In the Božidarac cultural center, during the weekend dedicated to street art, a panel was held where Marko Boko and Antonija Bačić in front of the Graffiti na Gradele festival from Croatia and Vuk Đurić – ENDO in front of the DUK festival from Čačak discussed the challenges of organizing events dedicated to street art.
Marko and Antonija presented one of the largest regional festivals and programs for young people that they have been organizing for ten years. Graffiti on Gradele is a festival that has been organized in Bol on Brač since 2012. Also throughout the year, the festival supports the independent cultural scene through various events and painting, and the festival itself in Bol gathers a large number of artists who paint large-format walls. The festival has a strong focus on the development and promotion of volunteerism, with an additional educational note – where the entire local community is engaged. It was awarded the annual prize of the local authorities and was declared the best festival in Croatia. The festival is active as an organizer of exhibitions and live concerts, with a focus on young and unestablished artists in order to open space for their further work.
Vuk Đurić presented Days of Urban Culture, a festival he has been organizing together with his colleagues in Čačak for the past eight years. As part of the Day of Urban Culture (DUK), concerts, extreme sports and wall painting take place in parallel. Today in Čačak there are over a hundred large-format painted walls by local, regional and international artists. This year Čačak is the national capital of culture and DUK prepared a special edition that Vuk presented during the conversation.
The artists Jana Danilović and Aleksandra Petković participated in the conversation, each through their experience of organizing the festival, as well as the artist Predrag Popović Piros. The conversation was led by art historian Ljiljana Radošević, and some of the topics were self-sustainability and financing of the festival, participation of local and city institutions, reactions of the local community, as well as the participation of artists from the region and the world at festivals.