Ratko Mladić Mural in Belgrade

Painted on a residential building facade in Belgrade’s Vračar district in 2021, the image of Ratko Mladić, a convicted war criminal, quickly became the most controversial street piece in Serbia. To its supporters, Mladić is a national defender, but to many others, he is a symbol of cruel violence, traumatising war and blinding hate. The painted image sparked tensions and polarisation between the authorities, local activists, the general public and the ‘guardians of the mural’. This case study explores the difficult topic of dealing with a problematic recent past, unresolved memory politics, the failure to confront one’s own past and what a society can look like when it does not engage with its history in a critical way.