“Once we, now they” is the name of the humanitarian campaign launched by the Association Pomozi.ba a month and a half ago, in order to collect aid for the Syrian refugees who have been through calvary while escaping from the war in their country and searching for safe ground. Numerous artists joined the campaign, and organized an emotional performance “We were also refugees once” last night.
“I was a student; I was, until the killing started, the killing of colleagues, professors, doctors, mothers, fathers, children, friends, acquaintances… They say we were lucky that 32 of us arrived to safe ground in a dinghy. Safe… What is safe is only hunger, stench, snatching of the money, and humiliation and fear of what next? Fear of suffocating in one of the cold storages on the roads of the EU”, those are parts of the emotional recital with which the performance held last night at the gallery AMI in Sarajevo started.
The performance was held in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Sport of the Sarajevo Canton, and a selling exhibition of the BH artists Sulejman Memo Haljevac and Amar Ajdinovic was also held. The idea is international and includes artists from the region, and from B&H they are Suada Ahmetasevic, Amar Ajdinovic, Sulejman Haljevac, Nadzija Haljevac, Izudin Aleckovic, Almir Hukelic, and many others.
“The art should not be set aside, and it cannot be. Everything that happens in the world is what touches upon art. My family was a refugee family, my family suffered in this war. I was wounded and I lost two brothers. My wife managed to immigrate to Germany with our son. I held exhibitions on war and exile across Germany. That theme and suffering are present throughout my creative work. I can say to the fullest that I sympathize with people who are now experiencing that Golgotha. I think this is the least I can do”, said the artist Izudin Aleckovic.
Anera Junuzovic from Pomozi.ba thanked everyone for help and pointed out that over 40 tons of aid was delivered to the refugees so far.
“We will not stop here. Already next week we are again visiting the location where the refugees are concentrated the most in order to deliver aid, because it was us once, now it’s them”, said Junuzovic.
Afterwards, the artists read a letter of support by the friends from Sicily who hosted three of the BH citizens during the war in B&H, and who organized the same campaign for the help to the BH refugees.
“Dear friends in Sarajevo, it’s been a while since the echo of grenades above Sarajevo brought three of your citizens and friends to Sicily to tell us about your resistance and courage. Those friends, together with the citizens of Sarajevo, are renewing the bravery and sensibility towards human life by giving their contribution through volunteer engagement in helping the people who are escaping from the Syrian war. It is admirable that you have the strength to open the doors of pain by helping the refugees. Next to you, we should be ashamed for lacking such courage”, it was stated in the letter.
The artist Amar Ajdinović, illustrator and caricaturist, thanked everyone who contributed to this performance.
(Source: klix.ba/ photo nap)
