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Friday, April 6 2012 By bbecares | Society | no comment
By Maja Prelevic
20 years ago on this day, I learned __what fear is. __ Tonight, 20 years ago I will spend my fist night in the basement because the war is starting.
20 years ago I lost my childhood.
Today, the streets of Sarajevo will be marked with 11541 red chairs marking each person that died out of which 643 were children... just as I was... 20 years ago.
Wednesday, March 28 2012 By bbecares | Society | no comment
By Adis Hukanović
In December 2010 the UN General Assembly designated March 24 as the International Day for the Right to Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. This year ICTJ like to mark the day by drawing the world's attention to the importance of the right to truth through a multimedia campaign titled "Can We Handle the Truth?"
The campaign presents five aspects of truth-seeking: truth commissions, judicial truth, the search for the missing, memory, and documentation.
You can find the video in the following link:
For more information about the Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims, here is the text of ICTJ:
Right to the Truth
March 24, 2012 marks the second annual International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims.
On this day countries of the world recognize that victims of atrocity have the right to know the truth about the abuses they suffered. Any person who has suffered atrocities has the unalienable right to know who is responsible; any family whose members have disappeared has the basic right discover their fate and whereabouts; every society where these crimes have taken place have the right to learn their history without lies or denial.
This date was selected by the UN General Assembly to commemorate the life and death of leading rights advocate, Msgr. Arnulfo Romero, Archbishop of El Salvador. He was assassinated on March 24, 1980 for speaking truth to power in El Salvador, demanding justice and peace for his fellow citizens.
Governments indeed have the duty to uphold the right to truth. A state must counter denials of abuse by preserving documents and opening archives. These records can inform truth commissions, courts of law, memorials, and searches for the disappeared—all of which serve to uncover and recognize the truth about what happened.
At the same time, truth and memory are not just a matter of state policy. They are also the responsibilities of any society striving for security, equality, peace.
Around the world, civil society, including victims’ groups, is making contributions to finding and telling the truth, sometimes clashing with the powers-that-be interested in keeping silence and fear alive. This resistance, against silence, against fear, has allowed for truth-seeking to expand and evolve, helping begin to make the promise of “never again!” a reality.
ICTJ joins in commemorating this promise by showing how the right to the truth can be implemented. We have provided examples from five countries where governments or civil society are currently taking action: searching for the disappeared in Lebanon; documenting mass crimes in Indonesia; using courts of law in Bosnia-Herzegovina; developing a truth commission in Kenya; and honoring the memory of victims in Colombia.
Monday, January 23 2012 By bbecares | Cultural activities | no comment
Author: Merima Spahić
Lidija Pisker have sent to us this article about Zdena Pisker, the only artist in Bosnia and Herzegovina who produces encaustic paintings, i.e. using an iron to produce her paintings.
A few years ago, the sixty-year-old Zdena Pisker from Zenica read an article in a magazine claiming that using an iron to paint is a form of stress relief. Before that, she never knew that this painting technique was known as encaustic painting.
Pisker became interested in the technique after her father’s death and she says she simply fell in love with this form of art. “I think I have always been creative but I had never painted before. Then I heard about encaustic painting and I began to browse the internet,” said Pisker in an interview with Southeast Europe: People and Culture. “That’s how I began painting with an iron. Encaustic painting is an old, forgotten technique. I use my iron to paint with a mixture of hot wax and pigment.”
Early in her artistic career, the greatest obstacle was the shortage of paper and paints. She used normal wax crayons and her friends and relatives provided her with small travel-size irons.
The paper Pisker uses to paint on is special and does not absorb the paints but it was not available in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Then an artist from Belgium heard about Pisker’s situation and offered to send the paints and the right paper to her.
Zdena Pisker has become a recognised artist and is helping to promote this form of art in her country. In her hands, the iron simply glides along the surface of the paper and in the space of only a few minutes the melted wax crayons turn into beautiful paintings.
