Milomir Kovačević Strašni’s photography exhibition, “Culture at War: Sarajevo 1992-1995,” opened on Tuesday evening at the Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina and will run until May 23. The exhibition focuses on cultural production in wartime circumstances, created despite everyday violence, destruction and isolation.
During the siege of Sarajevo, cultural activities were part of public life, but they also shaped the way the city was perceived outside its borders. The work of Milomir Kovačević Strašni remains one of the key visual records of that period.
“Everything that was done was done to be the best because there was no choice. You don’t know whether you will be alive tomorrow or not, and when you experience that bottom, you can appreciate this much more. I think we have created a great exhibition that really reflects the spirit of Sarajevo, the resistance to that evil time,” said photographer Milomir Kovačević Strašni.
Art may not have the power to change the world, but what has always been in the hands of cultural workers – and what the artists of the 90s have proven – is the ability to point the finger at the reality that surrounds them without compromise.
“War is like war, a snake wags its tail. You never know when your head will be hit, but you count on the fact that your face is in your hands and that there is some incredible energy, some incredible inner impetus to oppose the monster with what is most noble and beautiful in us, like Andrić’s story “Aska and the Wolf”, “says the director of the Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina Strajo Krsmanović.
More than 3,000 works of art, dozens of concerts and exhibitions were created as an act of resistance. This exhibition is therefore a necessary reminder that culture is not a mere aesthetic that we consume in our free time, but a key tool with which society, despite destruction, preserves and confirms its integrity, Federalna writes.
