SARAJEVO, April 3 (FENA) – The program of marking the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo, organized by the Assembly and Government of the Sarajevo Canton, together with cantonal cultural institutions, includes a diverse program aimed at nurturing a culture of remembrance, but also as symbolic support to Ukrainian cities.
The Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Canton Edin Forto, the Minister of Culture and Sports Samir Avdćc, the Director of Sarajevo National Theater Dino Mustafić, the Director of the Bosnian Cultural Center Jasmin Duraković and the Director of the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra Vedran Tuce addressed the press conference where they discussed the commemoration program.
Forto said on this occasion that this past month has revived the traumas and memories of the war in the citizens of Sarajevo.
“When I try to understand what it is like today for the people in the besieged cities in Eastern Europe and to what extent we can put ourselves in their position, being razed to the ground, without electricity, without running water, without basic food and without real help and hope when all this would end, it is so important to think about this 30-year anniversary since the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo as something that is more relevant than ever. Not because 30 years have passed, but because we have to go back to that period, we have to try to tell what had happened, how we felt back then,” said Forto, adding that fascism does not sleep and if we fall asleep it will come again.
Dino Mustafić reminded that Sarajevo is a city that defended itself with an intensive artistic life.
He said that the National Theater, together with other cultural institutions, will join a multimedia program titled “The Siege of Sarajevo – Days of Remembrance 1992-2022”, which will last from April 4 to 9.
“April is a special month for us Sarajevans, it is an almost metaphysical month in which the dates of April 4, 5, 6 are connected to the recent and distant past of this city. Sarajevo was bombed on April 6, 1941, and on the same day, four years later, Sarajevo was liberated, and on the night of April 5 to 6, the longest siege in modern history began, lasting 1,425 days,” said Mustafić.
He reminded that during that siege, several thousand art programs and various content were performed, which were watched by more than half a million people.
Mustafić pointed out that the engagements of BiH artists, as well as solidarity and the arrival of artists from the region and abroad were those moments of our sublimity, solidarity which, with the resistance of the defenders, held our faith in a cosmopolitan, European and open Sarajevo.
He underlined that today Kyiv is a city that also suffers like other Ukrainian cities that are exposed to terror and siege.
“So, once again we will confirm how sensitized we are as an artistic community, and as a society, to the sufferings and victims of others. We must not calculate and we must not be politically pragmatic, but we must be guided by our moral reflexes,” said Mustafić.
The director of the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, Vedran Tuce, announced that the work of Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov “A Prayer for Ukraine” will be performed at the concert on April 4.
