ART, MEMORY AND THE MUSEUM: ARTISTIC RESPONSES TO ‘BESIEGED SARAJEVO’
ART, MEMORY AND THE MUSEUM: ARTISTIC RESPONSES TO ‘BESIEGED SARAJEVO’

Summary/Abstract: During 2017-2018, the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HMBiH) collaborated with researchers from King’s College London, University of the Arts London and the London School of Economics and Political Science in launching an open call for artists to produce work that engaged with the Museum’s exhibition and extensive collection relating to the Siege of Sarajevo. ‘Besieged Sarajevo’ was the main permanent exhibition in a Museum fighting to stay afloat, with little or no public funding. It was also a powerful symbol of the Museum’s significance in the cultural landscape of Bosnia and Hercegovina (BiH) and the strength of its vision. That vision included opening up the exhibition, and the Museum, to new audiences and innovative research, as well as collaboration and an open call. The resulting series of exhibitions, RECONCILIATIONS, was part of this wider effort. Both the research process and engagement with the artists along with the artwork that was created as a result fostered dialogical interpretations of the Museum’s collections, new understandings of the Siege and novel ways of approaching reconciliation. In this article, we discuss the research process, the open call, and the interventions of four artists in response to ‘Besieged Sarajevo’.

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