske institucije ali i „civile“ po društvenim medijima, je sada normalizovana praksa uklapanja izolovanih, ali duboko tragičnih i strašnih slučajeva u modle koje pogoduju interesima koje služe. Kada god se desi neka tragedija, poput masakra na Cetinju ili davljenja Matrija Periša, često imamo samo par sati da je iskusimo kao manifestaciju okrutne … Continue reading Tragedija ličnog u totalnom sistemu

Srdjan GarcevicAugust 13, 2022August 13, 2022Leave a comment

Politics, Serbia

Serbia, sanctioned

Since Serbia is remembering 30th anniversary since very harsh sancions were imposed on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and as we are being pressured to impose sanctions in Russia, I am reminded of my earliest memories, which took place by the Belgrade train station. It was hot summers’ day in 1992, and I was four, throwing a tantrum when I was supposed to be saying … Continue reading Serbia, sanctioned

Srdjan GarcevicJune 1, 2022August 10, 20221 Comment

Balkanska posla, Hidden Belgrade, Politics, Serbia, The Belgradist

Zenit: 100 Years of Esoteric Balkan Barbarism

„Break the chains that bind us! Crumble the suburbs of huge and diseased Western-European cities! Crush the glass of the gilded palaces Tall towers – of National Stock Markets and Banks! War profiteers escape into the fat bellies! Hide your bought mistresses into your dirty pockets! Do you have no shame?! And you blind mothers and dumb fathers, who sell your virginal Daughters! And you … Continue reading Zenit: 100 Years of Esoteric Balkan Barbarism

Srdjan GarcevicJanuary 18, 2022January 18, 2022Leave a comment

Serbia, Travel

High speed rail, tragic romances, socialist extravaganza and breathtaking views: Where to go in 2022?

In the past two years, Serbia was enjoying being rediscovered by its citizens thanks to COVID travel restrictions. As everybody “did” various spas, visits to the Uvac canyon, hikes on Stara mountain and dipped Bela Crkva lakes, one could wonder if there is anything else that remains to be visited? Thankfully, yes – and this year I decided to recommend places that were hiding in … Continue reading High speed rail, tragic romances, socialist extravaganza and breathtaking views: Where to go in 2022?

Srdjan GarcevicJanuary 12, 2022January 12, 2022Leave a comment

Culture, Politics, Serbia, Serbiana/Srpska posla

Lust for lustracija

Pre par meseci sam bio deo grupe sa pametnijim, finijim i pristojnim ljudima od mene, i jedan od naših zadataka je bio da zamilsimo idelanu budućnost Srbije, u kojoj je ona oslobođena bilo kakvih stega, što unutrašnjih, što spoljašnjih. U tom, nažalost ne preterano izglednom, scenariju vrlo nalik na onaj opevan u Lenonovom Imagine, je bilo sve moguće: svetske sile su se dogovorile da puste … Continue reading Lust for lustracija

Srdjan GarcevicNovember 30, 20211 Comment

Culture, Politics, Serbia

Culture War, Yugoslav style: Remembering 1971 Congress of Cultural Action

In this year of many big anniversaries – 80 years since the beginning of WWII in Serbia, 60 years since Ivo Andrić received the Nobel Prize for „The Bridge over the Drina“ – there is a strange silence about one of the most interesting event in Serbian culture which now celebrates its 50th anniversary: the 1971 Congress of Cultural Action n Kragujevac. The Congress … Continue reading Culture War, Yugoslav style: Remembering 1971 Congress of Cultural Action

Srdjan GarcevicNovember 2, 2021November 2, 2021Leave a comment

Hidden Belgrade, Politics, Serbia, The Belgradist

Occupation in 2-6 Pictures (2): Strahinja Janjić – a traitor’s traitor

On July 28th 1942, 36 year old Strahinja Janjić was taken to the infamous Banjica camp, on the charge of planning to assassinate Milan Nedić, the head of the puppet government that was helping the Germans control “German occupied territory of Serbia”. Banjica, ran in tandem by the Gestapo and Nedić’s government, claimed more than 3,800 lives and was the place where anti-fascist Serbs, Jews … Continue reading Occupation in 2-6 Pictures (2): Strahinja Janjić – a traitor’s traitor

Srdjan GarcevicOctober 18, 2021October 18, 2021Leave a comment

Belgrade, Politics, The Belgradist

Coffee in Belgrade: the first 500 years

During the first year of his reign, in 1521, Suleiman the Magnifient decided to out-do his great predecessor, Mehmed the Conqueror by trying to take two major bastions standing in the way of Ottoman expansion. The first was the island of Rhodes, then held by the Knights of St John, and the other one was Belgrade, a major fortress protecting Central Europe, held by the … Continue reading Coffee in Belgrade: the first 500 years

Srdjan GarcevicAugust 29, 2021August 29, 2021Leave a comment

Hidden Belgrade, Serbia

Homosexuality in Serbia through the Ages

One of my first encounters with the concept of other sexualities was when, as kid visiting my grandmother`s tiny summer house in Montenegro I was walking around the yard and pointed to a far-away house on a land neighbouring ours and asked who lived there. „That was cousin M.`s house…“ she said, somewhat darkly, unlike her eager explanations of who else lived in the 20km … Continue reading Homosexuality in Serbia through the Ages

