For the Defiance issue of DSCENE Magazine, we unveil a special cover by photographer Riccardo Dubitante, featuring the student protesters who have, for over six months, redefined the terms of resistance in Serbia. In an unprecedented act of collective organization, students across the country have occupied their universities through deliberate coordination and structure rather than disorder. Their demands are concrete: government transparency, justice for victims of state neglect, increased funding for education, and accountability across public institutions.
But beyond the demands, a new form of civic practice has taken shape. Inside the blocked faculties, students have created fully functioning, self-governed communities with roles for media, cleaning, security, and food, assigned not by authority, but by willingness. Lecture halls have become sleeping quarters. Libraries now double as forums for debate. Each building runs on plenums: open, horizontal assemblies where every student has an equal voice.
PRE-ORDER IN PRINT AND DIGITAL
In a rare and in-depth interview, DSCENE Magazine editor Katarina Doric meets with the students inside the occupied buildings to hear what life under protest looks and feels like from within. The result is a portrait defined by defiance, grounded in mutual care, endurance, and collective vision. These students are not waiting for change to be granted, they are building it, one shared decision at a time.
From marches across cities to marathons to Brussels, their movement has made headlines. But the heart of it remains in the quiet conviction of daily life inside the blockades. It is there, among hand-painted banners and stacks of donated food, that a new future is being rehearsed in real time.
This cover marks the starting point of a larger project. In April and May, Katarina and Riccardo spent two weeks with the students, inside occupied universities and at mass protests across Serbia, to document the story firsthand. The full documentary feature, tracing the evolution of the blockades and the communities built within them, will be released soon as part of the new issue.
