KCP ENG 5
15 x 10 cm
Not For Sale
Pancevo is a town quite close to Belgrade, across the River Danube, but it is a place that has kept its identity and nurtured a vivid artistic scene. When an important gallery, Elektrika, lost its space, a group of artists and activists who represented the core of this gallery’s creativity, started their projects. Vladimir Palibrk was one of them. He was interested in many non-formal artistic practices, but his best-known project is called Street Art Residencies. After members of the Parisian collective Jeanspezial visited in 2015, it became obvious that the know-how of non-formal art practitioners from France was needed in Serbia. Since Street Art Residencies had established a very good working relationship with the French Institute, the influx of some extraordinary French artists increased. It was a lucky coincidence that the French Cultural Attaché at the time, Anne–Lorraine Vigouroux, was a big fan of street art. The French Institute has had a tradition of supporting alternative art since the former Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, managed to change the parameters of what can be considered a culture. For example, even though the production and market of comics in former Yugoslavia was huge on a European level, it stopped being so after the collapse of the country. During the 1990s, maybe the only place where you could find new publications of comics was the French Institute. Nowadays, their policy is to still support film, printing, contemporary circus and comics, but they have also added street art to their list thanks to Mrs. Vigoroux. The French Institute has supported Street Art Residencies and All Girls Street Art Jam by financially supporting the French artists that are coming to Serbia, and it has opened its space for exhibitions both in Belgrade and in Novi Sad. The current attaché is also very open and receptive to street art, and the plan is to continue to support it into the future.