Srdjan GarcevicJune 30, 2021August 3, 20211 Comment

Culture, Politics, Serbia

RETVRN: Remembering the Serbian Middle Ages

One of the most commonly heard, yet, as it often happens, misattributed, Churchill quotes about the Balkans is that its nations „produce more history than they can consume“, always irritated me for both of its condescending and exoticizing attitude. What is that makes Balkan history so indigestible? Isn’t it the case that it is hardly only the Balkan people’s who shaped this region’s history (and … Continue reading RETVRN: Remembering the Serbian Middle Ages

Srdjan GarcevicJune 29, 2021June 29, 2021Leave a comment

Culture, Politics

We love you, our Fatherland: Yugoslav and Serbian Popular and Official Anthems

The past two centuries of Serbian and Yugoslav national movements might have produced a lot of pain and suffering, but they also did create some cool music. Here are my favourite official and unofficial anthems of Serbia and Yugoslavia, which can still bring a tear to my eye. 9. Zemljo moja (To my country) – Ambasadori, 1975 Apparently one of Tito‘s favourite songs, “Zemljo moja” … Continue reading We love you, our Fatherland: Yugoslav and Serbian Popular and Official Anthems

Srdjan GarcevicSeptember 15, 2020Leave a comment

Politics, Uncategorized

Inventing Illyria for Gain and Glory

Being an ambitious and accomplished sailor in 16th century Spanish Empire could only get you so far. Despite being a hero of the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 against the Ottomans, saving two ships in the failed attack of the Invincible Armada on the English in 1588 and sailing the world over, Petar Grgurić might have been an admiral but he faced a glass ceiling: … Continue reading Inventing Illyria for Gain and Glory

Srdjan GarcevicAugust 14, 2020Leave a comment

Guide to Belgrade, Politics, The Belgradist

Belgrade’s Lost Monuments

As a city which went through significant turmoils in its modern, post-Ottoman history – from brutal occupations in WWI and WWII to major political changes in 1903, after WWII and in 2000 – Belgrade has had its fair share of monument destructions, however mostly at the hands of its occupiers. Unsurprisingly, removal of monuments to the recent past happened most immediately after the Partizans took … Continue reading Belgrade’s Lost Monuments

Srdjan GarcevicJuly 6, 2020July 6, 2020Leave a comment

Politics, Serbia, The Belgradist

An African-American Star in 1920s Yugoslavia

In April 1929, Josephine Baker was the first African-American star to visit Belgrade, while she was on her tour around Central Europe on the Orient Express. The visit came during her peak popularity in Paris, just before she made her hit „J’ai deux Amours”, and while she was still shunned in her native US, despite entrancing everyone with her dance and skimpy exotic outfits. She … Continue reading An African-American Star in 1920s Yugoslavia

Srdjan GarcevicJune 4, 2020July 4, 2020Leave a comment

Balkans, Life, Politics, Travel

Warrior Posing

Ever since the debates about current or imminent “fascism” and “antifascism” (or Antifascism™) became popular again, I came to think about my grandad, who as a committed communist before WWII and then a partisan during it would probably have more to say than those engaging in these debates now. He was a bit of an oddity as a bourgeois lawyer/communist in Nikšić, a town in … Continue reading Warrior Posing

Srdjan GarcevicMay 9, 20201 Comment

Politics

All is Fair in Love and “Hybrid War”: How “Russian Interference” and “Fake News” Narratives Are Used to Further Stalinist Causes in an EU Candidate Country

A dispute involving a church and government in a mountainous European country of 600,000 people, is hardly the stuff that is normally deemed relevant in the context of global politics. However what has been going on in Montenegro in the past two months should be an indicator of how governments, in their attempt to cling on to power, can and will weaponize their legal systems … Continue reading All is Fair in Love and “Hybrid War”: How “Russian Interference” and “Fake News” Narratives Are Used to Further Stalinist Causes in an EU Candidate Country

Srdjan GarcevicFebruary 11, 2020Leave a comment

Politics, Serbia

Serbia needs to look beyond EU accession

Whether you are EU-phoric or EU-phobic, joining the EU is no panacea for Serbia’s problems. Continue reading Serbia needs to look beyond EU accession

Srdjan GarcevicApril 30, 20191 Comment

Culture, Politics

Abramović, Žižek and Milanović: Yugoslavia’s First and Last Global Public Intellectuals

For a country that’s been dead for almost thirty years and whose contributions to the world, according to the Western prestige-press range from German Nazism to Islamophobia in Australia it may be surprising that in the past few years, a number of Yugoslav intellectuals seem to have charmed their Western peers, and to be giving their fair share of insights into the current malaise that … Continue reading Abramović, Žižek and Milanović: Yugoslavia’s First and Last Global Public Intellectuals

Srdjan GarcevicApril 19, 20191 Comment

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