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Sarajevo

TO THE ARTISTS OF THE WORLD

You bastards!

Come to Sarajevo and work here. Or just come and spend your holidays here. It is just perfect! The phone won’t be bothering you, because there are no telephone lines. This is a place far from bloody civilization. No electricity, no water, no food, only condoms. While you make the fog the real life and the real death are happening here.

You bastards! We challenge you to make a real piece of art. Come to Sarajevo and make your masterpiece here in the center of the world, in the most significant city on this planet. Move your fucking asses and make something real. Raise your voice against fascism, save some human lives, feed the soul of people in pain, tell the world that the aesthetics is nothing but a lie if the art cannot face the horror of the so called civilization at the end of the XX century. You bastards! Don’t be stupid! Stop making excuses! Don’t let the art sink in a shity conformism.

You dear lovers, our only alies, you lonely riders! Come to Sarajevo. We can make it!

Be a man.

Sarajevo Artistic Survival

INTERNATIONAL THEATRE AND FILM FESTIVAL SARAJEVO

M. Tita 54

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

phone/fax 471 549

satellite fax (1) 412 339 47 63

Dear Friend,

we are sending to you some materials about our work in Sarajevo. We try to resist the disaster around us. There are the reasons to believe that our actions can help the lifting of the siege of Sarajevo what is the key for the survival of Bosnia and Herzegovina i.e. the survival of the population who suffer incredibly because of the terrible aggression against us and the shameful politics of the most powerful Western governments. Please, study these materials and rise your voice against terror directed towards us today. Maybe tomorrow we’ll fight together in front of your door.

You will find in this letter the information about:

1. Sarajevo Film Festival

2. International Theatre Workshop TIRS.

You will also find:

1. The appeal of SARAJEVO ARTISTIC SURVIVAL group

2. The information of the independent radiostation RADIO-ZID

We hope that you ‘ll find your way to join these actions.

With love

Haris Pasovic

Sarajevo, June 21, 93

TIRS – Teatarska Internacionalna Radionica Sarajevo – Theater International Workshop Sarajevo

TIRS is the way to preserve theatre and culture in spite of the barbarism around us. It is a way of resistance. It is our struggle for FREEDOM. We believe that art is not helpless in front of the violence. Our audience confirms that view. We know that we are doing a good job not only for ourselves but for Europe and for the world as well. This is not UTOPIA, this is real. If, the art is not courageous, it is not the art. COME AND WORK WITH US! Sarajevo is not only the beginning of the world catastrophe but it is also the beginning of new art. Do not take part in the world’s shame and hypocrisy and corruption. Take part in TIRS. Let ‘s return the ethics to the art and dignity to the artists. Theatre must not be silent about Sarajevo and Bosnia. We are fighting against agression on Bosnia, but is obvious that this is not a local problem.

This is our program for July, August and September:

Program: CHAOS AND ORDER

ALCESTIS (Euripides/Pasovic): This project is about DEATH and SACRIFICE. Does one have the right to die as a free person? Is the death a private act? Can the death and sacrifice be the instrument of a state? What is the travesty of the reality?

Sponsored by Open Society Fund. (Soros Foundation)

WAITING FOR GODOT (Beckett/Sontag): The situation of Bosnians which can be described as “waiting for the intervention” inspired Susan Sontag when she visited Sarajevo early this spring. GODO in Sarajevo today is not a tautology. Susan Sontag brings new erotics to the art by contemplating on soteriology, Beckett and the end of XX century. Susan Sontag braves the storm.

Sponsored by Open Society Fund. (Soros Foundation)

JELLY BOMB (Artistic Center FAMA): This is a special project, the first big artistic project started in besieged Sarajevo. It turns our attention on the side which nobody stressed enough since the war broke out: the spirit of Sarajevans. Under the artistic leadership of Suada Kapic, a group of Sarajevo’s architects, actors, designers, musicians, filmmakers and photographers are leading a spectator through beautiful side of Sarajevo: humorous way of survival in Sarajevo. Document and art matches in this dazzling piece which is the terrible scream against terror and the story of the city-hero full of sorrow.

SHEHERESADE 2001: Group of young artists make the story of Eros and Thanatos in amazing way born from living in Sarajevo all these days. Future watch.

