Belgrade, Serbia

In 1980s Belgrade has been before all other towns in Yugoslavia a port for the independent journals and a focus of the contest against the fetters of the communist administration. It has been totally natural that this attacking spirit found its vent in winter 1996-97 in a longer movement of the pacific contest organized against the communism of Eastern countries. The Belgrader has been voluntarily boastful and contestable and he never hesitates to say in a high voice what he thinks.

It is this mixture of nonchalance, festive Balkan spirit and obvious oriental influences expressed by certain culinary specialities, by the taste for the Turkish coffee, or in certain musical sonorities, with the opening towards the Western culture, which make of Belgrade a very special city.