In April 2025, a large group of cyclists from Serbia, mostly students, young people, activists and those who supported them along the way, set off from Belgrade on an unusual mission. Their goal was the city of Strasbourg, in France, and the message they carried in their hearts was that of freedom, equality, responsibility, nobility, perseverance, solidarity and many other values that are currently lacking or limited in their country of origin. We set out with them in the desire to support this mission and to pursue our own – one that has always been concerned with visual documentation and conveying the message of the stated values.
This noble and purposeful adventure symbolically called the “tour to Strasbourg” lasted almost two weeks. The basic motive that represented the foundation of the tour is the reaction of the youth of Serbia to the situation in the country, which during the previous 15 years or so has “turned full circle” and returned to the settings of some past dark decades. The same politicians who led the country in the gloomy 90s are again in positions of power today, the value system has collapsed and turned upside down, education and personal effort have been devalued and replaced by a party card that is a shortcut to various conveniences in life… This state of affairs culminated in two terrible events – the mass murder at the Vladislav Ribnikar school and the villages of Dubona and Malo Orašje in May 2023 and the collapse of the newly renovated canopy of the railway station in Novi Sad in November 2024, which claimed 16 victims. Symbolically, the state also fell on that day, burdened by the weight of corruption, nepotism, crime, partocracy, populism…
Young people reacted with commemorative gatherings and later protests, demanding changes and responsibility, by organizing numerous multi-day marches in all corners of the country, trying to convey the voice of freedom through the controlled and occupied media space, through active social engagement – offering the student movement as a new political force that could lead the country towards the future. The reaction of the regime was brutal. Students were subjected to targeting, violence, they were run over by cars during memorial vigils for the victims of the canopy fall, beaten by the police and party thugs, imprisoned and harassed without any legal basis and with frequent violations of the autonomy of the University…
The tour to Strasbourg was an organized attempt to spread the word about these events and the will of the Serbian people beyond the borders and to inform about the state of affairs in the country to whom the majority of the youth of Serbia still look – the officials of the EU and Western countries, who still represent the direction towards which Serbia should strive for educated young people facing the future.
Through personal sacrifice, enormous physical effort and boundless perseverance, this group of young people symbolically, on two wheels, conveyed the message of the desire for freedom and equality through the heart of Europe, and above all, an appeal for help to the youth of Serbia on its path towards civilizational values. Although by no means decisive, this act was nevertheless a significant addition to the overall student struggle, primarily in the sense that it transferred the energy of youth beyond the borders of Serbia and illuminated the diaspora, residents of the European continent and officials of competent European institutions.
We are proud to have been part of this journey, and we want these photos to remain as a testimony of a feat, in the hope that in the coming years and decades, they might acquire the status of a historical document and a testimony of the process of profound changes, so necessary and so long awaited in Serbia.
