Guide

“PUTOSPEKTIVA”, A SIMPLE WAY TO TAKE A WALK AND REACH THE END OF THE WORLD
I Will Tell You My Image
It happens once a month, in Dorćol, in Belgrade. In the quest for a story, you reach “Rex” and end up god knows where. From the Ovčar-Kablar Gorge to India, from Vranje to Iceland, from Belegiš t Petrovac na Mlavi. Somebody shares with you their minute of happiness anywhere in the planet. They show you recordings from the trip, tell you about the adventures read records or journals. And you find it all picturesque, as if you were also there. Then you want to offer the magic from a trip of your own to someone

By: Dragana Barjaktarević
Photographs: Dragana Barjaktarević, Dragan Bosnić

Defined by temperament and various circumstances, expectations from traveling are numerous. Some people like programmed packages: a guide, a break, excursions for an extra charge... Others like to rest: infinite sea, endless beaches, cocktail with an umbrella in a carved pineapple... And some people are searching for a story, for a travel directed only by tricks of fate, so that afterwards they may say: “Imagine what happened to me!” Well, this is the story for Putospektiva. Snatched out of warmth and safety of clichés, mountaineering, meadowing, biking, auto-stop, couchsurfing, camping, safari, adventures without a plan, ATM machines, internet, roaming, hot water...
Every month, on the stage of “Rex” in Belgarde, we can hear three stories like these, situated at the end of the word or somewhere around here, in the hilly Balkans. Only, they must be special. They must be titillating. The must inspire: “I want an adventure like this too!” Or, on the contrary, to make us realize: “No, that is not my cup of tea.” Reaction, caused by either attraction or repulsion, is the purpose of existence of Putospektiva. At least that’s what we learn from Tamara Zidar, the owner of this project, in idea and in practice.

IT WAS WORTH MAKING UP

Photographers Michael and Mark are Brits who came to the Balkan and Serbia, according to an unwritten rule, crept into their hearts. A few years ago, while they were sitting in “Podmornica” club in “Ulična galerija”, an idea came to them – they could organize gatherings of photographers, professionals or amateurs, the only thing that matters is that in the continuousness of life images they know how to freeze the right ones. Good ideas came often, only few of them are turned to life. Will courage, or madness are missing... This time, non of them were missing. Since the idea came out of “Podmornica”, quite logically, the project was named Periscope. First once every two weeks in Belgrade, and then less frequently, and geographically more scattered, the photo-enthusiasts silently or with words presented the selected images – small series of photographs encircled in some kind of a story, message, esthetics.
A few years ago, Tamara Zidar attended one edition of Periscope. To tell her image. To get an incredible idea. Because, that was the concept of Periscope – exchange of experiences in order to stimulate new creativities.
– I wanted something similar but focusing only on travel and travel photography. As non of it existed, it was worth making it up, and this is how Putospektiva was created – Tamara says.
More than a year went by since then. At the jubilee Putospektiva she remembered that on that date, February 22, 2013, when people were breaking ice and giving way to their own dreams, in the tiny room of “Makabi Club” there were unimaginable one hundred visitors. Although Putospektiva dos not cause mass hysteria, they never had lack of audience. At the last event there were those who were standing tirelessly on their feet or sitting on cushions on the floor. We asked one regular guest how she made it on her feet all the time.
– Time did not exist while I was listening to Tomislav – she replied.

DUDE, YOU ARE INSANE

– You are going somewhere on vacation?
– Aha, in May.
– Really? Where are you going?
– To Chernobyl.
– No, seriously?
– Seriously, I am going to Chernobyl.
– Why there?!
– And why not?
– Dude, you are insane!
With these jolly words, friends saw Uroš off to his Chernobyl tour. The parents had the identical reaction when Ruža and Katarina decided to go to Zanzibar “while the entire world is normally going on their summer vacations to Greece”. In 2006, Relja, Nikola and Antun went to pilgrimage in Camino del Santiago, so they would walk on foot around Spain for eight hundred kilometers.
– You are going where?! To do what?! – the eyes of the surprised ones bulged. Ibidem for each story that followed.
And this is exactly why Putospektiva is special. Because it records unique, although educational experiences. Because this is where all expectations listed in the brochures fail and life comes to the foreground.
– No matter how many rocks and buildings there are to see, the best thing one can meet are people –Jovan and Vladimir, new hajjis, said.
India, Indonesia, New York, Kenya, Norway, Zanzibar, Israel, Bolivia, Myanmar, Iceland, Serbia... The pieces of this planet of ours that our “travel-spectives” fell in love with, are randomly selected. And the map is being rewritten month after month. Some personal maps are being reworked simultaneously. Mostly for the benefit of the number of kilometers one must overcome. And quite often, the energy of the one who is presenting and the one who is listening, more than the beauty of the countries themselves, contribute to this. Everybody will experience the same point in the universe in accordance with their temperament and circumstances that mould them at the given moment. When they asked Tomislav Perk, a world traveler, what his favorite place in the world is, he pointed at the image of a tree anywhere on this planet because there, on its shadow, and with a view that is cutting the infinite area of heaven, he found his minute of happiness.
This type of traveling is probably not for everybody. Or is it only the lack of information. But that is what Putospektiva is here for. To provide information and stimulate us to go looking for our story, or at least to get a desire to do so.
– When I was leaving for the trip around the world, I mostly feared what would meanwhile change at home. I traveled for almost three years. When I came back, everybody was still going out to the same places, drinking the same drinks and telling the same stories. Then I realized that only I have changed. In three years I lived 15 lives – said Tomislav Perko at Putospektiva in June.

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From People, Of Course
We boast wherever we have a chance. The most frequent question that would follow is: “How did you learn about this?” There is a website (www.putospektiva.rs), there is also “Facebook” page, but first you learn from people who were there and fell in love.

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Breaking with Prejudices
Traveling is fatal for prejudices and generalizations. When Tomislav Perko was leaving Croatia going east, his grandmother warned him to beware of Serbs. However, in Serbia they welcomed him with open arms. Before he continued on to Bulgaria, a person from Niš warned him: “Serbs, Croats, we are the same people, but beware of Bulgarians!” In Bulgaria it turned out that all Slavs are brothers. “Hey, but Turks, they are centuries-long enemies!” From one country to the next the same story was being repeated, and the doors – of cars, apartments, hearts – were being whole-heartedly opened. Which, of course, does not mean that one does not have to be careful.