 |
"To be Besieged" - personal reflections by Suada Kapic |
|
"Sarajevo the City of the Future" |
|
"...Looking at Life and Wondering..." - FAMA Life Magazine |
|
"How to Survive, but also how to die in the city?" - Survival Guide review by Bora Cosic |
|
"Sarajevo's Art and Philosophy of Survival" - Baby Universe Festival |
| Presidential DOSSIERS - TV Political documentary overview: | |
|
Slobodan Milosevic (Serbia) |
|
Franjo Tudjman (Croatia) |
|
Alija Izetbegovic (Bosnia Herzegovina) |
| Newsletter Resource Center: | |
|
Survival Kit |
|
FAMA Updates |
|
Links |
|
||
"To be Besieged"Personal Reflections - by Suada Kapic |
||
| "To
be Besieged" - it is very difficult to comprehend that feeling for
those who never experienced it. It is a question of a physical limit
and special state of mind. The first strike is the hardest one to
bare, it is when the individual has to accept the fact that he is
being watched, controlled, and that they can see him in any situation
at any time. "To put one European city under the Siege at the end
of 20th century" it meant, in Sarajevo scenario, encompassing the
city with wide range of light and heavy arms on the surrounding hills
and use them to target the unarmed civilians. There was no safe zone
- a Sarajevan was exposed to the sniper fire and barrage of shells
at home, on the street, at school, in the park, at the hospital, in
the temples of worship - always exposed to invisible terrorists and
probable death. That is the platform that you as a reader has to adopt
in order to successfully comprehend and apply the feeling of what
it meant to be "under the Siege". If you accept these rules we can move on. Second stage of being "under the Siege" meant opposing the unlimited kinds of most sophisticated terror on the besieged civilians; leaving them without water, food, electricity, gas, petrol, heating, shops, paper, TV program, phones, transportation and etc.. - everything has been turned 180 degrees around. Civilization that we used to live in has ceased to exist. "To be Besieged" meant to accept the fact that nothing exists anymore, that death is more probable than life, and that the lifestyle that you used to have, has vanished, maybe forever. Third stage is known as a biological-humanistic-creative (BHC) approach to a new state of existence. The citizens of Sarajevo have discovered unbelievable human resources in humor, innovation, wit, and imagination as a degree of freedom against the terror. Daily life has revolved around very practical demands; as time and night/day changes have been regulated by rare short electricity supplies or by midnight rain when everybody would get up to collect the rainwater on the streets. Night has switched for a day as the citizens, under the disguise of darkness, protected themselves against the snipers while going out in great lengths to search for water supplies. The seasons throughout four years have been measured in sense of being able to collect food from the makeshift vegetable gardens, collect of twigs in the parks, or by using snow or rain as additional water source. Such circumstances have changed a state of mind for all of us. Spontaneously a need to establish some kind of balance in the midst of that chaos has emerged. Each of us have tried to bring its life in balance by bringing back their old lives in now changed conditions. That is how Sarajevo has experienced its greatest Cultural Boom during the longest siege in the modern history of mankind. Actors acted, writers wrote, sculptors sculpted, painters painted, journalist have published a newspaper, film directors have made movies, as much as the bankers and managers went to the banks and offices without phones and windows. Everybody has strived to maintain its former state of mind and normality. "To be Besieged", meant that you can not use telephones, printers, fax machines or anything else that requires electricity and enables the communication with the outside world. Unbelievable human effort has been invested in each sentence, painting, proposal, project and photo that has originated within the siege. An immense intelligence has been required with full concentration on how to find solutions in something impossible. A lot of good will, patience, and creativity was used to substitute for those life elements that were gone, managing with what is available and possible - and so little was possible to do or acquire to aid you in the work process. FAMA and myself have taken upon us to define a Survival Concept in all of its different forms. In an effort to collect information, photographs, and document this incredible experience we have developed a "puzzle strategy". By forming individual elements that have investigated different levels of the Siege Phenomenon in order to bring them together, at the end of a war, and create the most comprehensive picture on the Phenomenon of the Sarajevo Siege and the Collective Memory pertaining to Survival. So that now, in 1999, we are proud of the fact that we have successfully preserved the experience and knowledge on the event by placing it inside the traditional symbolic wooden box, "Sehara", as way of protecting and preserving its content as one of the 20th century miracles. In that course, FAMA has chosen publishing and exhibit installation as a media to collect-integrate-preserve the experience and the knowledge through our various projects such are; Survival Guide, FAMA Cultural News-letter, Survival Art Museum, FAMA Life magazine, Baby Universe Festival, Survival Map, and Mobile University - they were all created within the besieged Sarajevo as individual puzzle pieces. Awaiting the final completion of the Video-Archive "THE SIEGE" Sarajevo 92-96 to form a comprehensive chronological overview on one of the most important events that have shaped the world affairs on the brink of 21st century. As reminder to our Past and inspiration for our Future. Our choice of media has followed a Survival concept and all the derived forms have developed by itself, and were not influenced by the current circumstances. The best way to describe, the existential form of Survival, could be done in a Guide format, the siege line and movements in the city through a hand drawn map, a reconstruction of a living style through a exhibit installation, in education through Mobile University. "The End of War", has brought completely new state and it needs a new explanation. As we have shown that one can be effective in impossible conditions, we thought that we were special kind of people, so we have entered the post-war period completely unprepared. We have been warned about the possible consequences, but we just laughed, as we were the Survivors. Therefore, three years after the war the entire period was confusing due to its rapid changes. Now a civilization has been returning to its before 1992-1996 period. Electricity is back, stoves are working, TV is broadcasting, telephones are operating, water is running again, people are able to bathe in bath tubs, public transport is running, tons of cars are on the streets, shops and markets filled with food and goods, windows are glazed again, no more police curfew, you can send a fax without using a satellite phone, civilian airplanes are landing on the airport; all that