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Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Maribor, Slovenia.
Portoroz, Slovenia.
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Lep balkon (Nice balcony)
Things like this just make me sigh and think WTF?
Here’s a brand-new apartment building that lasted about 24 hours before
someone put some lame graffiti on it. No one has bothered to remove it,
nor will they probably ever. It’s been sitting there for a few months
now, unmolested — like some kind of silent tribute to drunken
adolescence.
I really don’t get it. I mean, these things happen wherever
there are bored teenagers. That’s nothing new. The only difference is
that, in other countries, they actually try to prevent and/or
discourage vandalism. Not ignore it.
My
question to any Slovenes reading this is: How would you react if the
above-picture was your apartment? Would you be angry? Or think c’est la vie?
Previously posted: McDonald’s Slovenia, and Slovenian graffiti
Comments
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In 2003 I moved into a brand-new apartment building. The very day the first people moved in somebody used his big black waterproof pen to scribble something on the stairs. It’s still there. As soon as the plastic covering was taken from the lift, somebody scratched names and faces into the metal. And those who are bored while waiting for the lift scratched games into the wall. So: Welcome to the club.
My apartment/house? I would consider this a terrorist act, declare
(local/regional) war against terrorism, and vow to track down the
terrorists and nail them till they drop.;-)
Is it possible that the grafittist is not a bored dumb-ass lout, but
instead an artist whose metier is social irony? The balcony was attractive until the grafitto stating its attractiveness was added. The act of commenting makes the comment untrue.That
said, I share your reaction to grafitti–it just depresses me, so I
appreciated the actual laugh you provided with the WTF link.
Dr Kruegell: I always suspected you were soft at heart. What about violating the Geneva conventions?novala: I suppose all cities are prone to these things, but I’m convinced that countries like Austria and Germany (and definitely the U.S.) do a better job of keeping it under control. The Stephansdom in Vienna (and all the churches I’ve seen in western Europe, for that matter) seem to be in much better shape than Maribor’s cathedral, which has "666" and a large "Spet!" scrawled on its sides. That’s what I can’t quite grasp. Cities with double, triple, quadruple the population of Ljubljana or Maribor manage to keep clean city centers. Here, I can get a 30,000 SIT (125 euro) fine for driving 11 km/h over the speed limit, but can spray a swastika on someone’s house without worrying about anything. It’s just weird for me.
I’m not a Slovene, but from Serbia… Well, that’s why my apartment is up on 4th floor
Geneva conventions don’t apply. You’re either with us or against us! :E Anyway…
I like the kind of graffiti which are a form of art. Sprayed on places
that are supposed to have them. Certain public places apply.
"Anyway…
I like the kind of graffiti which are a form of art. Sprayed on places
that are supposed to have them. Certain public places apply." Totally, but the worse is when stupid people spraypaint stupid crap onto stupid places. See above exhibit.
It would be nice to have an insight into the psychological make- up of
people who feel the urge to do this. Suppose you’re a teenager and
you’re bored. What do you do? Well, you go and spray paint ‘nice
balcony’ on someone’s new appartment, erm, balcony. Must be a shy
person as well. If he/she really thinks it’s a nice balcony, why not
ring the doorbell and compliment the inhabitants on their appartment’s
finely crafted exterior architectural feature? Or doesn’t that make any
sense? Perhaps not when you’re a shy teenager. By the way, doesn’t it
strike you as odd that most of those graffiti people (can’t really call
them artists, unless they make it into art, I agree with you, JS) have
a problem with spelling and grammar?
Initially, when I saw your entry title, Nice Balcony, I
thought you’d be writing a bit more about your required-by-law vacation
in the Land of the Croats. Nice Balcony reminded me of that great
French expression (hope I don’t butcher it here), " Elle a le Monde au Balcone." Nad the best balconies are down by the shore, so……BTW,
Vandalism Sucks and the teenagers, when caught, should have their
mouths washed with soap and, while their mouths are still sudsy, they
should lick that balcony clean of any verbiage.
I think a lot of this comes from a skewed view of property. From the
times of socialism, everyone think severything belongs to everybody and
they don’t give s hit abou it. Common areas of even new and nice
appartment buildings look like shit. Private property is not respected
or sometimes even acknowledged. See the case of "the erased"
demonstrating in a privately owned commercial building.