“In order to work in this technique you can use your iron or some other household appliance with a heat regulator. But the iron is the perfect choice as it has a smooth underside, which helps spread the paint over paper, stone, wood, glass or another material that does not absorb wax. I melt the wax crayons and then use the iron to apply them to paper. I literally use the iron instead of a paintbrush,” said Pisker.
Until recently she only created paintings for herself as a way to relax and enjoy the creative process, but over the last few months she decided to promote encaustic painting more widely, especially because her friends and family loved her paintings.
Pisker set up an art studio under the name of Pegla Umjesto Kista (Iron Instead of Brush) and she has regular exhibitions in the Zenica Town Museum as well as at art bazaars and exhibitions around Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Her first independent exhibition entitled Sjećanja (Memories) took place in mid-2011 at the Zenica Town Museum. The artist said, “The exhibition is called Sjećanja because it is an attempt to revive the memories of encaustic painting, the forgotten technique.”
During her exhibitions, Zdena Pisker often provides a practical demonstration of this technique for visitors and allows a few audience members to attempt to make a few strokes using an iron instead of a paintbrush.
In addition, the artist regularly organises free workshops in Zenica, where she teaches young people how to paint in this fashion. Twice a month, as a part of a creative school programme, primary school students get a chance to discover this unusual painting technique and produce their first paintings. “Young people seem to be the ones most keen on painting in this way,” said Pisker.
Over the last few years, encaustic painting has made a comeback around the world and Pisker has been very successful in bringing this interesting technique closer to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as people from the surrounding countries.
Zdena Pisker needs but a few minutes to produce a small work of art. She paints landscapes and she says she simply lets her hand guide the iron across the paper.
Source: http://www.southeast-europe.eu/articles/art0/zdena-pisker.html
Thursday, January 19 2012 By Aldin | no comment
by Saša Draganić
“On Wednesday the 28th of December 2011, after almost 130 years of work, the National Museum will be closed.” is a phrase which is circling social networks during the past few hours. The National Museum is not just a building which serves for inquisitive tourists to take pictures or high schools to organize tours. The National Museum, for 130 years, has become part of the collective spirit of Sarajevo, one of the most authentic attractions of the city life.
Without this structure, for some non-essential at first, Sarajevo is less Sarajevo, Bosnia is less Bosnia, and all roads lead to the hoist of shopping centers. What follows is the replacement of cultural heritage with enormous buildings which will represent a link between us and our beloved Europe. After that, Sarajevo will be exactly the same as the whole modern world; there will be no need to physically travel anywhere because all will be the same. Thematic exhibitions and rich collections will become a thing of the primitive past.
The saddest thing of all is the fact that the National Museum functioned during both World Wars, and now, in peace, it is being closed. Our identity card, our birth certificate is being destroyed. While megalomaniac sums are being given for Festivals, Winters, Nights, our tradition is falling into oblivion along with our culture and education. For all the uninitiated – this institution has recorded the history of all of us for years, no matter what outfit we wore. Culture is transnational. So, before you start to organize yourselves into the three well-known groups and turn away from this problem, think about our common past. If we had been smarter, others would have never planned our future, nor would they have leveled everything that was “not appropriate” for our society to the ground. We would have decided everything ourselves.
At a press conference, held on the 28th of December, the Director of the National Museum, Mr. Adnan Busuladžić, clearly explained what the problem is. The gentlemen in armchairs are obviously tired of funding culture. Workers have not received salaries for months, but the most important thing is that we daily see shiny cars with red and blue rotations throughout Sarajevo, rushing across our streets to destinations where more important meetings are held. We voted for politicians with calculators, rather than for those with education. Now we are destined to suffer, if we do not want to make an effort for something better.
These days, the closure of other cultural institutions such as the Historical Museum, the National Library, Kinoteka is emphasized. The chairman of the Board of the National Museum Prof. Dr. Munib Maglajlić stresses that politicians need to urgently wake up (when the government is formed, of course) and prevent the collapse of the B&H culture. When the ruling parties, without exception, stop acting like ostriches, people will wake up and moral support will ascend. To be rational, the number of people who care about culture is kept to a minimum. Money exists, but it is not invested in a real benefit.
