The exhibition titled “Andrić and We” held at the Birthplace of Ivo Andrić in Travnik marked December 10, the date on which Andrić was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 64 years ago.
The exhibition titled “Andrić and We” set up in the small Ex Ponto gallery on the ground floor of the “Ivo Andrić Birthplace” Museum in the Zenjak neighborhood of Travnik, and which contains only selected prints of the title pages of Andrić’s works, is a reminder of the most important date in his literary career, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in Stockholm 64 years ago. The exhibition on this occasion is only an excerpt from the one set up in Mostar to mark the 50th anniversary of Andrić’s death from the rich collection of Dr. Antonio Sesar.
“This is one of his tributes to Andrić’s literature, and we can see through these covers from all over the world, I would say, the worldliness of Ivo Andrić, so it can be seen from the translations and these editions that he is a world classic writer”, explained Enes Škrgo, curator of the “Ivo Andrić’s Birthplace” Museum.
Even 64 years after the awarding of the Nobel Prize, it is clear what it meant for the common country at that time, but also for world literature, and for his hometown Travnik, which he drew on the literary map of the world.
“Many years, a great jubilee, a great writer, which can mean for anyone in any form and in any place the perfection of the literary word, the perfection of storytelling”, pointed out Anto Bilić, quartermaster of HK Travnik.
An unseen miracle, says Škrgo, describing the importance of this date: “For world literature, I would say, the date when Ivo Andrić received the Nobel Prize for Literature – a great and important creation – as one Belgrade writer wrote about him, that it is ‘just as great as when Vizier Dzelaludin Pasha brought an elephant to Travnik, an unprecedented miracle’, and even today we celebrate and commemorate it for many reasons”, he concluded.
After more than six decades since that date, many things have happened in the world of literature, says Škrgo, but what is important is that Andrić’s name has remained alive, and that the interest in his literary works, which live and last by being read, is increasing every day. This is confirmed by the increasing interest and arrivals of fans of Andrić’s literary work from all over the world, Federalna writes.
