The Great Wave of Banja Luka, A Reflection
Banja Luka
Things to have: bycicle
Word to know: čova (chowa) as in Hey, Men! – Hey, Chowa!
A beautiful city in the north-west part of Bosnia, a flat city with small buildings and wide avenues shaded with trees, with occasional spots of small or large parks, surrounded by hills for hiking, ideal for bicycle. Bicycle lane surround the city and it becomes a part of recreational park that follows the river Vrbas bank.
Street Art & Graffiti Workshop
As a guest artist I worked independently but side by side with participants of Street Art & Graffiti Workshop of International Meeting of “Youth Centers & Urban Culture 2013”, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Workshop leaders were Đurađ Stevanović (Serbia) and Marjan Dimik aka Machka (Macedonia). Đurađ did an excellent job as a facilitator and Marjan gave positive spirit to the whole event. To me, this was the best workshop ever. The participants gave more than 100% of their efforts. The overall positive energy was well received by the staff and pupils of the Primary School „Borisav Stanković” where the workshop was held, as well as by the local community. I must say that it was a pleasure to be working with artists like Filip Koneski (Macedonia) who combined Graffiti & Mosaic techniques, Nataša Konjević (B&H), Cristina Portolano (Italy) and Dejan Mijatović (B&H) with their individual comic/illustration approach.
Organisation
The most important but usually neglected, the organizers, the backbone and the shadow of the whole project, must be thanked thousand times for making this possible. It´s a rare occasion for an artist to have carefree surrounding combined with constant support that leads him to excel beyond…
In sweet voice of ODB, I wanna give shout–out to: Tanja Bormisa, Snježana Blagojević, Jelena Ivanić, Branislav Ristić, Ognjen Davidović and the rest of NGO Hi Neighbour clan for making this possible. I wanna give shout–out to Mario Tubo & George The Driller of the ARCI crew for keeping the train rolling.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
As a final word, I would like to share a short video of two MCs, who were part of Hip Hop Music & Dance Workshop, Moha Amrani & Robert Thärig getting ready to blast @ Youth Centers & Urban Culture 2013 final event in Banja Luka.