Panel Session: Concealed in Plain Sight
Transcribing transitional justice data between remembrance and erasure
When peace finally comes and weapons cool down, an inevitable emotional weight blankets new seeds of hope planted within furrows of our memory traces. Public memory spans generations and as such weaves the past into the everyday existence of post-conflict society in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The framework of the judicial archives can serve not only as a tool for facing contested narratives and prevention of future similar atrocities, but also as an integral part of transforming fragmented sites of remembrance into visible experiential episodes.
This panel will deliver four case-study lectures to create a poignant visual narrative, followed by panel discussion to facilitate a dialog beyond the ordinary expectations of memorialization.
Bitter Land: Mapping the Hidden Gravesites of the Yugoslav Wars
Nejra Mulaomerović
Bitter Land is the first multimedia database that provides information on the locations of mass graves discovered in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, and Serbia related to the 1990s wars. While countless persons responsible for the crimes remain unpunished, many mass grave locations have been ploughed for agricultural use, sold off for new business development, or used as trash dumps. Three decades since the war survivors’ testimonies convey enduring grief and despondency over the failed transitional justice implementations.
Herbarium
Ismar Čirkinagić
Herbarium encapsulates experiences of both mapping of personal trauma and documenting collective remembrance. Plants collected from the mass graves and pressed to tell their story parallel the process of exhumation where often only fragments, and not full bodies, are discovered.
Forgotten Battlefield: [re]Interpretation of time, place and memory
Selma Ćatović Hughes
Forgotten Battlefield is an investigative study using the archives to draw a parallel between an individual quest for fragments of the past and an open platform to sustain collective multigenerational memory. Relying on intimate experience of retracing her father’s steps to the frontline, the author analyzes layers of deconstructed memory, archival fragments, and readjusted contested narratives to (re)embrace the past.
There Is No One To Harvest Them
Anita Karabašić
There Is No One To Harvest Them is a symbol for the aftermath of war and a protest against eradication of the genocidal narrative. The series of ceramic indigenous fruit embody remembrance of 102 children killed in Prijedor whose names are not allowed to be publicly – or permanently – commemorated. An homage to gardens and trees, the collection of objects contains hidden marks for factual statistics and displays them subtly yet openly.
Speakers
Nejra Mulaomerović is a researcher, producer and manager working in civil society sector with focus on transitional justice, memorialization, and cultural production. She works as a Program Manager at the Balkan Transitional Justice initiative at BIRN Hub, coordinating teams and assisting in the implementation of programs across all the network’s platforms. Nejra is based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Ismar Čirkinagić is a visual artist. Most of his artistic practice is thematically related to socio-political context. It is mainly produced in the form of conceptual installations, consisting of videos, photos, texts and object-based elements. His earlier works resulted from extensive research on war and the post-war period in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which focused on the violent process of disintegration of society and its postulates. Ismar lives and works between Copenhagen, Denmark and Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Selma Ćatović Hughes grew up in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her ongoing research about memory began as a subconscious form of therapy and her artistic practice of visual arts is a collection of individual and collective voices of memory. Her artistic practice and academic research delve into issues about memory, transitional justice accountability, difficult histories, and identity. Selma holds Master in Architecture and currently is a PhD researcher in Cultural History at the University of Turku, Finland.
Anita Karabašić is a designer and visual artist from Austria of Bosnian origin, based in the Netherlands. Graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy (Rotterdam, NL) with an interactive ceramic installation based on the notion of commemorative monuments, researching the significance of commemorative rituals.