Dorian Gray in the attic of SKC

When several guys, who are in Student Cultural Center In 2010, they were doing civilian military service, sent to clean the attic of this institution, they found there a huge portrait of Slobodan Milošević. "He was like a big man," Uroš Begović, one of the student-soldiers at the time, and today a librarian and comic book author, told Vreme. "I distinctly remember several fellow soldiers taking photos next to that wonder with that old phone with a primitive camera." This very attic is located under the dominant dome of the SKC, the legendary cap under which, in the glory days of the SKC, artists who changed the cultural scene of the Balkans gathered for decades.

JULY AT SKC-U

On the night when the students occupied the Student Cultural Center, stated that "this institution is alienated from the university and that there are numerous irregularities in the work of the Board of Directors, in which students and professors are a minority, which is why it does not work in favor of students". And more: "We can rightly claim that the program has had a weak response among students and citizens for years, and the capacities of these spaces remain unused." The students said that they want to "breathe new life into SKC, to offer a free and high-quality cultural program, to free up space for critical thinking and self-education". They subsequently added that data on SKC does not exist in the Agency for Business Registers, and that no documents are available that should be public by law - the statute of the Student Cultural Center, the names of the members of the board of directors and the financial plan. According to their opinion, this is "a clear indication of improper functioning of the SKC and another reason why the blockade was started". The proprietary structure of the center and the story of political influence are probably also the answer to the question of who the students want to free SKC from.

In 1992, the center was taken away from the University of Belgrade and went into the hands of the Ministry of Education, and the director of the SKC in those dark times was Slavoljub Veselinović. Petar Janjatović, a rock critic, says for "Vreme" that Mira Marković and the JUL members used SKC for their conferences and cocktails and thus "dirtyed the sacred space". Meanwhile, Veselinović was the subject of "Vremena" because it turned out that in 1996 he was on the list of people who bypassed the legal provisions on participation in a public competition for radio frequencies. He is the man who signed the contract on behalf of Radio SKC.

photo: lenka pavlović

SKC - SOCIALIST CULTURAL CENTER

Uroš Begović also remembers Veselinović, even though he served in the SKC in the army two decades later and once, he says, "brought a ficus to his office". It turns out that neither Veselinović, nor the portrait of Slobodan Milošević, are not only the past of this institution. Although he was dismissed after the October 15th changes, the same man soon returned to the head of the Student Cultural Center, which he has been leading for more than 2008 years, in the acting capacity, although by law he can only be in this position for a maximum of one year. Therefore, Veselinović returned to the chair shortly after the SPS returned to power in XNUMX and formed a government with the Democratic Party, after the "historical reconciliation". The acting director does not make statements, nor does he appear in public, and here and there his name appears on a list, for example, among those who supported Salon Comic.

A good example of how the party manages the center is the collection of space that SKC rents. The institution has as much as 4000 square meters, and within its premises there is a bookstore and a cafe published by "Laguni", as well as "Dice Arena" (Dice arena), space for social games. There is also the "Arte Galerija", a space that belongs to SKC and is physically located between the Center and the Yugoslav Drama Theatre. Although all these tenants pay for office space, the entire income does not go to the SKC budget, but directly to the account of the Sector for Pupil and Student Standards and Investments, which is under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. The Ministry disposes of the money as it pleases.

The socialists returned, and SKC, symbolically, locked the door, says Janjatović: "The party got the space, they are not overly interested in it, money is constantly coming in from renting and they pray to God that no one touches them. Even if someone tried to organize a concert there, they would either send him an insane rental price, or they would completely exclude any possibility of cooperation".

Uroš Begović, in the spring of 2010, destroyed the cult with his own hands Living rum, lower hall of SKC. They took the bar stools and sound system to the Dom kulture in the student town in New Belgrade, he says, and the mixing desk to the Dom omladine. "I experienced all that very emotionally," says Begović. "During military service, we soldiers had free entry to concerts and all events, which would have meant a lot to me a few years earlier. It turned out, however, that I no longer have anything to listen to in SKC."

