Balkan.Perspectives #21

Exhibiting the Past – Western Balkans’ Museums and Dealing with the Past

The 21^st Balkan.Perspectives edition focuses on the museological landscapes in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Serbia. This edition seeks to discuss the respective cultures of remembrance of the violent dissolution of Yugoslavia, and their representation in the museums of the region. The articles and podcasts scrutinize museums as sites of remembrance, memorialization, and dealing with the past. However, museums are part of a discursive creation of history and thereby, constitute places of memory and history creation. Museums are not neutral and do not reflect objective realities. They are also agents within a dynamic set of processes in the context of nation building, contested histories, and the respective narratives. Therefore, this edition, with the authors and guests in the podcasts seeks to contribute to critical and diverse perspectives and approaches on the roles and functions of museums in the region, within the context of Dealing with the Past.

Hence, this edition collects various stances on museums and dealing with the past in the Western Balkans: Melina Sadiković’s contribution from Bosnia and Herzegovina outlines the connections between memory, time, and place, and sets the framework for the article of historian Elma Hašimbegović. Mrs Hašimbegović discusses in her article the power(lessness) of museums as societal actors for positive change in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Kosovo’s contributions to this edition include an article from Shkëlzen Gashi, who visited the museum in commemoration of the massacre of the Berisha family in Suharekë and thereby, reviews Kosovo’s museum landscape. On the other side, Nita Luci and Linda Gusia present their work with the Hertica Family School House and their project on a Virtual Reality Museum within the premises of the parallel school system in Kosovo. Ivana Hadzievska from North Macedonia discusses in her article the Macedonian museological landscape and practical questions. From Serbia, this Balkan.Perspectives edition features Ana Knežević’s article on the work of the Museum of African Art in Belgrade and the period of the 1990s. In her contribution, Nela Tonković analyses the challenges faced with foundation of the “Staro Sajmište” Memorial Centre.

This edition also includes a new Balkan.Perspectives Podcast series. As usual, you can listen and download the podcasts via our website www.dwp-balkan.org or via your preferred streaming service like Spotify, Google Podcast, or Apple Podcast. We would like to thank our partners, the production team behind and in front of the microphones and our guests who contributed to the podcasts. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, we thank Oslobođenje KUN, Đorđe Krajišnik, Mladen Banjac and Elma Hodžić. In Kosovo, we thank the Centre for Narrative Practice, TILLT Radio, Aulonë Kadriu and Nora Prekazi. In North Macedonia, we thank Radio MOF and Blagoja Varoshanec. In Serbia, we thank the radio show Ženergija on Radio Aparat and Ana Panic

The Balkan.Perspectives editorial team wishes you a pleasant read of the articles, analysis, and podcasts.

On behalf of the editorial team
Alexander Vojvoda
Editor-in-Chief

Balkan.Perspectives #21

Balkan.Perspectives Podcast

The Balkan Perspectives podcast is forumZFD’s audio format on Dealing with the Past and Peace Education in the Western Balkans. The podcast is produced in four languages (Albanian, BHCS, Macedonian and English) by the forumZFD offices in Bosnia and Hercegovina, […]

BALKAN PERSPECTIVES, Balkan.Perspectives #21

MEMORY POLITICS: new museums and new histories

Speaking in a TV interview in February 2022, the director of the Museum of Genocide Victims, historian Dejan Ristić, announced the start of the reconstruction of the Central Tower and the Italian Pavilion complex at Staro Sajmište. This construction would […]

BALKAN PERSPECTIVES, Balkan.Perspectives #21

The Architecture of the Dome at the Museum of African Art in Belgrade: A Machinery to Remember the Nineties

The history of museums, from their creation until today, testifies to how museums are regularly involved in the process of forming national identities and their constant reconstruction. International relations and conflicts between different communities and within them are usually completely […]

Balkan.Perspectives #21

The Power(lessness) of Museums and Spaces of Freedom in the Dealing with the Past Processes

(Based on a presentation titled “The Museum from the Front Line. The Power of Museums in Dealing with the Difficult Past: The Case of the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, General Conference of ICOM, Prague, August 2022.) “We used […]

Balkan.Perspectives #21, Uncategorized

Museums “in waiting”

The intensive geopolitical, social, and cultural changes that have marked the last two decades of the turbulent 20th century and the equally dynamic and dramatic start of the 21st century have followed closely the rapid development of information and communication […]

Balkan.Perspectives #21

The Making of the School-House Virtual Museum: Co-Creative and Participatory Research and Virtual Reality Experience

In May 2018, the Municipality of Prishtina announced that the house which saw the graduation of ten generations of high-school students between 1992 and 1999 would become a museum. This house is one of 3000 other locations throughout Kosova– including […]

Balkan.Perspectives #21

The Museums of Kosovo: A Case Study on the Museum in Remembrance of the Berisha Family in Suhareka

The Museologcial Landscape of Kosovo During the war in Kosovo in 1998-1999 there were grave violations of the international humanitarian law among the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the Serbian and Yugoslav police and military forces: massacres, murders, forced disappearances, […]

Balkan.Perspectives #21

Institutions of cultural memory – practical problems

Ivana Hadzievska, MSc I vividly remember my visit to the Museum of Technology and Maritime Affairs in Malmö (Teknikens och Sjöfartens Hus) in 2017. Soon after the visit, sorting out the impressions, I realized that the authors of the setting […]

Impressum 21 – 11/2022

Editor in Chief: Alexander Vojvoda

Editorial Team: Sunita Dautbegović-Bošnjaković, Martin Filipovski, Ana Pejović

Authors: Shkëlzen Gashi, Linda Gusia, Ivana Hadzievska, Elma Hašimbegović, Ana Knežević, Nita Luci, Melina Sadiković, Nela Tonković

Podcasts: Bosnia and Hercegovina: Đorđe Krajišnik, Oslobođenje KUN, Mladen Banjac and Elma Hodžić Kosovo: TILLT Radio, Aulonë Kadriu and Nora Prekazi North Macedonia: Radio MOF and Blagoja Varoshanec Serbia: radio show Ženergija on Radio Aparat and Ana Panic

Design (Cover page): Envinion

Translation: LBG Communications (Albanian), Luna Đorđević (BHCS), Martina Kimovska (Macedonian)

Proofreading: LBG Communications (Albanian/English), Zinaida Lakić (BHCS), Zanet Ristoska (Macedonian)