was yet another strong hit for which we were not prepared to accommodate. That has brought a new state of mind. The people have expressed desires to have everything they had before the war, the same ones who have accepted the fact that they do not have anything during the siege, that they have to crawl through the rat tunnel in order to enter or exit their city - the only life line for food and medicine. Sudden need to have a car has made everyone purchase cheap old cars and drive up and down the streets that were not watched by the snipers anymore. Everybody wonted to make up for everything they did not have for all those years and reach other nations in their comfortable lifestyles. Of course that is not possible to accomplish and that wide gap between the people's desires and realistic expectations have broken many. People have exchanged intelligence, creativity, and invention for desires to attain money, house, and other consumer-culture commodities. That is the reflection of a post-war period during which FAMA has decided to start working on the Video-Archive project. An endeavor that lasted for two years, between 1996 and 1998. Once again we have changed our media formats and have entered to our pre-war electronic and digital media for preserving facts and evidence. As time progressed people have started to loose their memory and more importantly they wanted to put that horrible experience far behind them - to forget the same experience that they have turned into a Human Victory. That was the time when we had to work really fast and efficiently as to preserve all the memories and experiences on daily chronology on all the Siege levels; existential, cultural, anthropological, medical, historical, political, psychological, religious, legal, economic, educational, philosophical, human-rights, military, personal. The best way to preserve and project such experience and memories was through Video-Archive Personal Testimonials format - covering some 1350 topics, as survived by 453 Sarajevans. "The World needs Sarajevo experience!" Centuries of our civilization are made out of important experiences, some of them are lost forever in historical chaos and are turned to be useless for human race, while some in a form of a "Chip" programmed in human brain are being passed on from generation to generation. The experience means lessons and instructions on how to react and survive if found in similar situation - if such an experience already occurred in the past. Book by Daniel Defo "Robinson Cruso" is ultimately one of the classics. When reading the book, in the past, one did not even think that it could be found in a similar situation. The main character founds himself stranded on an inhabited unknown island. All of his knowledge and experience were of no use to its current situation. He has invented means to bring himself back to life and to survive. This book has to cross into the 21st century as one of the human achievements in glory of human ability to use its intelligence in order to survive in this cruel world. In that way four year long siege of Sarajevo can definitely be viewed as one of the world miracles, measured mostly by human achievements. Were human mind and humanity has victoriously defeated the human evil and terror. Sarajevo with its form of living has chosen a culture as its defense weapon against the intentional terror becoming a hope for mankind. The citizens were walking the streets under the barrage of shells and sniper fire to conduct their daily survival tasks, attend theater plays and exhibitions as means to defend a human civilization. In numerous ways we have thought of survival on its existential level; light lamps, heating, recipes, communication are some of the very important elements for future use when other civilizations are under the danger to disappear as a result of climate changes or human factor. Sarajevo has proven that one Grand European City can survive despite total destruction with all points of entry and exits to the city closed. To survive and stay civilized and human and even create achievements in the philosophy of living, mental therapy, and the art creations. Sarajevo was an object of world media coverage, every part of the city has been recorded, every story written, thousands of journalists around the city have entered and exited the city by UN humanitarian planes. Every death has been recorded. World media has followed disappearance of Sarajevo and its strong fight for Survival. Due to their four year long influence on world politicians and the ordinary citizens, who could not sleep any more because of the horrific pictures that were coming into their lives and home, by daily coverage of the event. Sarajevo has been finally de-blockaded after four years. If there were not for media this horrific fight between the good and the evil would not have been seen in the world and Sarajevo would have disappeared. The world media have raised voices, awakened consciences and have influenced political decisions. Local media beside several radio stations and dally newspaper of Oslobodjenje had almost no electricity or communication with rest of the world. Radio has shown all the benefits in contrast to other media. Those voices from the boxes have kept Sarajevans awake hoping to hear some news of encouragement and that they are not alone in the world. Radio is the only media that has deserved to move on to 21st century. Radio stations were playing music, they were operating on accumulators, they brought guests from around the world, had coverage of world news, and the radio was always beside a Sarajevan. Radio, bike, and rice have kept the city going. Digital library is a future - but if its existence and accessibility depends on regular and secure supply of electrical energy. In case of severe disruption its importance my be lost. Digitalization of experience and memory is not a warranty that they will be preserved. Our experience has shown that in times of total destruction nothing can be preserved but the human brain. As in the movie "Farenhajt" that speaks about the people who were forbidden to own and read the books. Some of them have isolated themselves on the island and each of them had a task to memorize one book. Someone knew Dostojewski, some Thomas Mann, and some Hemigwey by heart. Therefore the human knowledge and memory has been preserved. Only the human "CHIP" will remain as everything that man has created is at risk to be destroyed. Therefore a digitalization of memory - is efficient and secure when the civilization is mowing forward and reaching its peak, but not when facing itŐs destruction! We have to digitize our memory from the past NOW in order to provide efficient learning channels for the current and future generations to learn and apply the knowledge into their conducts and therefore assure that our Collective Global Memories will be always preserved no matter what the future will bring. Personal reflections by; Suada Kapic Director, FAMA International Back to Top |
||
HOME / SITE MAP / WHO IS FAMA / FAMA TIMELINE / FEATURE PROJECTS: VIDEO ARCHIVE / SURVIVAL MAP/ ORDER NOW / WHAT'S NEW / CONTACT / SURVIVAL KIT / FAMA E-CLUB / FAMA FOUNDATION / MIRROR OF TIME-NEWSLETTER / REFERENCES / LINKS / INTERNAL LINKS |