CRITICS

Ours but belonging to the world.
Shared with the people.
Songs and joy without limits.
Zeko guides us with his eye and his ability through that world where the whole world enjoys and loves something of ours. Beautiful and true document which remains even when stage lights and city glamour fade. Zeko's photos lead us now and forever to that enchanting voyage.

Thank you Zeko!

                                                                                         Brian Rasic
                                                                           www.brianrasic.com

   
     We photographers are people too, with two eyes, two ears, one nose and a mouth!
For a garrulous tongue can but disturb, photographers often use teeth to restrain it, that it could not damage something.
    The nose only serves to get in the way of a camera, and ears are divided, one listens for storms and the other for a heart beat...
    The eyes also have separate roles - one to look at the traffic lights and the other at the miracle called life!
    Thanks to the one who discovered photo sensitive material, he is the only witness who tells our story. That story, flowing through the lens, is a special world, the world which depends on many variables. Those variables are in front of the lens - where we can never guess how and with what life will surprise and excite us and behind the lens where also furthermore life is but the one which a photographer experienced right up to that moment and stored it into his sub consciousness, his heart and his index finger.
    The joy of life guides us every day, really every moment. This was given to us and we have to keep it and share it with others. Photography helps us to share the excitement of life with those whom we would never meet, whom we would never see or hear about because they live across oceans and mountains and possibly after many generations. That is why, the photography is exceptional for in its content, it bears colours and shapes, time, emotions, fiction and moment in which it began as well. It is very similar to the assumption of the big bang of our beginning, perhaps as a click of a big photo camera.
    With the camera we choose from the diversity that surrounds us, what is close to us, that which is familiar in our childhood, our cartoons, songs and movies, bedtime stories and soothing stories while we travel. That was a lesson of life, how to love, work, aspire to something, joke, learn and seek and when we are hurt and blood spills, we find a motive to turn our lens towards the light and wait for new tempestuous moments of life which we will convey to those beyond a mountain, valleys, sea and time.
    I was not present at The No Smoking Orchestra concert, but I lived in a wave a tsunami that they produced in my friends... "Bubamara" and turkey and "Zenica" and "Underground" and Maradona, Manu Chao and girls and Julias and far away countries, and sleep and dreams, everything is being carried away by that tsunami and Zeka's photographs.  They are witnesses of their existence and life, although different from what is written in newspapers and heard in the news.

    Thank you Zeko for showing us a different rode through life, surrounded by joke, humour and freedom.
    I thank the person who recognized the value of Zeko's story.

                                                                                                                                    Nebojsa Babic
                                                                                                                                   www.orange.rs

SEGMENT FROM MONOGRAPH
"EMIR KUSTURICA & THE NO SMOKING ORCHESTRA - 10 YEARS "

Masters of the Global Havoc

    Distanced from any church and show-biz dogmas, "The No Smoking Orchestra" are a significant phenomenon of the anti-globalization movement and an unusual paradox in their country of origin. They are better known and renowned world-wide, than they are in the country they are putting on the map with their success. The first ten years with their "Unza Unza" trade mark sound proved that even in these times of intolerance, there is an adorable type of dance music against which there is no defense, as there are no pair of feet that can stay put while they are playing.
    "The No Smoking Orchestra" expresses themselves through sound and vision loosely based on any place of origin. Their live spectacles don't usually intrigue the audience to search for the story behind it all, but to look into their own souls for an explanation of how it makes them feel.
    Audience across continents understands "The No Smoking Orchestra" even though they don't necessarily understand the lyrics. As author Dr Karajlic said: "They don't understand Verdi's Va, pensiero either, but everyone sings along because it's a catchy tune!"
    They established a connection with the entire planet Earth, with this new taste for music that is bursting with scenes and sound, where energy and happiness have replaced the long established music industry standards.
    They are far more energetic than they ever were throughout in their 25 years career. That's another paradox as members of the group are now twice as old as they were when they first started their music career. This came as a consequence of many important factors coming together over time, including the experience and ability, although they are still not a philharmonic material. As musicians, their resume is filled only with gigs in pubs, jazz clubs, and various rock events... On the other hand, their music is now a lot more cheerful and irresistible. This powerful explosion they have created on the scene is an attempt for the concert to become a part of a mutual therapy, such that many crave for.
    "The explosive mixture of those TNT sounds" is impossible to ignore wherever you are: Paris, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, New York, Kiev, Reykjavik, Sidney, Tel Aviv, Montreal, Sao Paolo, Vienna, Moscow, Mexico City, Berlin, Madrid or Brussels.
    Realizing that they communicate with the world through music as such, through decibels and frequencies alone without the cliché they come from, and knowing that they are coming from nothing, from an in-between, a cosmic void where there are no likes of Verdi and Strauss, they attacked aggressively and irresistibly without trying to explain themselves! TNSO are "nomads" by nature, bringers of joy and freedom that every other nomad posses. Freedom is where they get the power to feel at home wherever they perform.
TNSO is a culmination of talent and knowledge. As far back as the "Dolly Bell" movie, Kusturica is a very unusual cultural phenomenon, just as Dr Karajlic is on the rock scene. They have fused their common qualities through TNSO in an emotional, unexpected, exciting and once in a lifetime gathering. Had their attempt at this failed, Emir would have never become one of the greatest directors.
    These two artists are great because they see things in a different way compared to us mere mortals. 
They will be successful for as long as they want to, as the spring of their inspiration is eternal.

    Monograph "Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra" is an impressive documentary about the cities, countries and continents infected with the "Unza Unza" rhythm where people were privileged to discover Kusturica's artistic genius. All this was engraved for the future generations by the skilled owner of a photo camera, Dragan Teodorovic  Zeko, a photographer devoted to his work with Kusturica and Karajlic since the beginnings of their careers in 1985. Since then he grew from a fan to devoted supporter and witness to their career whose camera knows where and when to shoot. Where every miraculous moment makes their era priceless.

                                                                                                                                     Petar Popovic