Telenor's Start up City

SMS mural in Sombor

"Start up City" is great because of involving young Serbian artists. Selected young artists established themselves on artistic scene by hard work and investments in their own exhibits and projects shown to narrow circle of experts. This is a kind of reward for all of them as well as opportunity to show and even donate the public their crafts - Marko Stojanovic, author


By LJILJANA SAMARDŽIĆ
from Sombor, SERBIA


With beginning of this month, July 2009, citizens of Sombor got a present from Telenor Foundation. Artistic hand of Marko Stojanovic painted mural in Sombor's town center in order to help out Telenor Foundation's project "Start up City". According to media release from Telenor Foundation, this project is "a result of support to the decision of the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Management to grant the status of a city to large towns in Serbia". Actuelization of "Start up City" project enabled already mentioned Telenor Foundation, Contemporary Art Platform "Kiosk", Duga company as well as local non-governmental organization "Sombor Youth Boom".

A mural is placed on the façade of a building in Citaonicka Street and was officially presented on July 3rd. Dimensions of mural are 11.3x5.15 meters and it presents a mobile phone screen, with a message containing coordinates of a location of the artist and his personal message to his close person. Sombor thus became one of the cities in Serbia decorated with murals - Uzice, Kraljevo, Leskovac, Vranje, Pancevo, Sabac, Loznica, Zrenjanin, Subotica and other larger cities in Serbia.

Inspiration and relevance

Marko Stojanović, the author of mural in Sombor, says for WAVE magazine that he got inspiration from "few ideas/materials that had been preoccupied me lately". He also mentioned that screen of mobile phone or laptop show its aesthetic throughout design and pixels. "It's fascinating that those small dots, regularly situated in message, can transmit the news about relative's death, but also the love of caring person".

A mural presents text message. You said that the goal was to remind passengers on people they care about and that they should message them. Isn't that a kind of propaganda?

If it is, I think of it as a positive propaganda. In any case, it is not its only quality and the basic idea, but the banal sense of it. Sending messages via mobile phone is already in human collective experience, the code of our civilization and there is no way back, and I even don't want it. You can pay for post stamp or sending message.

What is murals' relevance for Sombor as town and its citizens?

I'm not one of those people who think that visual arts have great impact on society, so I'm not expecting it. From my point of view, contemporary aesthetic of touch screen, placed on façade, is in harmony with classicist, stylish center of Sombor. I honestly hope that this optimistic and little bit humorous text on mural will arouse positive reaction from passengers. On final point, maybe the fact that something has changed in Sombor on the beginning of this summer and that citizens will always know their precise location is enough.

What is your opinion and standpoint regarding this Telenor Foundation's project?

"Start up City" is great because of involving young Serbian artists. Selected young artists established themselves on artistic scene by hard work and investments in their own exhibits and projects shown to narrow circle of experts. This is a kind of reward for all of them as well as opportunity to show and even donate the public their crafts. It would be nice when this responsibility towards society, which is important for artists, citizens, cities and country, could become more common in practice of big companies, but individuals as well. Through alike activities we could forgive them a lot of things and doings which we now disapprove - concludes Marko Stojanovic in a mini-view for WAVE magazine.


(Published: 18.07.2009.)