After stops in Rovereto, Belgrade and Zagreb, in November “Sarajevo 1992–1996 – The Longest Siege” arrives in Bosnia and doubles up: the photography exhibition opened in Sarajevo on 2 November 2026. At the same time, a second edition of the exhibition will open in Genoa at Palazzo Ducale on 11 November.
Thirty years after the end of the siege, Mario Boccia’s photographs are returning to the city where they were taken.
The exhibition “Sarajevo 1992–1996 – The Longest Siege” will open on Monday, 2 November 2026 at the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It will remain on display until the end of November.
Curated by the Italian War History Museum in Rovereto (MITAG) and Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT), an operational unit of the Centre for International Cooperation, the exhibition brings together some fifty black-and-white photographs taken during the siege. Rather than images of shootings and wounded people, they show the daily life of Sarajevo’s residents, civil resistance, and the dignity people held on to even in the darkest moments. Mario Boccia was Il Manifesto’s correspondent during the Yugoslav wars. He also published in Italian and European media and provided his reportage to UN agencies and many NGOs.
Sarajevo is the next stop of a long journey. First shown at Rovereto Castle in the first half of 2023, the exhibition drew thousands of visitors. Between December 2025 and February 2026 it was hosted in Belgrade by the Muzej Devedesetih (Museum of the Nineties), the new museum devoted to a critical reappraisal of the 1990s, just a short walk from the Serbian parliament.
In May this year the exhibition moved to Zagreb, to the Italian Cultural Institute, where more than a hundred people attended the opening as part of the Kliofest history festival, in the presence of the Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia and former Deputy Mayor of Sarajevo Anja Margetić. The exhibition remained open until September, once again attracting strong interest from the public and the press. This success shows the significance of a cultural initiative that began in Rovereto, City of Peace.
In Sarajevo, the journey takes on a special meaning. Over the years, several people Boccia photographed during the siege have contacted him to let him know they survived. At the opening, the photographer will meet some of them again: an encounter that promises to be deeply moving, closing the circle between those who documented the siege and those who lived through it.
“I have never been welcomed so warmly anywhere in the world,” Boccia said of Sarajevo.
During the exhibition, the Sarajevo museum will host a series of events, some of them with the photographer taking part. The exhibition is travelling as part of the European project TRANCITYONS, led by the University of Bologna with OBCT as a partner, and co-funded by the European Union.
On 11 December the exhibition will also open in Genoa at Palazzo Ducale, where it will remain on display until 13 December, it was stated by the OBC Transeuropa in the press release.