AJAX (Sophocles/Zalica): Ajax was a hero cheated three times, by gods, by people and by himself. Betray and madness, the most painful phenomena experienced in Sarajevo. How many times Sarajevo has been betrayed?

DISTOPIA: The end of UTOPIA! The end is a new beginning. Group of the architects are planning the future of cosmopolitan city. Sarajevans already know how the NEW CITY looks like.

IONESCO PROJECT (Gojer): Ionesco: “Comedy is much worse then tragedy. Comedy does not offer any escape!”

and MORE in the FUTURE…

WE ARE BUILDING OUR FUTURE! THIS CITY IS NOT DEAD!

HOW ABOUT YOU

Theory Workshop HALVAT: HALVAT is the room for leisure but also for meditation. The tradition called SOBHET-HALVA has been the regular part of philosophical and artistic life in old Sarajevo. We want to keep that tradition in our theory workshop which gathers the most significant thinkers from Sarajevo and some (the most courageous) from the world. The topics of HALVAT are always related to the topics of our theatre projects. Of course, the reality cannot be avoided.

Film Workshop METRO: METRO is the place for underground film and video artists who are able to see something else. No technics, no cliches. Love.

WE NEED HELP FOR OUR FESTIVAL:

1. We invite the artists to come and support these projects either by his/her own work with us, or just by visiting Sarajevo.

2. We need financial support for our projects.

3. We invite theatres, Festivals, filmstudios and cultural/artistic magazines to promote our work and to join it.

DO NOT HESITATE! DO IT!

CONTACTS: AICF/IRC  satelite fax: (1) 412 339 47 63 for Haris/Festival (via USA) or Suada Kapic or Alexandra Wagner fax/tel (1) 212 563 3664

Dear Michel,

I ‘m sending to you this material and you will see what’s going on here beside what you already know from TV. Please, pass this material to people you know that can be interested in this. Also, pass this material (at least the part adressed to theatre people) to I.T.EM. and people like (onleesbaar)

I hope you ‘re doing well. I hope we ‘ll have a chance some day to meet, to drink some nice wine and to talk about everything what happened and what is still happening.

We need support.

Say ‘hallo’ to all people I know + big hug

Love

Harris

Sarajevo, June 22, 93

Sarajevo Film Festival

M. Tita 54

tel 471 549  fax 471 549 (via USA)

AICF/IRC satellite fax (1) 412 339 47 63

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Dear friends,

there is a strong artistic movement of resistance here in Sarajevo. A rather small group of people keep trying to maintain the culture in spite of everything. We believe that is the only possible way to resist the disaster around us waiting for the worldwide political action directed towards real decision for peace in Bosnia. But, here in Sarajevo, after more than 14 months of the siege, the life is almost unbearable. Terror, extremism of all kinds, hunger… People loose the hope and a desire for life.

We address you as the powerful artists and people who have the duty to take part of responsibility. Look at this situation not from historical but from ethical point of view. Leave esthetics alone and face the life. You know as much as we do that Sarajevo and Bosnia are not the local problems. But we know something else. We know something about human nature what is impossible to express on piece of paper. It is a completely new cognition and you should believe us. If we don’t take common action against violence, the world will face catastrophe. And the place for that action is Sarajevo.

As the major entertainment in XX century, film has influenced a lot of people. Many of them have built their feelings of violence out of motion pictures. In this reality you can see lots of scenes and characters from the most violent films. But the art of film has influenced some minds as well. Let us remind people in Bosnia and the rest of the world on the side of the film which feed the soul and the brain with progressive ideas and tender emotions.

We know that Sarajevo Film Festival can be more than a symbolic gesture. It is because we believe that the art of film still has the real power and the strong influence to the better side of human nature. A group of people in Sarajevo is making films in spite of everything. And “everything” here means what is hard for you to imagine. But their lust for the images from dreams is a significant signal that is possible to struggle against horror and death with the power of camera.

Please, give us your moral and practical support for Sarajevo Film Festival. Help us to organize this festival and come here to support Freedom. Or simply come and work with us.

Sarajevo is not Beirut. Sarajevo is the world.

This is emergency.

With love and respect

Haris Pasovic

Zlata Kurt

Sarajevo, June 14th, 93

 

Deze brieven en communiqués uit Sarajevo werden ons bezorgd door de sectie podiumkunsten van Antwerpen 93.