A stand-alone monograph on the importance of graffiti and street art in the Balkans and Central Europe, published by Routledge

Prof. Dr. Mitja Velikonja from the Department of Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana published a monograph on the importance of political graffiti and street art as a subversive political medium in our region with the renowned Routledge Publishing House.

This is the first book worldwide to deal extensively with current political graffiti and street art as a subversive political medium in both our region and the broader global context, first theoretically and methodologically, and then empirically. It is based on two decades of the author's systematic fieldwork on several continents and approximately 25,000 original photographs.

The book is divided into two main parts: the first three chapters are dedicated to terminological, theoretical and methodological reflections. These bases are verified in the second, empirical part through eight case studies examining topics such as pro- and anti-Yugoslav graffiti, appropriations of Triglav in graffiti, comparisons of Balkan nationalist graffiti, hate speech in graffiti, pro- and anti-refugee graffiti, fan graffiti, etc.

The book represents an original and essential contribution to (sub)cultural studies in the contemporary Balkans and Central Europe, transitology, visual cultural studies, art theory, anthropology, sociology, and studies of radical politics. The book was supported by a number of renowned researchers in this field, who contributed short notes to the text:

  • Maria Todorova (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign),
  • Dubravka Ugrešić (writer and publicist),
  • Igor Štiks (writer, Singidunum University in Belgrade),
  • Paul Mojzes (Rosemont College),
  • Jasmin Mujanović (publicist from the USA),
  • Svein Mønnesland (University of Oslo) and
  • Volker Berghahn (Columbia University).

The author will also use the book as study material in courses at all three levels of study at the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana. This academic year, he used it as a visiting professor in his course at Yale University European Studies Council. The book was launched at Columbia University in New York on 19 November this year. Next year it will be published in Slovene by Mladinska knjiga, and it is expected to be published in Polish by the academic publishing house Universitas from Kraków.

Source: Velikonja M. (2019). Post-socialist Political Graffiti in the Balkans and Central Europe. New York, London: Routledge

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