Artists as ambassadors Sarajevo 2009

I got my first impression of Sarajevo from the cab-drive from the airport. An old Mercedes with no seatbelts, 30 degrees and no air-condition. The cultural clash between Norway and Bosnia & Herzegovina was a fact. Best to forget all I know about safety in traffic and saving the planet. But the driver was nice, he didn’t speak English, but we communicated through gesticulation.
I arrived to the apartment where I lived during my stay in Sarajevo together with Jon-Martin Kolnes and Vedrana Rajic (architects from Norway). The apartment is located in the communistic area, Cengic Vila I. The surroundings have visual wounds from the war, but people seem to not notice them anymore.
The workshop took place at the National Museum of Bosnia & Herzegovina, 5 tram stops from the apartment. The tram is said to be the first in Europe, built in 1885. The museum is a classical building with a lovely botanical garden in the middle. Actually this was the coolest place to be when the temperature crawled to 38 degrees. The Norwegian group (me, Jon-Martin Kolnes, Vedrana Rajic, Roger Gjerstad and Arne Rygg) met with the Bosnian art group Vizionarsko drustvo to discuss artists as ambassadors and the home and identity. All participators have their own story, their own experience on the theme. Some has fled from war, some have lost near family members and many other ways of shaking up what you think of as yourself, part of yourself, where you come from and who you are today.
We had a public event at the end of the workshop, and a lot of artists, architects and other people came to join us in the garden.
My stay in Sarajevo was hectic and good, and I hope to go back some time to see more of the surroundings, the Bosnian landscape.