The studio of the famous sculptor Miodrag Šćepanović, this year's winner of the Thirteenth July Award and many other international awards, is buried, as he claims, with earth cubes.
This artist has been working under the open sky for more than two decades, next to the river Svinjača, on municipal land. The conflict with Danko Vlahović from Podgorica, the owner of a cottage and a plot of land nearby, who, as he claims, buried his "studio", recently ended in a fight between the two and reports to the police. The unloaded earth still covers, the sculptor explains, more than half of the "studio".
"For more than 20 years, I have been working under a willow tree, on the bank of Svinjača, from which I extract stone for my sculptures. It didn't bother anyone until recently. That land, which belongs to the municipality and was given to me for use, separates the road from the lot where Vlahović bought the cottage. "Recently, while building a parking lot next to the house, he cleared the ground on the part I'm working on and thus buried the stone prepared for sculptures, but also made it impossible for me to continue creating there," says the sculptor.
He claims that he reported everything to the Municipal Police, who ordered Vlahović to return the land to its original state. He also explains that the current owner bought the plot from an officer of the Communal Police. Previously, the communal policeman bought the land from the Municipality at an auction, during the time of the former government, and then sold it to Vlahović.
"I met Vlahović at his studio, that is, in front of his house. After a short conversation, he started insulting me, and then punched me in the head area so hard that I could barely stay on my feet. I tried to fight back, but the neighbors broke us up," claims Šćepanović.
Vajar thinks that the Municipal Police is not up-to-date in solving that problem, also due to the fact that the employee of that service was the previous owner of the land.
Vlahović: There was no fight, the earth will move when I fix the machine
Vlahović confirmed to the "News" that he unloaded, as he says, "a couple of loading buckets on part of the municipal land", which is used by Šćepanović.
A certain amount was previously in that place, he says, that is, unloaded before he built the house. Vlahović also claims that he did not hit the sculptor.
"As much as I usurped the municipal government, so did Šćepanović. After I was instructed to remove the soil, I immediately set about doing so. However, the machine broke down, and it was not possible to hire another one, although I called several people from Kolašin, who have machinery. I don't need a conflict with the local administration or Šćepanović. I built a cottage in that place to rest. I tried to solve it calmly, however, after the phone conversation, he came to my house and insulted me rudely. We pushed each other, for which I have witnesses, but I didn't hit him," says Vlahović.
They promised to solve the problem by agreement
Chief of the Municipal Police, Zoran Kujović, confirmed that Vlahović was ordered to remove the soil, but that, as he says, there was a technical problem, because the machine broke down, so that work was interrupted. He says that Šćepanović and Vlahović came to him together and promised to solve the problem by agreement.
"We ordered the return of the plot to its original state. After that there was a conflict. Suspicions that we are obstructing because the original owner of the land is our employee are absolutely not true. We are doing everything according to the regulations and the land will be removed," he said.
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