Street Art is generally a topic that raises some discussions. For some, it's truly a form of art, for others, it's a form of vandalism. In my opinion, street art is really great if it complies with two, pretty basic conditions. One is that it needs to be more than just a plain and unplanned scribble, and the other is that it needs to be in the right place.  You can't put a big graffiti art on the pink painted wall of a fancy hotel or on a kindergarten. In my opinion, some things require a proper time and place. 

Photo Credit: Tibor Trupec

But first of all, I think it's important to offer a clear distinction between street art and graffiti art. Grafitti are a form of street art, but not all street art is graffiti. Street art is a visual art that is created in public location, usually created without a certain plan or permission to alternate the public location. Besides graffiti, street art can come in the form of wheat-pasted poster art, street installations, sculptures or even video projections. The level of general acceptance of street art is also proven by the fact that it was used in marketing (and it still is) from time to time. 

Photo Credit: Tibor Trupec

Graffiti in Zagreb

When it comes to graffiti in Zagreb or any other capital for that matter, a similar problem arises. What is that problem? Well, It's always a question if you have a city that is meant, for instance, to host the meetings of government officials and such; what their reaction would be if they see graffiti near some of the parliament buildings. Things like that, in my opinion, contribute to the general image of the whole town if not the whole country. On the other hand, I feel like real street art, in general, has to be nurtured and encouraged the right way. Graffiti artists are artists as well. Bear in mind that the majority of the artists weren't understood in their time.

Photo Credit: Tibor Trupec

This topic is undoubtedly an inexhaustible source of different debates. Because, while writing this blog, and exploring some stuff about graffiti in Zagreb, I ran into a Facebook page "Zagrebački graffiti" and the thing I saw there took me by surprise. Why? Well, because, there's a lot of, at the same time fairly witty and pretty ugly wall signs which I refuse to call graffiti out of respect for true graffiti artists who spend a lot of time, money and sweat on their works of art on the public walls of the city. But, not all graffiti are, so to say, aggressive. Some of them send a nice message like "Have a nice day" BUT, their creators, even with good intentions in mind haven't asked the owner of that wall or the person who paid for it if they can spray a doodle on their wall. That is the main thing that's bugging me about that question. Another, a lot less morally complicated question when it comes to graffiti for me is how those people reach some places. For instance, a situation when you see a graffiti or even a wall scribble in an absolutely impossible place to reach. 

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The wall of Branimirova

A lot of countries have had or they still have important walls in their cities or outside them. From great wall of China, Berlin wall, to Hadrian's wall in England to the walls of Ston in Croatia, the citizens of Zagreb hold their wall in Branimirova Street dear to their hearts and it represents a perfect place for street art in Zagreb. Although a part of it was demolished due to town authorities decision of putting up billboards there, a part of it is still preserved. I talked to CHEZ 186, one of the artists who's a part of the project MUU (Muzej Ulične Umjetnosti) that worked on the art that's still on the Branimirova wall and who wasn't concerned about the fact that a part of the art from the wall was moved: "Variability is in the very nature of street art. The wall of Branimirova is in the ownership of Croatian Railways, so basically it's their right to do whatever they want with the wall. Because of the fact that we, street artists are accustomed to that variability of our art form, the moving of the art from Branimirova wall doesn't bother me that much." I also used the opportunity to ask him if the street art has grown in popularity in the last 10 years: "While we still don't have precise laws and nominal legal body that's issuing the permissions for creating street art on public walls, the art itself has gotten a lot more popular in the last few years because a lot of brands are using it to approach younger audience". 

Photo Credit: Tibor Trupec

Other forms of street art in Zagreb

As far as I'm familiar with the street art scene in Zagreb, it's fairly small. And when we talk about other forms of street art in Zagreb, they go as far as a small number of street art project such as "pimp my pump" which was one of the better-accepted street art projects. You can guess that it's about alternating the old water pumps into new, and modern works of art. The studio Lapo Lapo, and the project group PMP were the initiators of this project. 

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When it comes to wheat-pasted posters in Zagreb, some can sometimes be found in Trešnjevka, beneath the train overpass there. Usually, some theatre uses it to promote their shows. Another thing that, for me, could be sorted in the street art group, (which I already wrote a bit about before) is light installation shown on the Festival of Lights, which was held in March.

The last but not least is the Zagreb Art Park which, I think made the most for the street art culture in Zagreb. It represents a peaceful oasis just beneath the Strossmayer walkway and it offers a perfect getaway for any tourist, visitor or resident of Zagreb. 

Photo Credit: Tibor Trupec

What can you do for street art in Zagreb? 

When it comes to talking about that specific culture scene in our capital, it's not easy to notice that you can count all the abovementioned on the fingers of your two hands. While they are all really hardworking artists, Zagreb is too big to let them do everything by themselves. My advice? If you are interested in including yourself in Zagreb street art scene, first of all, you need to educate yourself, see what do people all over the world do, then find out what needs to be done and can be done. Pick your technique and start practicing. But first of all, bear in mind the first rule of street art: Never draw over someone else's work.

Photo Credit Tibor Trupec

Header Image Credit: Tibor Trupec

Author: Tibor Trupec