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"To be Besieged" - personal reflections by Suada Kapic |
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"Sarajevo the City of the Future" |
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"...Looking at Life and Wondering..." - FAMA Life Magazine |
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"How to Survive, but also how to die in the city?" - Survival Guide review by Bora Cosic |
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"Sarajevo's Art and Philosophy of Survival" - Baby Universe Festival |
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Sarajevo's Art and Philosophy of Survival |
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Two-an-a-half years into the war, our city of Sarajevo has stabilized.
We have created a new city, a new way of life, and a new philosophy
of living within this post-cataclysmic environment. The 2,000 shells
falling per day brought destruction, theft, black-market, death. The
war destroyed the hardware of civilization - buildings, water, electricity,
gas lines. Sarajevo, however, has not died. Under this destruction
exists a thin line of purity. People work in spite of the terror and
nothingness to retain the essential elements of this society and community.
We have survived so far because we integrated humor and innovation into every part of our life. The essentials of humanity have distilled into the obvious, such as food and water, and more subtly, community and art. Art significantly improved our spiritual strength, even in the worst imaginable conditions. All artistic forms, models, techniques, the new and the old, were important during all levels of survival, even the most fundamental. Creativity provided us with mental freedom, which in turn encouraged the spirit of tolerance and multiculturalism. With this renewed ethical approach towards living, our minds cleared and we once again felt like human beings capable of a free flow of emotions. Sarajevo is an example of freedom in process. Our ability to exit out of nothing is a mirror image to Steven HawkingÕs physical theory - the disintegration of stars creates the appearance of nothingness, but within this nothingness is a black hole, an exit. The siege Sarajevo experienced will happen elsewhere in the world during the 21st century. Sarajevo is a hopeful example for the future, a self contained model of how an urban city anywhere can survive a modern cataclysm. The knowledge and skills accumulated during the siege has the potential to inspire and prepare the world for the 21st century. Everything is possible. Subsisting on the bare necessities, Sarajevo no longer uses pesticides or creates much pollution. We are realizing AmericaÕs New Age objectives of health, ecology, agricultural awareness, recycling, and self-sufficiency. But this perfect model of survival can only be realized through the support of the international community. Sarajevo needs the technology, education, and cultural information from rest of the world. And the world needs SarajevoÕs experience and knowledge. We are all ready for the isolation to end and for this exchange to take place. The Baby Universe Festival Summer 1994, Sarajevo Back to Top |
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