March 6th, 2022 - A Hajduk flag featured at an art exhibition in Zagreb was forcibly removed from the gallery window by a group of Bad Blue Boys
An exhibition by Croatian artist Josipa Škrapić, entitled ‘Lambs are light, they are easy to carry’, opened earlier this week at the Karas Gallery in Zagreb. Designed in the form of an ethnographic diary, the exhibition is dedicated to her father, known as Škrapa.
The artist documented her father’s everyday life, filming him and writing down their conversations. Along with a documentary film and other visual exhibits, a number of artefacts belonging to Škrapa are displayed in the gallery space. Among the displayed objects are three different Hajduk flags, one of which was originally hung in the gallery window.
Not for long, though, as a group of Dinamo fans didn’t seem to like an emblem of Hajduk making such a public appearance in Zagreb and took matters into their own hands. They entered the gallery as the exhibition was about to open and stole the flag, writes Jutarnji list.
Following the incident, the Croatian Association of Visual Artists (HDLU) stated: ‘The act of displaying Škrapa's Hajduk flag in Zvonimirova Street in Zagreb provoked an excessive and rather aggressive reaction, to say the least, of young members of the Bad Blue Boys, who burst into the gallery and stole the flag from the gallery window before the exhibition opening and quickly left, only to call for reinforcements ten minutes later, who eventually entered the gallery in a very decisive manner and gave a vocal warning that the Hajduk flag should no longer be hung in the gallery window in Zvonimirova, or we’d get it.
We’re not exactly sure what we’re supposed to get, but we condemn this act of theft and violence devoid of any openness to communication. It’s interesting to note that other flags which were displayed in cases inside the gallery were ‘allowed’. The artist herself agrees with the position of the HDLU, but she also believes that in this context the event is becoming a reactive extension of the artwork.’
Now a flag short, the exhibition will remain open until March 13th.