While mentioning this institution and reprehending the gentlemen of the government, we have to think a little about our characteristics. “A hundred people, a hundred characters”, as we say it in this country. While some eagerly await tomorrow’s peaceful protests, others do not even care about the Museum. In our small country, more important things were always who cheated on whom and who had more brown banknotes in their pocket. For years we stand on a broken treadmill. While everyone is moving forward, we seem buried as a stećak in one place. This sounds contradictory to the above, of course, but Bosnia and Herzegovina needs to change in certain aspects and decisions should be made by the people, not some unimportant figures which will destroy this small amount of tradition we have left. As we drink countless coffees every day and gossip neighbors from the second floor, very important things
are passing us by. Some are getting rich, others are laughing at us. Some are hiding our past in a chest, far away from us and our children, so no one sees that we ever existed. When I think about it, Franz Ferdinand was more indebted to this city and the mentioned institution, than all of our politicians.
Saturday, December 24 2011 By bbecares | Society | no comment
By Bárbara Bécares
The country is well known for host people from 3 different religious. What happens in a moment of an important celebration in Europe as is Christmas?
Bosnia and Herzegovina is probably the most multicultural country in Europe with three big religions living inside of one country: Muslims, Orthodox and Catholics.
Christmas is one of the most popular celebrations in the continent, well known for being a period of big and delicious dinners in family, presents and, as publicity says, also happiness. But finally, Christmas is a religious event that commemorates the birth of Jesus, the son of God, according to the Christians.
For this reason, Catholics celebrate these days, while for Muslims is just some day more in the calendar. For the Orthodox, their Christmas and Old New Year comes 15 days later according to their calendar and they gather with their families on 6th January every year.
The Catholics, normally living in Herzegovina, “are very traditional”, according to Ana Marija, who is born in the city of Capljna. She explains that her family goes, as a lot of other families of this region, to church at midnight to celebrate the beginning of Christmas and also go in the morning to a mass. After the religious meeting, “we go to my grandma's for a traditional lunch where my uncles and aunts come too; afterwards we go to our house and spend some time together, talking and just enjoying the Christmas time in family”.
Amila, from the Muslim town of Visoko says that her family, as is normal, do not celebrate anything on 24th but she “has few friends that are Catholics” so Amila “calls them to wish them merry Christmas and they bring some Christmas cookies to eat them together”.
Adis is originally from Sanski Most, a Muslim town in the north of Bosnia and he has celebrated it several times. Adis was living some years with his family in Germany and he has “some family members that are Catholic”. He explains that “while I was in Germany, we celebrated like everyone else. My uncle used to dress up as Santa Claus and we received gifts and I also went few times to the church with some friends”. Now he does not celebrate it anymore in the last years but he still sends sms to his closest Catholics friends to send them good wishes.
Hana does not belong to a religious family but she has already celebrated this event with a friend and her friend’s family a couple of years ago, when they went to a church the night before Christmas. According to Hana, inhabitant of Sarajevo, “it is not unusual, if you have friends who are religious to celebrate with them”.
Ordinary people respect the traditions more than the political system do
Hana explains that, as the educational systems are different in the different regions of the country, it also can change the calendar of vacation. In the University of Sarajevo, where majority are Muslims, in the Faculty where she studies, “our exams are put from the 23rd until the 31st”, one of those exams, in on 26th, just after the weekend of Christian, when the Catholic students will want to celebrate with their families.
Hana explains that in Sarajevo, on the other hand, “in Ramadan, it can happen that you have a whole week free”. In her opinion, ordinary people respect the traditions more than the political system do.
But always in Bosnia, everything has to be related with politics and it is usual to use any excuse to finally foment their differences. For this reason, Hana explains that in Herzegovina, “the Croatian and the Muslim parts are exaggerating with the religious holidays, just to be in a fight with each other”. That means that “during the Ramadan, the Muslim part had two or three days more than we in Sarajevo” and in Croatia there are holidays during Christmas, while in Sarajevo there are not.
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