Even worse, one is not alowed to defend ones property.
Trespassing is really not a big deal and if you clobber a burglar, you
might just get charged with armed assault. That kind of stuff makes my
blood boil. If I saw a punk spraying stuff on my balcony, I should be
allowed to incapacitate the little fucker and make a citizen’s arrest.
If you enter my house, you are under my jurisdiction, so be careful who
you visit, dangit!
A lady must know how to accept a compliment graciously. Keep it, I say!
What strikes me as odd is the claim that the U.S. does a beter job of keeping taggers and spraycan-happy teenagers under control… Have you ever taken a walk in downtown L.A.?!! Ridden some sort of public transport?! For a bite of reality, I suggest a peek beyond the upper middle class neighbourhood watch type of areas.
bubrek: I’ve never been to California; I was mostly speaking of
my experiences in other cities and in New York, where they have a very
aggressive anti-graffiti campaign and where city landmarks are kept
surprisingly clean. I lived in Hell’s kitchen for a while, and also in
Brooklyn, and while there was plenty of graffiti to be seen, it was
mostly contained.
Bubrek, I think the point is, in Slovenia even the "upper middle class
neighborhood watch" type areas or their equivalents get tagged with
this. Ursulinska Cerkev? Maribor Cathedral? Can you compare such
buildings with the subway tunnels and such, where graffiti runs rampant?
Here in the Gulag, they have a serious anti graffitti law, how it
works is that the property owner will get a $500 a day fine for
allowing it to stay if the city sees the graffitti, however you
can go to this agency that paints it out for free and sign an ongoing
permit for them to come paint it out. You can even give them paint
specifically for your house, and you don’t wind up with a patchwork
house at all, and they do really try to make the paint close to your
house color. So it’s good that way.Graffitti in the Gulag is strongly
associated with gang activity. This is far from bored teenagers, Gang
brats are pretty well occupied, but not in a good way. The graffitti is
there for much the same reason a dog or a cat pees on stuff, to mark
territory. The graffitti is in a special code so you can’t read it, but
cops and gang people can read it.In BiH the graffitti I noticed
fell into two catagories, ethno/religion/politico abuse +/ defience
territorial marking, and bored bratty kid stuff.One was the one
I saw was in English, in my fiance’s building, in the stairway, it
said, in English no less ‘the world is a pile of shit, and Sarajevo is
right in the middle of it.’ this was tiny in ball point pen. Bored
smart boy!
The rest of the graffitti seemed to be parts of people’s names.
On busses names were the most common graffitti, usually in tiny
ballpoint pen scratch on the wooden or plastic seats they then had in
the trams and busses. Apparently the Cathedral is covered in graffitti,
and so are other religious buildings. I guess the thinga
bout not being able to nail burglers is so that the secret police who
now are the gangsters could/can operate unimpeded.A free country
may nto allow you to kill an intruder who is only stealing but guess
what, I’m female, all too often burglers commit rape as a crime of
opportunity, so if a burgler ever comes here that’s fine, I’m hurting
him bad with any available means and I’m VERY creative, firearms are
totally unnecessary! As far as getting arrested goes, well then the
State whatever State is involved is obligated to feed me, and shelter
me. So I just don’t give a damn.
Actually I enjoy grafittis.One of the most interesting was a grafitti ‘Prepovedano grafitiranje!’ (Grafiting is forbidden) lolI enjoy like getting lost in a (new) town and read all the grafitis. Freedom of speech, talking to the masses. I would miss them if they would be removed… i agree, there are lots of them which are plain dumb, but there are so many good ones… even if they aren’t a visual art. I can’t immagine living in a sterile world like Singapore, so if they would graffiti (a good one) my house, i would be honoured. (currently i have one, it says that a certain ‘carapa’ drug dealer lives here, never heard of him)
Choice of location for this modern artwork aside, I find most graffiti
in Ljubljana quite intellectual. More on social commentary: go to
Trnovo next to the church where they are building a huge glass
residential palace with 200 sq m apartments, the outside reads:
Najte$$nejše so zlate kletke (golden cages are the tightest)