Aleksandar Macasev doesn’t mince matters: “The real center of power in Serbia is the pharmacist. Give the people a lot of tranquilizers and they will not complain.” According to the Belgrade based artist and graphic designer, a lot of Serbian people are on drugs.
Macasev came to Belgrade in the beginning of the nineties, a turbulent time of war, protests and isolation. This period had a big influence on Maćašev, who has a very critical attitude to politics and who uses his art to grow awareness on tricky issues like mass communication and corruption.
Belgrade may have a very lively nightlife, a lot of Serbs have lost their spirit as a consequence of the recent geopolitical events. Maćašev sees it as his duty to wake up his fellow citizens from their slumber of indifference.
His Joseph Goebbels Project really freaked people out. Not surprisingly, because it consisted of posters and large billboards of the father of propaganda, the Nazi-minister Joseph Goebbels. The portraits were made out of logos of big media companies. Not very subtle maybe, but very effective indeed.
We teamed up with the forthcoming artist for a day and he showed us around in his hometown. Despite his serious mission, Macasev keeps his head up.
Pretty Cool Crew: Interview & sound: Jessie van Vreden, Camera: Pierre Rezus, Editing: Jessie van Vreden, Axel Skovdal Roelofs.
