R.I.P. Boyan Radanov/Rapresent

"Rapresent" , documentary about Bojan Rapresent from ivana todorovic on Vimeo.

Ivana Todorovic made this documentary about Boyan last year.

R.I.P. Boyan Radanov/Rapresent

I am so sad to hear the news that on June 11th, 2009 in Belgrade, artist Boyan Radanov aka Rapresent passed away at 21 years old.

I was so lucky to meet Boyan in the winter while I was organizing the Tensions+Breaking Points exhibition in Pancevo, Serbia.

Boyan came and created an amazing graffiti piece on the front of Pancevo Gallery of Contemporary Art as part of the exhibition and also inspired me, Branka and Vincent to make a painting as well. He was a kind, smart, modest and funny young man. Boyan's parents passed away when he was a young boy and he lived with his older brother until he also passed away a few years ago. When I met Boyan he was living on the streets of Belgrade because he had had not been granted the rights to take over his brother's former apartment, but even then he remained in a good spirit and carried on taking care of himself. He was working part-time in a youth center telling kids not to get into trouble. It was obvious as soon as you met Boyan that he had seen a lot in his life and grown extremely wise through it. On the day that we painted, a young boy stopped by and was immediately drawn to Boyan's strong and good energy. But life is really tough.

This was a really perfect day for all of us so I want to share these photos of Boyan. If you would like the larger versions of the photos, let me know.

Boyan's sister, the last member of the family is now waiting for her passport to travel from Croatia to attend the funeral that will take place soon in Subotica, Serbia.

It is so unfair how some people are just left on their own. I don't think people can survive alone.


I feel an urge in ending this post to remember another incredible artist friend, Canadian, Avers, Lee Matasi, who also passed on too early. I hope these guys can meet up now in some graffiti paradise, they both deserve it and would have a lot of fun together making things colourful.

Funny Night in Belgrade with the Pancevo Crew

not much more to say about that.
with:
Veljko
Zosen
Kaja
Gaia
Dejan

opa!

some pain

I have kind of been drinking more alcohol than usual. This still doesn't add up to alot, but during the last 5 days I had one drink each day. Each time it was because I have some pain. I always get kind of beat up from traveling. My suitcases are a bit heavy and here I had to climb some giant stairs. Also I have been carrying my laptop around a lot in the past month. I feel like a big weakling telling about this but I wanted to remark about the drinking. I know tons of people always have one drink everyday, but I don't make a habit of it so I can see this is really related to the pain. It does help though.
And what will help the most will be to arrive in Vienna tomorrow and stay there for some weeks.
At 8pm tonight I'll have to move the luggage down the stairs of the hotel... its not going to be fun.

I'm not sure what to do about this. I can't really have less stuff, I am living and working out of these 2 suitcases and I have already purged down to so little belongings. What is traveling with me now is kind of necessary for work, surviving and feeling like a normal person. Maybe I can get a pet llama to help move the things.

My shouders are sore, its a bit hard to sleep. The pain feels like this red bird somehow.
I'll find a yoga school in Vienna and try to go every morning for 4 weeks. I am still doing it on my own but I have been a bit slacker lately.

Animal paintings by Danica Masnikovic, Serbian painter.

rainbow music

maybe you already know this but there was a band called Rainbow formed by former members of the wonderful Deep Purple. Really cosmic shit. But they were called 'heavy metal'... these days I never understand that description becausew e have so much hard music and I'm always listening to brutal noise music... so this stuff just seems less than 'heavy'.

of course I am right now downloading every single song they ever put out.

here is what it says on allmusic: formed 1974 disbanded 1984

On their second release Rising, Rainbow not only avoid the sophomore jinx; they hit a home run. After replacing the entire band (except Ronnie James Dio) immediately following the recording of the first album, Ritchie Blackmore and the Rising lineup (Blackmore; Dio; Tony Carey, keys; Jimmy Bain, bass; and the late, great Cozy Powell, drums) had plenty of time on the road touring the first album to get the chops and material together for their second. In particular, "Stargazer" really came together on the 1975 tour and featured stunning keyboard work from Carey. The material is uniformly strong, with "Starstruck" and "A Light in the Black" standing out in particular. Ronnie Dio turns in a great vocal on the stunningly direct (under three minutes!) "Do You Close Your Eyes." All six songs on the album are up there with anything the band has done, before or since. The playing has a very tight, colorful feel to it, which was lacking a bit on the first record. This album can legitimately be mentioned in the same breath as classic Deep Purple.

lignes

interesting body lines.

side note : I asked the boys where Fatima was. Sadly she had a minor puncture wound that turned out to be fatal for her. She is no longer a part of the bachelor party. RIP

fatima

here, there are 6 slovenian guys in this hotel in Belgrade ... one is getting married and they have a blowup sex doll with them, they are partying here for some days. her name is Fatima
she is really fat. I missed the moment to get a photo of the groom just before he went outside in leopard print hotpants.

tfy coat

The puma coat from 4 years ago can go to rest finally!


yay for serbian design and good prices!

glitch on the Serbian radar (not even)

I just came from Skopje to Belgrade this morning on the bus.
At the border the Serbian guys looked cranky because I have a lot of Kosovar stamps. They overstamped them all with "cancelled"and they did not give me an entry stamp to Serbia. The Macedonians also did not give me an exit stamp, but they often do not.
This means on exit the Serbians can cause problems saying I could have entered illegally. They cna fine me and even put me in jail.
I went right away to ask about this at the Canadian embassy and they said this can be a "big problem" and they sent me to a Serbian police office. When I was at the Serbian police and they said it is a "big problem" and I should return tomorrow morning at 9am with my passport and my bus ticket receipt. They said they don't have stamps.
I asked them what I should have done to avoid all this, because the border guards would not talk to me and I did not want to cause a fuss at the border.

So we'll see what happens tomorrow morning.
arg
lucky me