The Ministry of Education did not answer the question of "Vremena" editors about where the money goes from the lease of all business premises within SKC, nor did the Sector itself. Nor did the line minister Slavica Đukić Dejanović respond to calls to comment on the events at the Center.

Photo: Lenka Pavlović

PLACE TO DO BUSINESS

Why the Student Cultural Center is so important to students is easy to understand from the name itself, but first of all from the history remembered by the walls, stucco, and even the attic of this Center. Above all, they remember the student protests in 1968, when the building was handed over to Belgrade University, and the center was put into operation on Students' Day in 1971. Until Slobodan Milošević came to power, SKC was a space open to the underground, but also to political opinion that often differed from the ruling ideological speech. Based on the SKC model, the Zagreb SKUC and the Ljubljana ŠKUC soon came to life.

SKC hosted the most important Yugoslav bands such as Charles the Acrobat, Električni Orgasm, who could also practice there, and the real explosion was caused by the New Wave. "At that time, young bands started springing up around Belgrade like mushrooms - Limunovo drvo, Zvuk ulice, BG5, Butik, Igra glasnih perli, Pečat, Kako, Kvazar... Back then you couldn't walk around the city without hearing some concert from the basement, usually very interesting", said Momčilo Rajin, one of the editors of SKC from the end of the seventies of the last century. Petar Janjatović recalls that the young bands of the New Wave found a safe house in the Student Cultural Center: "It was not only a place where they could play, but young musicians could hold rehearsals in the basement, leave their instruments, and all in exchange for playing for free on Student Day, which was a premium for them. From the moment the students took it under their wing, it was a space primarily open to new ideas, to all those who did not pass as mainstream. Tickets were often not charged, hippie thinking prevailed. Each of us who hung out there could knock on the door of the editor for some area of ​​culture and get help in the form of advice or support in implementing his own idea”. The program also included art projects by dissidents from other communist countries of the Soviet bloc - "Days of Polish Culture" and the forum "New Polish Thought", for example. Western ideas circulated there and, of course, punk.

Momčilo Rajin came to SKC in mid-1977 at the invitation of Nebojša Pajkić, who at the beginning of that year became the editor of the Foreign Program. About that time when SKC was the epicenter of all the events that would eventually give birth to the Package Arrangement, Pajkić says: "Perhaps it all started in the fall of '77." when, as part of the 'Three days of young Slovenian culture' program, the first meeting of the people of Belgrade with what was called punk took place. On the first evening, Pankrti performed in front of surprised Belgraders reclining in the comfortable armchairs of the large hall and playing Sex Pistols songs. It was also a bit comical. Pero Lovšina, who tried to look really punk, was accompanied on instruments by former hippies. Nevertheless, it caused enough interest to start organizing concerts in 1978. That year and the following year, we had about 200 different events a year, such as concerts, gigs after the "Event Theater" show, panels with record listening - after me, Koja took over, who, by the way, was always hanging around. I remember we played the Pistols album there Never mind the Bollocks and that was the day before the album went on sale in England, thanks to the promotional copy we received. Every first Saturday of the month, a 'Day for practice' was organized, when all SKC halls were open, and people brought their instruments and amplifiers and played. This was important for communication and provided an opportunity for all interested parties to meet in one place and exchange ideas. Many bands were born from that".

How important SKC was, notes Janjatović, is also shown by the fact that Branimir Johnny Štulić once held seven consecutive concerts in his summer garden, even though he could have filled any bigger space.

VIEW FROM THE ATTIC

It is not known whether Slobodan Milošević, as a kind of Dorian Gray, still watches the events in the SKC from his attic. Uroš Begović does not know what happened to the portrait, but the soldiers certainly did not get permission to throw the picture away that day. And why should he when his work still lives on and manages SKC through political comrades from the Socialist Party of Serbia. Until the students return, this February.

Correction

(published in issue 1782)

In the text, we have incorrectly conveyed the words of Mr. Petar Janjatović. Namely, Johnny Štulić played in the hall of the SKC, not in the courtyard as stated in our text. We apologize to Mr. Petar Janjatović and the readers.